John’s Journal: Hopkins’ Novak On Verge Of History

 

Whenever people talk about boys basketball at Hopkins High School, specifically the coaching staff, there are some shortcuts in the terminology. There is Junior and there is Senior. There is Kenny and there is Ken.

Ken Novak Jr. (Kenny or Junior) has been the Royals head coach since 1990, and Ken Novak Sr. (Ken or Senior) until this season was a member of his son’s coaching staff for as long as anyone can remember. Junior played at Hopkins Lindbergh when Senior was the coach there, including a state tournament team in 1974 when Junior was a senior.

Ken Jr. is on the cusp of becoming only the third boys basketball coach in Minnesota history to win 900 games. He will take 899 career victories into a Tuesday night game at Chaska. His father won’t be there, which is a heartbreaking fact.

Ken Novak Sr.’s health has been in decline and he and his wife Joanie are residents of an assisted living center. Ken will be 92 years old on March 26.

A 1978 graduate of Augsburg College, Ken Novak Jr.’s first head coaching job was at Blaine High School. His father has been one of his assistant coaches ever since.

“We’ve been together a long time,” Ken Jr. said. “I played for him, I came over to Blaine and very quickly he became my assistant there. And ever since that time we’ve been doing it together. He’s very responsible for what we’ve done.”

Novak Sr. was head coach of the Hopkins sophomore team for years, working with the kids on fundamentals so they would be prepared for varsity action. That type of structure and preparation has helped make Novak Jr. the winningest active coach in Minnesota.

The career leader is Chisholm’s Bob McDonald (who retired in 2014 and died in 2020) with 1,012 victories. Rocori’s Bob Brink retired in 2012 with 936 wins. Novak is third with 899 and Dave Galovich of Crosby-Ironton (Ken Novak Sr.’s alma mater) is fourth with 747 career wins. The career leader among girls basketball coaches is New London-Spicer’s Mike Dreier with 967 wins.

McDonald coached until he was 81 and Brink retired at age 74. Novak is 64 and has no plans to retire from coaching; he is retired from teaching social studies at Hopkins.

“I’ve said for years I’m going to do this for as long as I enjoy it,” he said. “And I do really enjoy it. I’m in my heaven when we’re at practice and there’s no one else in the gym.”

That’s where all the success Hopkins has enjoyed is built; the Royals’ practices are orderly and precise with no wasted time. The results are impressive:

--A state-record 28 consecutive seasons with 20-plus wins (1993-2020). Next is 22 winnings seasons in a row by Tartan coach Mark Klingsporn (1999-2020).

--Novak ranks second in state championships with eight. The leader is DeLaSalle’s Dave Thorson with nine; Thorson is now an assistant coach at Colorado State.

--Novak is No. 1 in state tournament appearances with 18, followed by former Rushford-Peterson coach Tom Vix with 16 and Thorson with 15.

--Novak’s state tournament record is 39-10 since he took Blaine to state in 1987.

Hopkins won big-school state championships in 2002, 2005, 2006, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2016 and 2019. They take a 4-1 record into Tuesday’s game at Chaska, which is 5-0.

Dale Stahl, who has been one of Novak’s assistant coaches since 1996, said winning isn’t what drives Kenny.

“He’s not concerned about the record. I think what has made our team so consistent is that he approaches every practice and every minute with the players as an opportunity to pursue excellence. He instills that, it’s kind of his personal drive. He’s always pushing himself to be excellent, instilling that in the kids, and never letting things proceed if isn’t excellent. People would be surprised if they went to our practices at how few different things we do. If we’re working on something and it’s not excellent, we keep working until it is.

“He’s a great teacher. One of his favorite sayings is it doesn’t matter how much about basketball he knows, it’s how much the players know. He’s really good at teaching, not only how but why. With everything we do, he really goes out of his way to explain why we’re doing it and what we’re trying to accomplish.”

Novak Jr.’s playing career was derailed by a knee injury in his freshman year at Ausgburg. It was a torn ACL, which he said, “back then in the ‘70s it was kind of a death sentence.”

He tried to play as a sophomore and re-injured the knee. Augsburg coach Erv Inniger gave him the opportunity to work as a student assistant coach, and a career was born. He held odd jobs while working as a young coach; he cleaned up a movie theater after games and owned a painting business. But coaching and teaching was always where he was happiest.

“We try to teach our kids to be coaches, we want them to coach each other,” he said. “The teaching element is really strong.

“Life’s kind of a puzzle and you try to put it together. verybody thinks it’s all about winning and losing. Our kids know that we don’t care about winning and losing, we want to take care of the process and the results will take care of themselves.”

Novak Jr. also coached girls and boys tennis at Hopkins for years, including his own children.

“I think he’s one of those guys who could coach just about any sport,” said Dan Johnson, who has been the Hopkins activities director since 1999.

Novak was inducted into the Minnesota Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2013 and the Minnesota High School Basketball Hall of Fame in 2019. He’s not concerned at all with reaching 900 wins, saying, “I’d rather just kind of have it go away. We don’t want to start focusing on something that just isn’t significant. This is what I preach to our players, you don’t want to focus on some things.”

Instead, Novak and his players remain focused on what they can do to improve; the next game, the next challenge.

“Every game, you think, ‘What do we need to do?’ That’s the fun part of it,” he said. “We try to take care of what we can control.”

--To see a comprehensive list of state basketball records, click here: http://www.info-link.net/~mattnet/

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

John’s Journal: Small Gesture Is Big For Officials

 

Greg Snow thought it over for a day or so before publicizing what happened to him and his two basketball officiating partners Thursday evening. I'm so glad he did.

Snow, who lives in Olivia, was enjoying some postgame downtime with fellow officials Rick Marks of New London and Brian Fredrick of Danube; they are members of the Western Minnesota Officials Association.

After working a boys basketball game between visiting St. Cloud Tech and Willmar, they headed to Ruff’s Wings and Sports Bar in Willmar for a quick bite.

What followed, as Snow told me over the phone Saturday afternoon, was “a super cool deal.”

The three officials were getting ready to head out and they asked their waiter for the check. He told them, “You’re good.”

Folks at a nearby table had picked up the tab for the officials; Snow estimated it probably came to 60 dollars or so. The officials had been chatting with another party, and Greg thinks he knows who might have been behind paying the tab. I’ve heard from Willmar folks who have similar clues. I, however, don’t think it’s crucial that the tab-picker-upper be publicly recognized. People tend to do these things for all the right reasons, and getting their name in print or on a podcast isn’t normally high on the list.

I learned about this story when Greg posted this Tweet Saturday morning (and tagged me on it): “Our crew went out for a quick bite after officiating on Thursday. Asked the waiter for our check and he said, “You’re good.” Families next to us said, “Reffing’s a thankless job, so thank you.” First time in 20 years that’s happened. Powerful gesture.”

That Tweet was “liked” by nearly 300 Twitter users (as of this writing on Saturday evening). The very first reply to Greg’s note came from Tim Sanborn, an official from Sauk Rapids. Tim wrote: “That is awesome Greg. Last night on my way out of the gym the coach got off his bus to thank us for officiating. 1st time in 19 years I have ever had that happen.”

These are great things, folks. It’s pretty easy for us to post a Tweet with the hashtag #ThankARef, and it’s quite another thing for somebody to go the extra mile and do something thankful in person … like pick up a tab or go out of their  way to say “thank you.”

Snow has been an official for 20 years and this is the first time something like this happened to him.

“Occasionally a guy will say, ‘I’d like to buy these guys a round.’ But I’ve never heard, ‘Hey, your bill’s taken care of.’ ”

The current season is difficult for everybody, with masks required and limited spectators. Snow said the simple fact that someone paid the postgame bill helped him adjust his own attitude.

“I’ve been really down on how all this stuff has been handled, and with basketball in general,” he told me. “I know I had been kind of going through the motions, I admit it. That gesture made me sit back and go, ‘Greg, there’s still good people out there.’

“In my first game of the year I barked at the crowd, ‘Knock it off!’ I never do that. We’re wearing masks, we hate it, everybody hates it. But what happened Thursday night made me realize, ‘Get your head out of the dirt, Greg.’ I was very down. I wasn’t into it. This restored a lot of why I do this.”

#ThankARef

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

John’s Journal: Morris Senior Named Heart Of The Arts Recipient

 

Kylen Running Hawk is generally a quiet, somewhat shy young man. But when it’s time to perform -- in the choir at Morris Area High School, or a school theater production, or the speech team, or mock trial – he has a commanding presence.

It’s an amazing story of a student who found his passion in the performing arts despite a language barrier, hearing loss and other obstacles. Kylen plans to study education in college, with an emphasis on choir and theater, with hopes of teaching those art forms to Native American students.

“I'm trying my best to do what I can,” he said.

For his commitment to the arts, his culture, his school and community, Kylen is the 2021 recipient of the MSHSL Heart of the Arts Award. The statewide honor makes him one of 50 similar winners in the program, which is sponsored by the National Federation of State High School Associations.

Kylen’s family is Hunkpapa Lakota from the Standing Rock Nation in North and South Dakota and the Winnebago tribe of Nebraska. His Lakota name is Wica Kawitaya, which translates to He Gathers the People/Nation. Kylen’s early years were spent on the Standing Rock Reservation in North Dakota and his first language is Lakota Sioux.

His fascination with theater began at a young age while watching televisions commercials for the Medora Musical, an annual summer event in the North Dakota town of Medora. Billed as “an ode to patriotism, Theodore Roosevelt, and the Great American West,” the show includes singing, dancing and a variety of acts.

When Kylen attended the show in person for the first time, “It was the most spectacular thing I ever saw in my life,” he said. “That really drew me into trying out theater.”

After his family moved to the western Minnesota city of Morris in 2013, Kylen’s first theater role came in The Princess and the Pea at St. Mary’s elementary school. With deafness in his left ear – which several surgeries were unable to repair -- he learned to read lips and understand English along the way. His process for memorizing lines is not typical.

“It took me a while to learn my lines for musicals or plays,” said Kylen, who is president of his school’s Drama Club. “But by the time we're two weeks or more before our show, I'll be able to get all of them in. Because English was my second language, it took me a little bit, and I'm still learning some big words today.”

Kylen is very proud of his heritage. He enjoys donning traditional Lakota costumes and performing at powwows, parades and other events. Sometimes he walks to and from school in the winter as a way to remember and honor his ancestors, including those who were at the Battle of the Little Bighorn and the Wounded Knee Massacre.

“My Lakota heritage means I'm from a people who were strong to the end,” he said. “I walk in the winter because it reminds me what my family had to go through. I remind myself of all my ancestors who have passed before me, and to always keep them in my heart, to always remember the ones who helped me throughout my life.”

Seth Kelly, who teaches English, literature and is involved in theater and other activities at Morris Area High School, said Kylen is humble but fearless.

“Kylen will take on anything and be excited and be able to contribute in any way,” Kelly said. “We started mock trial last year and Kylen was first in line to sign up because it's another way to perform and to embody a character. He brings the kind of spirit into anything that makes everything more fun for everybody.”

Kylen was accepted into the prestigious Perpich Center for Performing Arts in suburban Minneapolis for his senior year of high school but respectfully declined due to the Coronavirus pandemic. He will attend the University of Minnesota, Morris in the fall. After college he would like to share his talents with Native American students.

“I'm a kid from our reservation who has the joy of being into the theater, where other kids have never had that experience,” he said. “I’m thinking about bringing theater into the reservation. I've always wanted people from my reservation or any other reservations to get a chance, because the only way that we get to experience this is to go off the reservation to other schools. And that's why there's not that many Native American actors; not many kids are exposed to this kind of thing.”

“Kylen brings arts and celebration of culture in a way that greatly enriches our school and community,” Kelly said. “I’ve never worked with a kid in the arts who has had more obstacles yet has taken more out of what he does.

“Kylen wants to be in everything and do everything. Even with obstacles, it’s amazing. He brings a very awesome, unique element to it.”

Congratulation to Kylen Running Hawk, the 2021 MSHSL Heart of the Arts recipient.

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

John’s Journal: A New Official Makes Her Debut

After officiating a basketball game earlier this week, M.J. Wagenson pulled out her phone and snapped a photo of herself and her partner in stripes. Wagenson, who lives in Pine Island and is one of the most respected veteran officials in Minnesota, was documenting history; the other official had just worked her very first game.

The photo was Tweeted by the Rochester Area Officials Association (@RAOMN) with this message: “Shout out to young Hayley Dessner. She worked her first basketball game last night with M.J. Wagenson. Way to go Hayley!”

Dessner is 20 years old, a graduate of Plainview-Elgin-Millville High School and a sophomore at Rochester Community and Technical College, where Wagenson is a faculty member. Hayley was a volleyball, basketball and softball player in high school, with Wagenson officiating some of her games. They got to know each other when Hayley began taking classes at RCTC, where Wagenson is a member of the sport management faculty.

Hayley is majoring in elementary education and would like to work as a coach and official.

“She needed another course and I suggested the officiating course,” Wagenson said. “If nothing else, it will make you a better coach. We were working several weeks on rules, casebook, we’ve been on the court a few times, walked through mechanics. She’s a very dedicated student.”

Hayley said, “I took the officiating class my freshman year with M.J. I looked into officials and what they do and this year I’m officiating basketball.”

Hayley’s officiating debut was a 4:30 p.m. eighth-grade game between Lanesboro and Schaeffer Academy in Rochester. A couple hours before tipoff, she and Wagenson – who made her MSHSL officiating debut in 1986 -- walked through some things to remember on a court at RCTC.

“Both coaches were awesome,” Wagenson said. “We talked before the game and we said thanks for letting us work your game. They said thanks for being here.”

Before tipoff, Wagenson asked Dessner, “Are you a little nervous? She said, ‘yeah.’ I said, ‘Don’t worry, it’ll be just fine. Let’s do what we’ve been practicing and you’ll be fine.’ ”

Another veteran official, Jerry Perry, observed Hayley’s first game and offered feedback afterwards.

When it was over, Hayley told M.J. and Perry that she had a long list of things in her head to work on. Perry’s advice was to “pick one thing, and when you have a handle on that try to move to the next thing.”  

Hayley said. “I could tell I made a few mistakes, but everyone said I did really well for my first game. M.J. helped me prepare really well. I can’t thank her enough.”

Hayley, a member of Plainview-Elgin-Millville’s 2016 Class 2A state championship basketball team, said her experience as a three-sport athlete included watching officials.

“As an athlete you see the refs and you can tell if it’s going to be a good game,” she said. “I wanted to become the kind of ref who will walk into the gym and people will know it will be a good game.”

As with all new MSHSL officials, Dessner was assigned a mentor, a role Wagenson is happy to fill.

“I told her you might run across somebody else you really connect with,” said M.J., who in 2016 became the first female official to work at the boys state basketball tournament. “She’s a super nice kid.”

Hayley’s first game was a success and more will follow. She has already noticed one important factor of working as an official: friendship.

“It’s just connecting with other officials,” she said. “I really enjoy seeing their perspective and hearing their stories.”

One more thing: She’s considering officiating volleyball and softball, too.

--For information on becoming an MSHSL official, click here: https://www.mshsl.org/officials-judges/officiating

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

John’s Journal: Remembering, Honoring Bob McDonald

Moments before a new season began last week, Hibbing boys basketball coach Joel McDonald glanced at a certain spot inside the Bluejackets gym. It’s the area where his father sat to watch his son coach and his grandkids play, but Bob McDonald wasn’t there.

Joel and his wife Carrie have two kids; Abbey graduated in 2019 and Ayden is a junior. Bob McDonald, the Hall of Fame coach from nearby Chisholm and the father of six children who all became basketball coaches, lived in Hibbing in his later years and died in October at age 87. This basketball season in the first in 88 years without him.

It might have been an omen that in the first basketball season after Bob McDonald’s birth in June 1933, the Chisholm High School basketball team capped the 1933-34 season by winning its first state championship with a 29-27 win over St. Paul Mechanic Arts. That was the first of four state championships for the Bluestreaks and the only one without McDonald as head coach. He led Chisholm to titles in 1973, 1975 and 1991.

Joel McDonald, who was a senior in 1991 and finished his career as the state’s all-time scoring leader, was standing for the national anthem before Friday night’s season opener against Duluth Denfeld when reality hit home.

“For the past number of years he was always sitting in kind of the usual spot for Abbey's games and Ayden’s, and he got to see a lot of them,” Joel said. “And ultimately you don't have him in the stands, and during the anthem it hit me.”

Bob, who retired in 2014 with a state-record 1,012 wins and was inducted into the National High School Hall of Fame, had become a constant presence at Hibbing home games. He conversed with friends, greeted officials and visiting coaches and players, and enjoyed seeing his grandkids play the family game.

“Looking over in the stands, it's just hard not seeing him over there,” said Ayden McDonald.

The Hibbing boys beat Denfeld 79-39 and on Saturday afternoon won 87-64 at Chisago Lakes behind Ayden’s 41 points. The game goes on but there is something missing for the entire McDonald family.

“I’ve thought about him a lot ever since his passing,” said Mike McDonald, coach at Cambridge-Isanti. “With basketball starting, it just brings you back.’

Darlene McDonald, Bob’s wife of 43 years and the mother of their six kids, died of bladder cancer in 1997. Bob remarried in 2000, reuniting with Chisholm classmate Carol Tiburzi, whose husband had died in a plane crash.

Tom McDonald, the boys coach at Ely High School, said for years his mother has been in his thoughts during the national anthem each game day.

“Since mom died, every time we’ve had the anthem I’ve thought of her,” he said. “Now I’m thinking of both of them.”

Mike McDonald said he misses weekend phone calls with his dad. The conversations often included questions from Bob about whether his son’s teams were pressing on defense, which was a hallmark of Bob’s Chisholm years.

“I miss hearing his voice when we’d start talking on the phone,” Mike said. “That’s the major thing I miss each and every day, saying hello, how are things going. He’d also ask things like do we have any size and are we pressing.”

Mike, whose team played its first game Tuesday night, watched the Hibbing-Chisago Lakes game online and noticed that Joel was wearing a suit and tie. That was no surprise, because that’s how Bob dressed for games and his sons have done the same.

“I saw Joel wearing his (suit and tie), and I’ll wear mine, as I have worn for every game I’ve coached,” said Mike. “That’s in reverence to (Bob). I know he’s watching over us. That’s a way I show that I remember him and I appreciate his influence on us.”

After Hibbing’s first game, Joel and Ayden talked about Bob during the drive home.

“It was tough,” Joel said. “Ayden said it was really different not having Grandpa here and I agreed with him. It was one of those conversations that was short and then quiet on the way home, because I think both of us were fighting off tears.”

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

John’s Journal: Celebrating The Return Of Competition

 

In the business that I’ve been a part of since I was in 10^th grade, a notebook and a writing instrument are vital pieces of equipment. On Friday evening, sitting by myself in one of the end zone bleachers inside the Wayzata High School gym, here are excerpts from the latest notebook:

--“Shoes squeaking.” 

--“Whistles.”

--“Applause.” 

--“Layup lines.”

--“Pregame music.”

Fifty-four days had passed since the last time I had attended a high school sporting event. From a November football game in Waseca to a mid-January basketball game at Wayzata, it seemed at times like things would never return to normal. But here we are, games … whistles … applauses … and everything else that makes these traditions so important to our communities.

Yes, everybody wears a mask and social distancing is part of the routine right now, but winter sports are back and everybody is happy about that.

“I’ll tell you what, once the ball went up in the air and you look up in the stands and parents are cheering and kids are playing, it's high school basketball,” said Wayzata girls coach Mike Schumacher after his team lost a 62-60 decision to St. Michael-Albertville. “In that respect, it was just really, really good to be back playing.”

It was quite a sight, played out inside gyms and ice arenas and in pools and on wrestling mats and snowy hills and parks all over the state since competitions were allowed to begin on Thursday.

A lot has changed, certainly. Some officials use hand-held, electronic whistles, which you might not realize if you’re not paying attention. Coaches and players on the benches are separated, locker rooms are not used nearly as much, visiting teams bring their own basketballs for warmups, and hand sanitizer is part of the routine.

“We didn't know until we came into the gym where people would sit and what timeouts would look like and the national anthem and introductions,” Schumacher said. “You can see it in a script, but until you do you don’t know.”

During timeouts, the Wayzata girls simply stood in front of their bench. The St. Michael-Albertville team moved to an area in a corner of the gym, where six folding chairs (one for coach Kent Hamre and five for players) were used. After each timeout, a Wayzata staff member sprayed the chairs with a hand-held sanitizer.

There are no student sections, pep bands are very rare, and that’s because spectators are limited to 25 percent of the facility’s capacity up to a maximum of 150.

Friday’s contest was one heck of a game between two outstanding teams. St. Michael-Albertville finished 20-9 last season and went to the Class 4A state tournament, losing to Farmington in the state semifinals before the event was halted due to you know what.

Wayzata went 24-5, falling to Hopkins in the Section 6 title game. Hopkins was set to meet Farmington for the state championship before you know what. The 2021 Trojans roster includes 6-foot-2 senior Jenna Johnson, who will play collegiately at Utah, and 5-11 junior Mara Braun, who has made a verbal commitment to the University of Minnesota.

Wayzata took off quickly, leading 12-2 after four minutes. It was 20-7 with less than eight minutes left in the first half but the Knights began figuring things out. The halftime score was Trojans 35, Knights 31.

St. Michael-Albertville took a 37-35 lead three minutes into the second half when 5-foot-2 junior Emma Miller bounced a cross-court pass into the hands of senior Kendall Cox for an easy score.

Miller and Braun traded three-point shots down the stretch. A driving layup by Cox gave the Knights the winning margin with 20 seconds left. Cox finished with 23 points and Miller had 11 for the Knights. Braun led Wayzata with 21, Johnson had 17 and Anna Koth 11.

“I've been a part of this for 19 years and I don't know if I've been as proud as I am of these kids, the way we dug ourselves a hole, and just fought back,” Hamre said. “These kids like each other, they love each other, and I think that goes a long way.”

St. Michael-Albertville’s season-opening win was even more impressive because the Knights played without sophomore Tessa Johnson, an honorable mention All-State player last season who suffered a broken leg during fall league play in November. She may return by the end of the season, Hamre said, but then again who knows what the Covid-19 situation will be like that far down the road.

The uncertainty of that proposition, the one-day-at-a-time, let’s appreciate today attitude is everywhere. Those are the kinds of lessons that can be learned when your season was stuck in the starting blocks for better than a month.

But now the games are back, the applause is back, the excitement is back.

Let’s enjoy it.

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

John’s Journal: There’s No Stopping State Debate

 

Arush Iyer joined the debate team at Eagan High School as a ninth-grader, using it as a way to overcome nervousness and an occasional stutter when talking in front of people. Now a senior headed to Northwestern University to study economics, he has become one of Minnesota’s top debaters in the Lincoln-Douglas category, but one thing is very different as the 2021 MSHSL state debate tournament approaches: Nobody talks with other people in the room.

The Covid-19 pandemic has not stopped debate, although the activity has moved to virtual platforms with competitors and judges all sitting in front of computer screens instead of the same room. MSHSL state debate tournaments have been held since 1902, and the 2021 version will take place later this week.

“It’s the oldest and longest-running championship in state history,” said Eagan debate coach Chris McDonald, past president of the Minnesota Debate Teachers Association and a member of the National Speech & Debate Association Hall of Fame. “I’ll be damned if it was going to end due to a pandemic.”

If there were no pandemic, the state tournament would be held at its traditional home: inside Blegen Hall at the University of Minnesota. The event will go on as usual Friday and Saturday, Jan. 15-16, but with everyone gathering, competing and judging virtually.

(In the photo above, Eagan sophomore Archan Sen debates in front of his home computer.) 

MSHSL debate teams have no limitations on when their season can begin and end or on how many times they can compete. Some of the top teams travel around the nation for weekend competitions. But not this year.  

“The thing I’m proudest of is we did not bat an eye last spring when we were met with this challenge,” McDonald said. “We all said, ‘How do we solve this so our kids can do their activity?’ My position all along was we cannot have in-person tournaments, and we could jump up and down and threaten to sue the League, but what good would that do?”

McDonald, along with current MDTA president Cort Sylvester of Rosemount High School, D.J. Brynteson of Armstrong/Cooper and others, helped devise systems for online competitions in Minnesota. Glitches, such as weak connections and poor sound quality, can happen, but everyone pitches in to make practices and competitions possible.

Eagan senior Claudia Liversee, who partners with sophomore Aerin Engelstad on a Policy debate team, said being unable to meet with Aerin in person is another obstacle to overcome.

“Normally we would be sharing files and talking between rounds,” Claudia said. “It’s harder to work together when everything is digital, we have to do more prep ahead of time. We talk almost every day about preparation.”

In-person debate tournaments are normally held in a school setting, with different categories and rounds assigned to specific classrooms. The online format is similar, with clickable links created for each “room” … as contestants, judges and others connect online.

(This photo shows a multi-screen virtual tournament “headquarters” in the home of Armstrong/Cooper debate coach D.J. Brynteson.) 

“We created a system where we lay links into tab rooms, instead of putting in room numbers, and you put in a link to each individual room,” McDonald said. “Over time we’ve refined all the different processes we’ve created to make that work, and it’s worked every single weekend since September.”

Since the pandemic began, Eagan’s top Policy team has taken part in 77 competitive rounds at a dozen or more tournaments. As McDonald explained, “We’ve competed in New York without going to New York, and in Texas without going to Texas.”

Not traveling has certainly cut costs, but enjoying down time with teammates and kids from other teams has all but disappeared under the current conditions.

“They’ll tell you they flat-out miss the social aspect of it,” McDonald said. “They’ll go online together and play games until midnight sometimes after a tournament. But they miss being together. They’re just so pleased they get to do something on the weekends that they enjoy.”

Iyes said competing from home, “definitely is a little bit surreal. Usually in a debate tournament you don’t expect your little brother to throw a football at you in the middle of a round. I do miss being able to hang out with my friends at tournaments. But I do like it in some ways; during rounds can I go to my bedroom and take a nap and have home-cooked food.”

Yes, it’s different. But the students are able to take part in an activity they enjoy, and that’s what matters the most.

As McDonald said, “We’ve brought some sense of normalcy to an activity that’s competitive and provides an avenue to a state championship.”

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

John’s Journal: A New Season Is Here

 

Last March in this space, these words were written: “As disappointing as this is, it has been heartening to see how so many teams and schools have responded. The Farmington High School girls basketball team, which was in line to meet Hopkins in the Class 4A championship game Saturday, Tweeted a team photo with this message: ‘Just because we couldn’t play basketball tonight doesn’t mean we would waste an opportunity to spend time with each other!’ ”

 That was written after the 2020 girls state basketball tournament was suddenly halted because of the Covid-19 virus. The Farmington girls gathered again on the court Monday for the first practice of the 2021 season, and to say it was a relief would be an understatement.

“Today was just lots of excitement, and you could tell there was a lot of energy and joy,” said coach Liz Carpentier. “I think the kids had so much fun seeing each other and being able to socialize, which is a good thing for them. They haven't gotten to do that in the last few months. I'm thankful to be back. We're not going to take any day for granted.”

That is one of the lessons learned in the last 10 months: Don’t take anything for granted. The Tigers, playing at state for the first time in school history, reached the Class 4A championship game against Hopkins before everything was shut down. Hopkins was on a streak of 62 victories in a row and seeking back-to-back state titles. Farmington was 29-2.

Looking back now, Farmington’s Sophie Hart, a 6-foot-4 senior who will play next season at North Carolina State, said the team’s 78-59 state semifinal win over St. Michael-Albertville stands out in her memories.

“I was just kind of joyous, I guess that's the word, that whole night was just joyous, it was fun, uplifting,” she said. “If I could relive one night or one game from that season, I’d probably go back to that one.

I wish I had known it was our last game, because it was hard to never have that closure, especially when we’re not able to play with our (2020) seniors again. They were a big part of the team last year and we'll miss them, but that was very hard just to know that we're just gone all of a sudden. It wasn't expected.”

Farmington’s team motto this season is “Whatever It Takes.”

Monday morning, seven hours before the first practice, this was Tweeted by the team account (@fhs_gbball): “We made it through the longest off-season ever. Excited to hit the court with our players and coaching staff. Thankful for every day together. #WhateverItTakes”

The senior team captains (Hart, Maleah Scott, Paige Kindseth and Peyton Blandin) came up with the motto.

“One goal that I think most of us have is just to make it throughout the season with all of us staying healthy and just keep playing strong and together, but mostly we want stay healthy so we can keep finishing the season,” Scott said.

“You never know,” said Blandin. “Our first game could be our last game; you never know how Covid is going to play out. So I think we just need to play like every game is our last game, no matter where we are in the season.”

This season will be different in ways that go beyond the late start date, which was mandated for winter sports by the state of Minnesota. All of Farmington’s regular-season games will be against other teams in the South Suburban Conference and all teams statewide will wear masks for practices and games.

“If it's a way for us to be on the court, we're going to do it,” Hart said of masks. “I see a lot of people complaining about it but if we could have worn masks for our championship game, I would have done it. It’s to keep everybody safe and it's really not the worst thing.

“I think another piece about it, too, is protecting our community. I feel like we have such strong community support behind our program, it's been amazing to us. And just to know that if this is what helps keep everybody safe and keep our support system safe, this is what we need to be doing.”

Four seniors from last season’s team are now college athletes: Molly Mogensen is playing basketball at Creighton, Morgan Ebel is playing basketball at St. Ben’s, and Katelyn Mohr (softball) and Adrianne Thompson (track and field) are at Minnesota Duluth.

This year’s Tigers held virtual meetings during December while practices were prohibited.

“We did a lot of offensive strategy, defense, just a lot of talking, like our chalk talks, diagramming plays,” said Carpentier, who is beginning her sixth year as head coach. “There are some things that you may never do really as much because we're always on the court and we don't take enough time to do that. So we utilized that time to do a lot of diagramming and talking through things, and I thought it was good and beneficial.”

The first game on the Tigers schedule is Jan. 14 at Lakeville North. Some of the team’s goals are simple: Stay healthy and stay together.

Being back at practice “feels amazing after such a long time not being with your teammates,” Kindseth said. “Going to the gym by yourself or maybe with one or two other people, it gets boring. It's harder to continue to do that when you don't have a team surrounding you to push you to get better.”

Blandin added, “I was just really excited to get back on the court with these guys, we've been playing together since like travel. And it's just been such a long wait and I'm just really glad we're back and we're just going to keep going up from here.”

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