John’s Journal: The Lessons Of Covid-19

 

As another week of high school activities ends under the nasty, dark eye of the corona virus, two things have become clear, two things that are paramount as we continue to navigate this roller-roaster ride in the dark.

Number 1: Be flexible. Number 2: Take care of each other.

Week 3 of the football season was a case in point. Covid-19 struck lots of teams as Friday and Saturday games neared, schedules were rewritten on the fly and it was just plain weird. 

Specific case in point: Friday night’s game between Bemidji and Edina at Kuhlman Field in Edina. A few days earlier, the schedules said Bemidji would play at St. Cloud Apollo and Edina would host St. Michael-Albertville. But corona cases at Apollo and St. Michael-Albertville put their teams on the shelf.

Edina and Bemidji, who had never met on the football field, put things together quickly. Edina activities director Troy Stein posted this Twitter message on Tuesday evening: “Late change in game plans - no problem we will roll with it. We are looking for a Friday home varsity football game. Reach out to @Troy_Stein if anyone knows of other teams looking to play. #Thanks”

On Wednesday, the Lumberjacks learned that their game at Apollo was off. Football coach Bryan Stoffel was in activities director Troy Hendricks’ office and “we were trying to figure out our next move. I had seen on Twitter that Edina was looking for a game and so we reached out to them in the early afternoon of Wednesday, and by three o'clock on Wednesday we had finalized the game.”

Stoffel is a first-year head coach, as is Edina’s Jason Potts. This season is wild enough even for experienced coaches, but imagine being new in the job and trying to get routines in place when everything can be flipped upside down in a heartbeat.

“The night I got film (of Bemidji) I spent seven hours working on the game plan, woke up, we did a walkthrough and it was game time,” said Potts after Bemidji’s 35-0 victory. “So yes, it's tough. It’s very challenging but it’s the times we live in.”

It’s a drive of 220 miles from Bemidji High School to Kuhlman Stadium. The Lumberjacks left home on three charter buses at 10:30 a.m. Friday, stopping in St. Cloud to stretch their legs. They had been sent off with lunches to eat on the way. Edina High School had paid to rent the Braemar Dome from 2:30 to 5:30, giving the Lumberjacks a place to stretch, relax, get dressed for the game and warm up. After the game, Edina football parents loaded the buses with pizzas for the Lumberjacks’ trip home.

Bemidji, which plays Class 5A football, is not a small town. But it’s not Edina (6A), either. As the teams began warming up at Kuhlman, a few Lumberjacks players on the sideline looked beyond the north end zone at a complex that includes South View Middle School, Normandale Elementary and Art Downey Aquatics Center. “This is their MIDDLE school,” one of them said. Actually, it was ONE of their middle schools.

The game was close early but the tide shifted toward the Lumberjacks. A 51-yard pass from Brett Tharaldson to Gavin Luksik set up a 1-yard scoring run by Will Falldorf for a 7-0 Bemidji lead at halftime. An interception by Brandon Lussier on the second play of the third quarter was followed by a 42-yard scoring pass from Tharaldson to Luksik, and Tharaldson hit James Williams III for a 28-yard touchdown to make it 21-0 after three quarters.

Another interception by Lussier was followed by Gemini Ellis running for a 1-yard touchdown, and Walldorf completed the scoring with a 3-yard run with five minutes to play.

More evidence of how odd this Covid-cursed season has become: After the St. Michael-Albertville team was taken off the go list for this week’s game at Edina, the Knights ended up being cleared and played a quickly-arranged game with Champlin Park on Friday. The Rebels had been scheduled to face Anoka before the Tornadoes were sidelined by the virus.

Further dominoes continued to fall Friday when the Anoka-Hennepin school district – which includes Andover, Anoka, Blaine, Champlin Park and Coon Rapids high schools – announced that due to rising Covid numbers it will halt all sports programs beginning Nov. 2, with no word on how long that will last.

Hendricks, who was the Bemidji football coach for 18 years before stepping down after last season, summed up what’s happening when he said, “It’s wild. It really is. Every day you walk into the office, it’s something new and different and you’re just scrambling to stay ahead, I guess.”

Be flexible. Take care of each other.

 “We're thankful to have a game,” Edina’s Potts said. “This season there are no guarantees.”

 --MSHSL media specialist John Millea has been the leading voice of Minnesota high school activities for decades. Follow him on Twitter @MSHSLjohn, listen to "Preps Today with John Millea” wherever you get podcasts. Contact John at jmillea@mshsl.org 

John’s Journal: It’s A Good Time To Be A Spud

 There are several important themes in place for the Moorhead High School football team this week. One is a guy everybody calls Boomer. Another is playing fast, smart football in a season that has begun with two dominating victories. And then there’s the family college football ties that, once you dig in a little, aren’t all that problematic.

Boomer is Justin Behm, an assistant coach with the Spuds. He was a few years behind Spuds head coach Kevin Feeney on the North Dakota State football team; they have been friends ever since and coaching colleagues with the Spuds for a decade.

Right now, Boomer is in a California hospital and the thoughts of the coaches and players are with him. After Justin noticed some hearing loss in August 2019, a benign but large brain tumor was found. During surgery -- and before the tumor could be removed -- a facial nerve was damaged, resulting in facial paralysis and total hearing loss on his right side.

Boomer underwent surgery last Friday. Before the Spuds kicked off at home against Alexandria, Boomer’s wife Katina posted this on CaringBridge: “I just got a call from Dr. Friedman. They were able to remove 100% of the tumor! Dr. Greene is now working on repairing Justin's facial nerve which includes 2 strategies. She also plans to add the weight to his eye so he'll be able to close it while he waits for it to restore functioning. So far so good everyone! Keep the well wishes/prayers/vibes/ positive thoughts coming!”

“We challenged the kids last Friday night,” Feeney said Thursday. “We told them Boomer is such a passionate guy and told them to play passionate football for him.” The Spuds did that in a 42-0 win to go to 2-0 before this Friday’s game against Sartell at St. Cloud Tech.

Behm, who coaches defensive backs and special teams, played on a 1997 North Dakota state championship football team at Dickinson High School.

“The first thing I think of is his passion,” Feeney said. “It doesn’t matter what we’re talking about, he’s passionate about everything in his life, whether it’s his favorite pro team or the people around him, student, players. His excitement rubs off on our kids.” (That’s Behm in this photo by Drew Sandberg from a 2017 game).

Boomer, who watched Friday’s game online from the hospital and offered comments in a Saturday phone chat with Feeney, should be home next week.

“He won’t be back in a coaching capacity but he told me he’ll be back on the field as soon as he can to see the kids and coaches,” said Feeney.

The theme of successful football is not a new concept in Moorhead. The Spuds played in the state tournament in 2003, 2011, 2012, 2015, 2016 and 2019. They finished 8-4 last season, which ended in a wild 58-55 loss to Elk River in the Class 5A state quarterfinals.

Moorhead runs a five-receiver, spread offense triggered by Feeney’s son Trey, a 6-foot-2, 195-pound lefthander with great feet, vision and the ability to whistle footballs to his talented targets. In last week’s game with Alexandria, Trey passed on the Spuds’ first 12 plays and 19 of their first 24. Through the season’s first two games they have outscored their opponents 98-6.

And to think, at one point there was going to be no football this fall. Trey remembers the day that decision was reversed by the MSHSL board of directors. He was sitting in American Government class, refreshing Twitter over and over.

“I’m sure all 100 of us football kids in school were doing that,” he said. “I had some other football guys in my class, and we all stood up and shouted a little bit. We were pumped.”

For outsiders who know Kevin Feeney’s North Dakota State football background – he was a record-setting QB for the Bison before graduating in 1998 -- it may have been surprising when Trey committed to North Dakota. But the Feeney family carries dual allegiances. Kevin’s older brother Steve played at UND and Kevin told Trey the decision was all his.

“From the beginning of the process I made it clear to him that this was his choice about where he wanted to spend four or five years,” Kevin said.

Trey attended a football camp at the University of Wisconsin before his junior year. While there, UND coaches invited him to their camp. Trey built a strong relationship with the North Dakota coaches from the start, he said, especially offensive coordinator Danny Freund and head coach Bubba Schweigert.

“Danny has really delved into what we do offensively and showed Trey how it fits with what they do,” Kevin said. Trey has even joined the UND offensive coaching staff on Zoom calls.

“Their offense is a lot of the same stuff we run, just different terminology,” Trey said. “I’ll adjust to that.”

Boomer will be home soon, the team is rolling, and next year the Feeneys will have another football player at UND.

It’s a good time to be a Spud.

--MSHSL media specialist John Millea has been the leading voice of Minnesota high school activities for decades. Follow him on Twitter @MSHSLjohn, listen to "Preps Today with John Millea” wherever you get podcasts. Contact him at jmillea@mshsl.org

 

John’s Journal: Remembering Sid Hartman

 

Sid Hartman. Or to be more specific, Sid. You didn’t need to say the man’s last name for anyone in Minnesota to know who you were referring to. Sid died Sunday at age 100, the same day his final column was published in the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

I worked with Sid for nearly 20 years at the Star Tribune. For my first five years there I worked on the sports desk, meaning I was one of the people who bore the task of editing Sid’s column. Or as I like to call it, we translated Sid’s raw copy into English.

I could try to describe Sid, but the memories, the personal stories of Sid I carry with me seem to be the best way to tell you about the Sid I knew. These are not in chronological order, but the first story is about the first time I became aware of Sid, and for me the final story sums up Sid in all his glory, all his bombast, and all his caring sweetness.

“Who are they talking about?”

I did not grow up in Minnesota so I did not read Sid’s column as a youth. I was a college student working in the sports department at the Des Moines Register the first time I heard Sid’s name. It was 1980, the day after a Hawkeye-Gopher football game in Minneapolis, when some of the reporters who had been there were having a heated discussion in the Register newsroom. One of them hollered, "That son of a (bleep) thinks he owns the press box!" I whispered to someone, "Who are they talking about?" The reply: "Oh that (gd) Sid Hartman."

Sid, Tyus and the tape recorder

When there was a high-profile high school athlete in the Twin Cities, Sid liked to get them into his column. Apple Valley’s Tyus Jones, who went on to play at Duke and is now in the NBA, was Sid’s interview target during a state tournament game at Target Center. Whenever Sid came to a high school game, I acted as his guide, found him a seat next to me, answered his questions and tried to keep him happy.

During Apple Valley’s state quarterfinal game, Sid asked, “Can you help me get Tyus one-on-one?” I said I would be happy to do so. After the game, I talked to the Apple Valley coaches and told them when the team came out of the locker room I would escort Tyus into a quiet corner so he could be interviewed by Sid, and the other media members could talk to Tyus when Sid was finished. It worked out perfectly, except for one thing.

When I returned to press row, Sid was fiddling with his old battery-powered, shoulder-strap cassette tape recorder. He was pushing buttons, turning dials, holding it up to his ear. He handed it to me and said, “John, I can’t hear my interview with Tyus. Can you see if you can get it to work?”

I pushed, I turned, I listened. There was nothing but silence and I realized that Sid had never hit the “record” button when he talked to Tyus. Informed of this, Sid simply said, “When do they play again?” I told him their next game was the following day. He said, “OK, I’ll come back tomorrow and interview him again.” And he did.

Sid and the Internet

One of my favorite Sid quotes (yes, he actually said this): “There’s a lot of stuff on that Internet.”

My sister in Sid’s building

Sid was a partner in a real estate company that owns apartment buildings in the Twin Cities. One of my sisters lived in a Sid building for a time. Informed of this fact, he asked me, "Which building?" When I told him, he grew quite frantic and said, "What's she doing living in THAT neighborhood?" AND HE OWNED THE BUILDING.

Sid and George Steinbrenner

The New York Yankees were in town and one evening after a game Sid brought his buddy George Steinbrenner into the newsroom. We all shook hands with George as Sid beamed. This was before cell phone cameras and of course no one thought to holler at a photographer who was probably 20 feet away.

Sid and his close personal friend Chick

Chick Hearn was the longtime broadcast voice of the Los Angeles Lakers, calling games from 1961 until 2002. His given name was Francis but everyone had called him Chick since his college days. Over the years, Sid and Chick had become good friends. But Sid was less than famous for getting names correct, whether in print or in person.

Before a Lakers-Timberwolves game at Target Center, Chick was in the dining room having a pregame meal. Sid walked in, saw his close personal friend Chick Hearn and yelled, “There he is! The great CHUCK Hearn!”

The nicknames

Sid was famous for the nicknames he bestowed on people; part of that was because, again, he had a hard time remembering actual names. The person who wrote obituaries at the Star Tribune? Sid called him Mr. Mortuary. A fellow who had previously worked in Lansing, Michigan, was Mr. Lansing. A guy who wore flannel shirts on a regular basis was Mr. Shirts. For some reason Sid never came up with a nickname for me. He could have gone with Mr. Iowa (my home state) or Mr. Phoenix (where I had worked previously). He just called me John.

Before a game at Target Center, Sid saw someone who worked behind the scenes and said, “Hey, Mister (A)hole, how are you doing?” As Sid walked away the fellow absolutely beamed and said, “I’m moving up in the world. Before today Sid always just called me (A)hole! Now I’m MISTER (A)hole!”

Chad’s mailbox

It was called The Drive-By, The March, The Arrival. This was the moment in the late afternoon when Sid entered the Star Tribune newsroom to begin work on his column after spending all day visiting the headquarters of the Twins, Vikings, Timberwolves, Gophers and wherever else he wanted to go. He asked questions during these visits but didn’t write much down. He carried his old tape recorder (later replaced by an iPhone held by an assistant). When he entered the office, he handed that day’s tape to his designated transcriber – a talented, patient fellow named Jeff Day transcribed those tapes for years, right up to the end.

When my son Joe was attending the University of Minnesota, he worked as a part-time copy aide in the Star Tribune sports department. The main duty was answering the phones, taking scores and other info. Hearing of Sid’s death, he Tweeted from his home in the Phoenix area: “Always glad I wasn't the one who had to transcribe the Sid Hartman tapes, but happy someone was.”

Seeing Sid make The March would often tell you how his day was going. He always moved at a rapid pace and sometimes he would be quite jolly and sometimes he would be snarly.

One winter day, I looked across the newsroom from my desk and saw the snarling version of Sid storming in my general direction. He was definitely agitated. As he came within earshot I said, “Hey Sid, what’s wrong?” He went into an obscenity-laced tirade aimed directly at himself: “Well (obscenity) John! If I had a (obscenity) gun I’d shoot myself in the (obscenity) head! I was backing out of Chad’s (obscenity) driveway and I backed right over the (obscenity) mailbox! And that’s the SECOND (OBSCENITY) TIME I’VE DONE THAT!”

Sid, this means you

A message was written on white athletic tape over the threshold of the door that led from the Twins Metrodome clubhouse into the players-only training room: “No media past this point. Sid, this means you!” It never even slowed him down.

Sid Hartman is on vacation 

The Star Tribune created a coffee-table book of historic front pages upon the newspaper’s 125^th anniversary book. I was flipping though the book one day in the office when Sid walked past. I said, “Hey Sid, look that this,” as I pointed to a front page from 90-some years before. “Look down here in the corner of the page. It says ‘Sid Hartman is on vacation.’ ” He laughed out loud.

I then had Sid sign my copy of the book. He wrote, “To John, Hope you are around for 125 (years), too. Love working with you. Sid Hartman.” I treasure that.

Where’s Steed!

During the Prep Bowl one year at the Metrodome after I had left the newspaper to join the MSHSL staff, Sid came booming into the press box and found me straight away. He needed to talk to MSHSL executive director Dave Stead … whose last name, as everyone knew, rhymes with “bread.” Sid barked, “Hey! Is Steed here? Where’s Steed?”

Sid the jaywalker

The old Star Tribune building was at 425 Portland Avenue in downtown Minneapolis. The employee parking lot was across the street, and it didn’t take much effort to use the crosswalk instead of jaywalking from parking lot to front door. One day Sid and I arrived at the same time, with him parking his Cadillac in his designated front-row spot and me and my beat-up Toyota finding a spot a few rows back. Sid didn’t go to the crosswalk and I guess I thought it would be rude if I followed the letter of the law. As we began our jaywalking journey across Portland Avenue, a car driving at or below the speed limit was getting closer and closer. Sid and I were clearly in the wrong. The driver slowed down and had every right to yell at us. But it was Sid who did the screaming … “Hey jerk! Where’d you learn to drive!”

Sid, Griffey and my sons

I was in my first or second year at the Star Tribune (1991 or 1992) when Sid overheard me telling a colleague on the sports desk that my two young sons, John and Joe, were big fans of Ken Griffey Jr. Without hesitation, Sid said, “The next time the Mariners are in town I’ll get tickets for you and your kids.” Well, he did a lot more than that.

Sid got us free tickets behind home plate and told us to meet him at the Metrodome media entrance early that day. He came out, waved us through security, led us down a stairwell and bam! We walked out of the Twins dugout and onto the field while the Twins were taking batting practice. Sid introduced my boys to Paul Molitor and Tom Kelly, who shook hands with my kids. Joe looked toward the Mariners dugout and said to his brother, “Hey Johnny! Look! That’s Lou Piniella!” It was pure magic. But there was more.

Sid told us he had arranged for the Twins team photographer to take a photo of me and my sons with Griffey (and Sid). I immediately envisioned an absolute keepsake Christmas card photo. But there was a wrench; the Mariners media relations person had not been informed of Sid’s plan and told him, “Sid, you have to run these things past me first.” Sid screamed obscenities at him, saying he knew the team’s general manager and he would have him fired. But Sid’s opponent stood firm.

As they argued, and seeing that Sid’s grand plan had been foiled, my sons and I went out to the left field seats in the hopes of catching some BP home run balls. We didn’t, but we wore the biggest smiles you can imagine at everything that had happened. We were in our seats at game time, behind home plate and in front of the press box. We were absolutely giddy. Sid saw us there and came running down to us with a concerned, disappointed look on his face. “Hey! Where’d you go?!” he said. “We were all set for the picture but I couldn’t find you!” Somehow, some way, the man had cleared the hurdles and I don’t believe he murdered anybody or got anyone fired while doing so.

Poor, dear Sid was absolutely crushed. He was devastated that his promised photo hadn’t happened. He went downstairs to the Twins clubhouse – during a game, mind you, which no one else would have been allowed to do -- and grabbed two baseballs that had been autographed by every member of the Twins. He brought my kids the baseballs along with media guides for both teams.

He apologized over and over. I told him, “Sid, are you kidding? Please don’t apologize. This has been the greatest day of my sons’ lives! And mine! We can’t thank you enough!”

Sid Hartman was one of a kind, a special person, and we’ll never see his like again.

Thank you, Sid.

--MSHSL media specialist John Millea has been the leading voice of Minnesota high school activities for decades. Follow him on Twitter @MSHSLjohn, listen to "Preps Today with John Millea” wherever you get podcasts.

 

 

John's Journal: Chisholm Legend Bob McDonald Has Died

 

Bob McDonald, the iconic son of Chisholm and basketball coach who won more games than any coach in any sport in Minnesota high school history, has died. McDonald, who had tested positive for Covid-19, passed away XXXday in Hibbing. He was 87.

McDonald coached high school boys basketball in Minnesota for 59 years, compiling a record of 1,012 wins and 428 losses. He began his coaching career in 1959 with four seasons at McGregor, then two at Barnum before returning to his hometown of Chisholm for the 1961-62 season. He led the Bluestreaks through the 2013-14 season, a span of 53 years that included three state championships and 11 state tourney appearances.

In 1,440 games he was never whistled for a technical foul. He also liked to sometimes mention that he never tasted alcohol or smoked tobacco.

In addition to his lengthy career and his teams’ success, McDonald was the father of six children – four sons, two daughters-- who were All-State players and went on to become basketball coaches.  

A history and social studies teacher for 40 years, McDonald also coached track and field in Chisholm for decades, winning a state team title in his final season (2001).

McDonald was only the third boys basketball coach in Chisholm history: Harvey Roels 1923-55; O.J. Belluzzo 1955-1961 and McDonald 1961-2014. The Chisholm gymnasium, a crackerbox of historic proportions, has been called Roels Gymnasium for decades. In 2017 the facility added another name: Bob McDonald Court.

Before that ceremony, I was “backstage” with Bob and his family in the locker room that was so familiar to everyone. As we chatted about the day’s honor, Bob smiled as he said to me, “I hope they’ve done renovations in the gym after all the paint I peeled off the walls with my shouting."

McDonald was born June 25, 1933 and grew up less than two blocks from Chisholm High School. After he graduated in 1951, he accepted a basketball scholarship to the University of Michigan. Homesick after one semester in Ann Arbor, he returned home and attended Hibbing Community College before completing his education at Minnesota Duluth, where he led the Bulldogs in scoring in the 1953-54 and 1954-55 seasons.

Bob’s family had Croation roots and as a young child Croation was the only language he could speak. He was born Robert Perkovich and the family name became McDonald when his mother, Mary Perkovich, married Ray McDonald. Bob led annual family trips Croatia every summer for years, leading a group of children and grandchildren to a country where he could speak the native tongue. He helped his family members learn to speak the language, sometimes smiling as he taught them how to curse in Croatian.

Bob and his wife, Darlene, were married for 43 years and had six children. The oldest was Mike (Chisholm class of 1975), followed by Paul, Sue, Tom, Judy and Joel (class of 1991). Currently, Mike is the longtime boys basketball coach at Cambridge-Isanti High School, Tom coaches at Ely High School and Joel at Hibbing High School. Paul retired in 2019 after 29 years coaching men’s basketball at Vermilion Community College in Ely. Sue (Tesdahl) coached girls basketball at Crosby-Ironton and Judy (Racek) coached at Nashwauk-Keewatin and Fairmont.

Among Bob McDonald’s grandchildren, Rhett McDonald (son of Mike) is the boys basketball coach at Duluth East, Bryce Tesdahl coaches the boys team at Minnetonka and Brock Tesdahl is an assistant boy coach at Hopkins.

Darlene died of cancer in 1997. Bob and Carol Tiburzi, who had attended the prom together in high school, reunited and married in 2000; Carol’s husband, Robert, had died in an airplane crash in 1993.

The lobby of Roels Gymnasium/McDonald Court is a virtual Chisholm Hall of Fame. Over the decades, McDonald displayed photos, newspaper clipping and other memorabilia on the walls. One photo shows the 1950 Bluestreaks basketball team, champions of the Iron Range Conference. The team includes a lanky boy wearing number 9, glasses and a crewcut ... Bob McDonald.

The lobby also includes a photo of Dr. Archibald Graham, a Chisholm physician who was made famous in the 1989 movie “Field of Dreams.” Bob McDonald and Doc Graham, who died in 1965, were good friends.

McDonald left little in doubt about how his teams operated, whether it was on-court strategy or off-court rules. On the wall inside the home locker room, McDonald posted a handwritten seating chart for the bus (including where the driver will sit), and these regulations: "No electronic equipment on bus. No seeds. Keep noise down. No singing or raucous behavior. Stay in assigned seats. No single seating."

The players wore suits and ties, just like their coach, on game days. There were no headphones, earrings, fuzzy chins or tattoos. On the court, McDonald’s teams had two main trademarks: short hair and full-court pressure.

McDonald ran Saturday morning basketball clinics for young kids, starting in a spot in the gym marked “Coaches Corner.”

“I don't know how to put it,” McDonald told a reporter in 2003. “I do what I do, and it just kind of escapes me. Sometimes I think I'm more interested in the number of games I've coached than the number of ones I've won.”

In an example of Chisholm basketball bloodlines, the 2002-2003 team included two players, Pat Rahja and Tony Antonutti, whose grandfather, Walter Rahja, was the Bluestreaks’ team captain and first All-State player in 1921.

McDonald’s first two seasons coaching the Bluestreaks were the final two years of high school for Joel Maturi, who was the University of Minnesota athletics director from 2002-2012.

“I don't remember the wins and losses as much as I remember the demanding of excellence," Maturi said. "There were not a million rules, but there were rules. We had to wear hats, boots, gloves or we ran as punishment. We had to be home by 9, and he'd call our parents to check."

During the 2002-03 season, the Chisholm players were asked to describe their coach with one word. Junior Shea Amic was the first to reply, saying "discipline."

That same year, Maturi said, "He's maybe more mellow. I'm only 58 now, and I still call him Coach McDonald. Not so much out of fear anymore, but out of respect."

--MSHSL media specialist John Millea has been the leading voice of Minnesota high school activities for decades. Follow him on Twitter @MSHSLjohn, listen to "Preps Today with John Millea” wherever you get podcasts.

 

John’s Journal: A Perfect Night In A Perfect Place

 

MAYNARD – Rick Meyer might have been the happiest football coach in Minnesota on Friday night, despite the fact that his MACCRAY Wolverines dropped their season opener to the visiting Vikings from Minneota.

After a spring, summer and early fall of ups, downs, too many questions and too few answers, Meyer was back doing what he loves: coaching kids. He’s also an assistant track and field coach for the Wolverines’ girls and boys teams; they had no season last spring when all sports were shut down because of Covid-19.

“I haven't been an active participant in a sporting event in almost a year,” Meyer said after Minneota’s 47-6 win. “And so it felt good to get back out here.”

Everything was perfect Friday night in this small town (population 366) in southwestern Minnesota. As Covid-19 has taken a hammer to every aspect of life, it was awful nice to see this return to normalcy: High school kids competing with their friends, their families cheering them on as the sun set behind blazing colors on the trees. Beyond the trees were beaming lights atop a string of grain elevators that are buzzing at all hours as farmers bring in trucks and wagons bulging with corn and soybeans.

During harvest time, traffic jams on country roads are a part of everyday life as slow-rolling machines make their journeys. If some of the busy folks driving those vehicles were lucky enough to get away for a couple hours of football on Friday, it was worth it. Because it was normal.

 “Everything's been so different,” said Minneota coach Chad Johnston. “And it wasn't until you stepped onto the field and you're like, ‘Hey, we're playing. This is a football game.’ It was good to be out here. It was fun to be out here.”

The game was the same, and that says a lot because other things are not the same. Minneota had 36 players in uniform; four took the bus for the 48-mile trip and the other 32 rode with parents. That’s the norm for lots of teams in lots of sports this fall, and probably will remain routine for winter sports; it’s a way to limit exposure in tight spaces.

Crowds are limited to 250 for outdoor events, so MACCRAY (which stands for the three communities in the school district: Maynard, Clara City and Raymond) received 150 tickets and Minneota 100. The hometown fans used 135 tickets and 96 people came from Minneota. A table was set up at the entrance to the field, where lists of people who had received tickets were kept. No ticket, no luck.

When the ambulance from the Maynard Fire Department came through the gate, MACCRAY activities director Jim Trulock said, “Hope we don’t need you but thanks for coming.” They were thankfully not needed.

The field was magnificent, as fine a grass surface as you will see at any high school. The grounds crew -- Scott VanHeuveln and Matt Tebben -- had been preparing the turf for days in anticipation of the season debut, and the grass was mowed for the final time at 2:30 Friday afternoon.

During introduction of the starting lineups the Wolverines exhibited high levels of ability in non-contact, leaping shoulder pad bumps. The end of the night was much like the beginning; after Meyer finished his postgame remarks to the group in the east end zone, the boys each raised a hand in the traditional “1-2-3 team!” effort but remained separated.

Nothing was different about the strength of the Minneota football team. The Vikings are a Class 1A powerhouse, winning state championships in 1986, 1987, 1988, 2009, 2014, 2015 and 2017. The Vikings went 8-2 last year, losing to Canby in Week 7 and again in the Section 5 semifinals. MACCRAY was 1-8 in 2019.

In normal times, the three weeks of preseason football preparation includes a Saturday scrimmage in which four teams are involved, rotating through so each team sees three opponents. There were no scrimmages in this disjointed autumn.

“Not having a scrimmage, we really didn't do a lot of hitting,” Meyer said. “And so we were not certain what it was going to look like tonight. And that hurt us.”

Johnston echoed those feelings of uncertainty.

“It's been so weird,” he said. “Practices were structured differently going into this game. You haven't really scrimmaged and you really haven't seen anybody, you don't know what your kids are capable of doing. So yeah, I think there was a lot of question marks going into tonight.”

The Minneota school district has faced Covid-19 issues this year, with classes starting late and beginning with distance learning. Fingers are crossed that everything remains under control. Minneota is in Lyon County, which includes Marshall and Southwest Minnesota State University. An August wedding in Ghent, which is five miles from Minneota, was linked to 75 cases of Covid-19.

“We've been right on the line, we've been borderline,” Johnston said. “We're doing a close count in our county of what's in Minneota, what's in Marshall and what's at SMSU. Our school’s really doing everything they can to stay open, especially now with sports going on and everything else. But you’ve got to talk to kids, ‘You guys have got to understand. If one or two kids get this, we could be done.’ We have to take precautions to make sure that we are not hurting ourselves.”

Normal football seasons entail eight regular-season contests and possibly six more in the postseason for teams that reach state championship games. This fall the regular season is six games long and section championships will be the end of the postseason.

“It's frustrating,” Johnston said. “But we've tried to tell our kids, once again, that they've been gifted a season. Our prize is whatever the biggest prize is going to be. If it's a section final at least you could say, ‘Hey, we would have been the team that represented at state.’ We're not getting that, but we're still shooting for that undefeated season, and it's not going to be easy. We're shooting for potentially a section championship and that's our trophy.

“It's such a unique year. You just have to roll with the punches. That's all you can do. You roll with the punches.”

As the teams and fans departed the field Friday night, there was a definite feeling of absolute, pure, utter normalcy. The kids had played, the coaches had coached, the officials had worked hard and well, and the fans had cheered. That’s just how it’s supposed to be.

Meyer thought back to recent weeks when big news arrived, saying, “When they announced we were going to play football, you could hear cheering in the whole school.”

Let’s keep those cheers coming.

--MSHSL media specialist John Millea has been the leading voice of Minnesota high school activities for decades. Follow him on Twitter @MSHSLjohn, listen to "Preps Today with John Millea” wherever you get podcasts.

John’s Journal: ‘Best Season Ever’ For Roosevelt Tennis

 

After their first-round match Tuesday in the Class 2A Section 6 tournament, the girls tennis team from Minneapolis Roosevelt took a victory lap. They didn’t win the match; in fact, they lost to Benilde-St. Margaret’s 7-0. But the Teddies felt pride in their team.

With every high school athlete and team in Minnesota under the shadow of Covid-19, this year could have been written into the script of “Stranger Things.” Despite that, the Roosevelt girls tennis team has worked to take advantage of what’s possible, every step of the way, building something special.

Winning? Oh sure, that’s great when it happens. But having fun, making memories and doing it together has become a hallmark of the Teddies.

“Basically, how we operate is fun first,” said second-year coach Jack Nelson. “These are their memories and we have to make it as fun as possible for them.”

The hurdles this season have been many. The Teddies’ schedule was stomped on by the virus, with most scheduled opponents playing only teams in their own conference and leaving Roosevelt in the lurch. And some prospective players chose not to play tennis this fall. Despite it all, the Teddies have a junior varsity team for the first time since the 1980s and have made lifelong friendships and memories.

Nelson is the driver of it all. A former junior varsity coach at Minneapolis Washburn and a longtime youth tennis coach in Minneapolis, Nelson, 61, is an artist and sculptor, sailor and scuba diver … not exactly the prototypical high school coach.

“He’s been a blessing,” said Roosevelt activities director Dennis Stockmo. “He has so much energy and desire.”

The coaching job opened up two years ago when Jose Williamson left Roosevelt for Minnehaha Academy, where he could coach his son. A Roosevelt parent who was familiar with Nelson from his work with players in the Inner City Tennis program brought him to Stockmo’s attention.

Stockmo and Nelson met at Lynnhurst Park, where Nelson was teaching for Inner City Tennis. They hit tennis balls back and forth and got acquainted.

“He’s just a really good guy,” Stockmo said.

There are no seniors on the Teddies’ roster of 22 players. There is a definite family atmosphere, with players often staying after practice to hit balls with parents.

“It’s just an incredibly wonderful time on the courts, while everything else is in chaos,” Nelson said.

To alleviate the scheduling issues, Nelson arranged for his team to play several intrasquad matches. They will do that on Saturday when the girls are divided into several teams in what they’re calling the Olympics, with each team declaring the country they are representing.

In previous intrasquad competitions Nelson has been known to fudge the scores, or as he phrased it, “Magically, the scores sometimes disappear. This week they’re making me bring a white board so they can see it for themselves. They don’t trust me anymore.”

Parents have become a big part of the tennis program, forming a booster club, making banners to hang on the fences and setting up picnics for the girls. Nelson and assistant coaches Lucia Marquez Reagan and Kathy Xiong have as much fun as the kids.

“Our second- and third-year players had never had assistant coaches, much less a JV team,” Nelson said. “They latch on to the assistant coaches.”

 Stockmo said of Nelson, “I think his calling is to teach the game of tennis. He puts in an incredible amount of hours over the summer with ICT and transfers that to the girls. He’s done a fantastic job. Our numbers are up, when we were worried about even having a team.”

Last year the Teddies took an overnight trip to Duluth for team bonding and matches. Losing that opportunity this year added to the difficulties.

“It’s been a rough, rough, rough time,” Nelson said. “But when I really think of it, it’s really been the best time. When this whole thing is over, hopefully we can get back to a full season. We’ll still have our fun.”

After each match the coach sends an email to the players and their families, including positive comments and fun photos.

At the bottom of each email, Nelson writes “Best Season Ever.”

“And it’s the truth,” he said

--MSHSL media specialist John Millea has been the leading voice of Minnesota high school activities for decades. Follow him on Twitter @MSHSLjohn, listen to "Preps Today with John Millea” wherever you get podcasts.

John’s Journal: Football Makes A Quiet Return

 

CANNON FALLS – The final score on a sunny Saturday afternoon was Cannon Falls 27, Pine Island 18. It was quiet. But it was football and that was enough.

The matchup between the Bombers and Panthers was one of four games Saturday that kicked off a Minnesota high school football season like no other. For a time, there was to be no football or volleyball until sometime next winter/spring. But on Sept. 21 the MSHSL board of directors reversed itself and revived those sports, with a six-game football regular season. The four games Saturday were essentially Zero Week contests involving teams that needed to start early to fill their six games.

Original expectations were for the first games to be played Oct. 9, and that’s when teams across the state will indeed play. But almost everything is upside down and inside out during the age of Covid-19, so why not this?

The Pine Island-Cannon Falls game was booked only six days before kickoff. Before the 2020 season came back to life, all football teams were given the option to practice this fall. So the Zero Week teams had filled the required three weeks of practice and were cleared to play Saturday.

“We were taking advantage of our fall practices and had been working towards being ready for this opportunity,” Pine Island coach John Stapleton told me during a postgame phone conversation. “We’re very lucky and very fortunate to have that. I’m glad to be out there. I’m excited and the kids were excited, too.”

Saturday’s other scores were …

--West Central Area/Ashby 30, Otter Tail Central 18

--Crookston 14, Roseau 10

--Barnesville 36, Pillager 6

For Covid-19 reasons, the Pillager-Barnesville game was in danger of being called off as late as 10 p.m. Friday. A Barnesville senior captain had been in contact with someone who tested positive for the virus and missed the game despite having no symptoms. Pillager faced similar issues and had several players who didn’t make the trip to Barnesville.

At all four games, the atmosphere was not what anyone is used to. With a state-mandated limit of 250 spectators for outdoor high school sports, the noise level was down. Schools are issuing tickets in various ways. Cannon Falls and Pine Island split the 250 tickets in half; Cannon Falls’ tickets went to parents of football players and cheerleaders, with the remaining 23 tickets going to members of the senior class via a lottery. 

One-hundred-eighty ticket holders came through the gate at Cannon Falls (everyone was required to wear a facemask), using lawn chairs or standing because there were no bleachers on site. Others who had tickets (and some who didn’t) watched from behind a fence surrounding John Burch Park, many in an elevated spot with a nice view of the action.

Barnesville, where a thousand people or more normally watch home games, provided two tickets to every player and coach. Pillager was allotted 120 tickets, but with their reduced roster and travel time of almost two hours, only 56 tickets were used by Huskies fans. Barnesville followed protocols, including separate entrances for fans from each school and separate restroom facilities. But it was so quiet.

“To say a football stadium can only have 250 people is borderline ridiculous,” said Barnesville coach Bryan Strand, who also is the high school principal.

In Cannon Falls, three deer stands were placed behind the Bombers bench – in spots normally occupied by bleachers -- for the use of coaches on headsets and video cameras. The football field is also the outfield for the Bombers baseball teams, and on the game’s first touchdown (a 4-yard run by Cannon Falls senior Marcus Banks), dust flew from behind third base.

Public-address announce Rod Johnson, a Cannon Falls resident who was the PA voice of the Timberwolves at Target Center from 1996-2017, repeatedly reminded the fans about socially distancing. As the end of the game neared, he informed the crowd of the postgame procedures: the fans would have to exit immediately, go to their vehicles and not stand around expecting hugs and high fives from the teams. Once the field was clear of spectators, both teams walked quietly to their buses. The Bombers and Panthers players and coaches all wore masks, as they had done upon arriving.  

There were no loud noises after the game, which pretty much matched the sound level during the game.

“It was almost like a seventh- and eighth-grade grade or a JV game more than a varsity game,” Stapleton said. “But that’s kind of fun, too. It allows you as a coach to focus more on the kids and not all the other hoopla that sometimes goes on.”

Cannon Falls coach Dan Meyers said the players can work on changing the noise level.

“It was quiet. We need to talk to our boys; we have 50 kids on the sidelines and they need to bring that atmosphere themselves. We’ll discuss that, ‘You guys need to create that atmosphere.’ ”

The Bombers finished 8-2 last season, which ended in the Class 3A state quarterfinals. They have seven new starters on each side of the ball this year.

“We’d been telling the boys to be ready because you never know what’s going to happen in 2020,” Meyers said. “I was thinking last week that this was one of the hardest seasons I’ve ever had and we hadn’t even played a game yet. It was the roller-coaster of what will happen next. Until we finally kicked off.”

Several hours before kickoff Saturday, Stapleton arrived at school to begin game-day preparations. He ran into a friend, out for a bike ride, who used to be on the Panthers coaching staff.

“He asked how things were going. I said, ‘We have a game today.’ He was not aware of that.”

--MSHSL media specialist John Millea has been the leading voice of Minnesota high school activities for decades. Follow him on Twitter @MSHSLjohn, listen to "Preps Today with John Millea” wherever you get podcasts.