The last month and a half have been super busy for yours truly, and sometimes it is the little things that make a difference. I came home late Monday night after a volleyball match, and I was starving. I open the fridge, and my wife had made meatloaf and crunchy cheesy potatoes as only she can make, and it made my night and day. I am a lucky guy to have an awesome wife. Even if she has refined her goalie skills and she has become one helluva goalie and never lets me score anymore!!! Never marry a competitive wife;) -I hope you spit out your coffee on that one;) –
Anyway, simple things in life make me happy….more so as I get older!
I get home late Tuesday night after another Volleyball match and a bunch of office work with a busy sports and political season. My 7th grader, Carter, was waiting up for me to tell me about his football game at East Grand Forks. He said he played a ton and played on offense for the 8th graders too. He was so excited to tell me how much fun it was. He had a sack, forced a fumble, and told me how many tackles he had. He wasn’t a big fan of football last year because he had a lot of aches and pains. (We later find out he had Lyme’s disease and got some drops, and now he is great!!) This year he is a different kid. He loves football and loves that he is playing in the snow. I love that he is enjoying being a kid, and it shows how important sports are to so many of our kids because it is a great stress reliever, win or lose.
I have been getting a lot of comments, thank you’s, and compliments on our video streaming we have been doing. That is appreciated. While we have a long ways to go before I am happy with the product we put out (I am kind of a perfectionist), we are happy to offer something for the parents, grandparents, friends, and anybody else that wants to watch the game in person. It is a lot of extra work, a lot of extra stress because it is new and we need to upgrade some things like my laptop computer. We ordered one two months ago, and it still isn’t in. We have other equipment on order, and they have no idea when it will be shipped, so I encourage patience, but sooner or later, we will get it where we want it to be and a level you expect from KROX. But, like with anything, new…it takes time to work everything out.
Thanks to everybody that reads this column listens to KROX and checks the website and video streams. We are humbled by the tremendous support that we receive from listeners (average over 1,200 people listening per Pirate football game we broadcast), website visitors (we are on pace for a new record for page views in a year).
Radio is as strong as it has ever been and will continue to stay strong because we adapt with the times and are coming up with new ways to inform, entertain, and help the public.
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This is my prediction for the Winter Sports season…..if things continue like they are with COVID, we won’t have much of a season. If you want sports, wear a mask, shut down weddings, funerals, stay away from large groups, wash hands, social distance, etc. if we don’t do those things, kiss winter sports goodbye!! Especially with the knuckleheads in North Dakota having unprecedented amounts of Covid cases!!
We are starting to see a lot of COVID-related postponements and cancelations over the past two weeks.
Red Lake Falls had to cancel their volleyball and football games for the next two weeks.
Kittson County Central had to cancel its volleyball and football games for the next two weeks.
Bagley had to cancel some games.
BGMR had to cancel some football games
Northern Freeze vs Goodridge/Grygla football has been canceled.
And the list continues to grow, and it is affecting every corner of the state.
What does this mean for the Minnesota State High School League will make their decision on football and volleyball tournaments, and right now there are several ways they could go.
- Have full tournaments like normal (25 percent chance)
- No tournaments (maybe a 50/50 shot) because of the spread of COVID
- Have the top four football teams of each section play a semi-final and championship round. Volleyball, I am not sure how they attack a trimmed down version of playoffs. (25 percent chance)
Those are the three options I see the MSHSL pondering. I know I can’t blame them if they say no playoffs at this point. If they have playoffs, how do you figure out the COVID cancelations? What if one of your top teams had to miss two or three games, and they are clearly the better team?
I have said this many times the past seven months….I am glad I am not on the MSHSL board! There is no right answer, and no matter what they decide, it will be the wrong decision for many people.
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Take COVID and add weather in central Minnesota. We have heard of five high school football games being moved to play on the artificial turf at Moorhead High School.
Friday – Roseau at Barnesville moved to Moorhead HS at 3:00 p.m.
Friday – Warren-Alvarado-Oslo at Park Christian moved to Moorhead HS at 7:00 p.m.
Saturday – Wadena-Deer Creek vs Frazee moved to Moorhead HS at 10:00 a.m.
Saturday – West Central Area at Breckenridge moved to Moorhead HS at Noon
Saturday – Mahnomen-Waubun at Pelican Rapids moved to Moorhead at 3:00 p.m.
And the Crookston School Board candidates said they need a new football field/track/soccer field complex and not rely on UMC anymore. The four football games at Moorhead High School’s turf field will bring eight teams, fans, etc. to Moorhead for one day. Gas,
This is an artificial turf field, and some of the schools are like Barnesville and Pelican Rapids, who were suppose to host and even though they have great facilities, particularly Barnesville, are moving to turf because their fields are soaked, and they don’t want to rip up their fields, which are natural gas.
Anyway….hopefully in the next year, we will hear more about a possible football/track idea.
Here is a smattering of announcements we have received or seen the past couple of hours.
Pequot Lakes vs Pine River-Backus Volleyball for Thursday is postponed to Friday.
Sebeka – Volleyball game on Thursday is postponed to Friday at 3:30 p.m. and Football game on Friday has been moved to 6 p.m.
Crosby-Ironton at Aitkin volleyball has been moved to Friday and C-I Football at Moose Lake-Willow River has been moved to Saturday.
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Breckenridge High School has hired Stevin Lipp as its new head basketball coach. Lipp graduated from Breckenridge in 2017. So they go from a seasoned veteran to somebody that just bought his first legal beer as Lipp is 21 years old. I hope it works out for them, but if you can’t tell, I am still bitter at the fools on the Breckenridge School Board. But, their foolish move is Section 8AA Boys Basketball’s gain.
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Bemidji Girls Soccer beat Alexandria 1-1 and 6-5 in penalty kicks after two overtime periods on Tuesday night to advance to the Section 8A Championship vs Sartell.
Pelican Rapids Boys Soccer beat Bemidji to advance to the Section 8A Boys Soccer championship.
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Hockey Day Minnesota in Mankato for 2021 has been postponed to 2022.
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Minnesota Hockey implemented several updates to its Phase 3 Return to Play Guidelines, which initially took effect on September 1. Below is a summary of the changes and links to the updated documents.
UPDATE SUMMARY
Language was added emphasizing that certain policies, especially mask wearing inside facilities including coaches on the ice and limits of players on the ice, are in fact mandates, not guidelines.
A maximum of one parent/guardian may now be allowed to attend practices/clinics at all age levels.
Any spectators must maintain social distancing guidelines and wear a mask at all times inside the facility.
Electronic whistles are an encouraged alternative for coaches to use while wearing masks during practices and clinics.
An adjustment was made to guidelines for the scorer’s area, allowing a max of two people if they are from the same household or can maintain social distancing while fulfilling their duties.
Masks must be worn by off-ice officials at all times.
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The District 9 North Football stats have been tabulated by statistician extraordinaire Dave Peterson. The latest stats are below –
[embeddoc url=”https://kroxam.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/2020-District-9-North-Football-Leaders.xlsx” viewer=”microsoft”]
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JOKES
Jane and Arlene are outside their nursing home, having a drink and a smoke, when it starts to rain. Jane pulls out a condom, cuts off the end, puts it over her cigarette, and continues smoking.
Arlene: What in the hell is that?
Jane: A condom. This way my cigarette doesn’t get wet.
Arlene: Where did you get it?
Jane: You can get them at any pharmacy.
The next day, Arlene hobbles herself into the local pharmacy and
announces to the pharmacist that she wants a box of condoms.
The pharmacist, obviously embarrassed, looks at her kind of strangely (she is, after all, over 80 years of age), but very delicately asks what size, texture, brand of condom she prefers.
‘Doesn’t matter Sonny, as long as it fits on a Camel.’
The pharmacist fainted.
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An old, blind cowboy wanders into an all-girl biker bar by mistake.
He finds his way to a bar stool and orders a shot of Jack Daniels…
After sitting there a while, he yells to the bartender, ‘Hey, you want to hear a blond joke?’
The bar immediately falls absolutely silent…
In a very deep, husky voice, the woman next to him says, ‘Before you tell that joke, cowboy, I think it is only fair, given that you’re blind, that you should know five things:
- The bartender is a blond girl with a baseball bat.
- The bouncer is a blond girl.
- I’m a 6-foot tall, 175-pound blond woman with a black belt in karate.
- The woman sitting next to me is blond and a professional weight lifter.
- The lady to your right is blond and a professional wrestler.
Now, think about it seriously, cowboy…do you still want to tell that blond joke?”
The blind cowboy thinks for a second, shakes his head and mutters,
” Nah …not if I’m going to have to explain it five times.”
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How are former Crookston Pirates athletes doing in college or elsewhere?
****LET ME KNOW OF OTHERS TO ADD TO THE LIST email me at chrisjfee@yahoo.com
Brady Butt is a freshman playing football at the University of Jamestown.
Paul Bittner is playing for the Cleveland Monsters, the AHL affiliate of the Columbus Bluejacket.
Brady Heppner, is playing hockey for the Roanoke Raildogs in the SPHL.
Aleece Durbin, is a Junior on the University of North Dakota Women’s Track and Field team.
Brita Fagerlund, is a Senior on the University of Jamestown Jimmy Women’s Track team.
Ben Trostad, is a Junior member of the University of Minnesota Crookston golf team.
Elise Tangquist, is a Senior golfer for the University of Northwestern in St. Paul.
Mason LaPlante, a sophomore, is playing soccer at the University of Jamestown.
Rachel Hefta, a Sophmore, is playing volleyball at Hastings College in Nebraska.
Cade Salentine is a redshirt Freshman playing football at the University of North Dakota.
Nick Garmen, is a sophomore playing basketball and tennis at the University of Minnesota Morris.
Caden Osborn, is a freshman playing basketball at the University of Minnesota Morris.
Thea Oman, a sophomore, is swimming at St. Ben’s.
Crookston School District Coaches –
Emily Meyer is a girls hockey and softball assistant coach.
Carrie Clauson is a Junior High girls tennis coach.
Jeremy Lubinski is a Pirate 8th Grade Football coach.
Amy Boll is the head Pirate Girls Track head coach and assistant volleyball coach
Sarah Reese is the Pirate Head Girls Soccer coach
Cody Brekken is the Head Pirate Girls and Boys Tennis coach and Crookston Community Pool Supervisor
Marley Melbye is the Head Girls Swimming coach
Mitch Bakken is the head Pirate Baseball coach.
Brock Hanson is the Pirate Baseball volunteer assistant coach.
Jeff Perreault is the Pirate Girls Golf head coach
Wes Hanson is the Pirate Wrestling Head Coach and assistant boys golf coach
Kevin Weber is a Pirate Boys Basketball volunteer assistant coach
Connor Morgan is the Pirate Boys Hockey assistant coach
Sam Melbye is the Pirate Boys J.V. Hockey coach
Chris Dufault is a youth wrestling Coach
Blake Fee is an assistant wrestling coach
Colton Weiland is an assistant wrestling coach
Non-Crookston High School coaching –
Cody Weiland is an assistant wrestling coach at Proctor/Hermantown
Kaylee Desrosier is a softball coach for Fargo Davies Middle School.
Justin Johnson is an assistant softball coach at the University of Minnesota Crookston.
Josh Edlund is an assistant football coach and phy ed teacher at Flandreau, South Dakota.
Allison Lindsey Axness is Assistant Varsity Volleyball Coach in Champlin Park
Jeff Olson is Head Wrestling coach and Head Baseball coach at Delano.
Jake Olson is an Assistant Football Coach and Head Boys Tennis coach at Delano.
Carmen (Kreibich) Johnson, is Head Volleyball coach at Little Falls High School.
Katy Westrom, is Head Girls Tennis Coach and Head Boys Tennis coach at Monticello High School.
Matt Harris, is a Director of Athletics at the British International School of Houston.
Marty Bratrud is the Superintendent and High School Principal at Westhope High School.
Gordie Haug is an assistant football coach at the University of Wyoming
Mike Hastings is the Minnesota State Mankato Men’s head Hockey coach
Mike Biermaier is the Athletic Director at Thief River Falls High School
Stephanie (Lindsay) Perreault works with the North Dakota State stats crew for Bison football and volleyball and basketball in the winter. Stephanie’s husband, Ryan, is the assistant director for the Bison media relations
Jason Bushie is the hockey athletic trainer at Colorado College
Chris Myrold is a Tennis Pro on Nevis Island in the West Indies
Kyle Buchmeier is a Tennis Pro at the Reed-Sweatt Family Tennis Center in Minneapolis
Jarrett Butenhoff is serving our country with the U.S. Navy
Joshua Butenhoff is serving our country on a Submarine with the Pacific Fleet with the US Navy.
Peter Cournia is a 2002 Crookston High School Graduate and also a grad of West Point and is currently is serving in the U.S. Army.
Erik Ellingson is serving our country with the U.S. Air Force at Minot.
Philip Kujawa class of 2004 from Crookston High School. He is an Army recruiter in Rochester.
Scott Riopelle is head of Crookston Parks and Recreation
Rob Sobolik is the General Manager of the Fargodome
That’s it for this week. Thanks for the comments and if you have anything to add or share, please e-mail chrisjfee@yahoo.com or call. Thanks for reading and listening to KROX RADIO and kroxam.com
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