John’s Journal: Two Games, Two Sports, One Umpire

 

HAYFIELD – Scot Field was a busy man on Thursday, leaving his home in Eyota for the 7:30 a.m. start of his workday at United Rentals in Rochester. Normally he would work until 4 p.m. but he got off early in order to make a mid-afternoon appointment for his second Covid-19 vaccine. After that, he hit the road for the half-hour drive to Hayfield.

Having changed into his umpiring apparel at the clinic where he received the vaccination, he arrived at the softball field at 4 o’clock to work a 4:30 game between Blooming Prairie and Hayfield. It would be the first of two games that day in Hayfield for Field, 53, who that evening would work a baseball game between the hometown Vikings and Southland.

Both games were originally scheduled for 4:30 starts. When finding two umpires for each game became difficult, Hayfield activities director Chris Pack became creative. The baseball game was moved back two hours and Field agreed to work the softball-baseball doubleheader, something he had never done before.

“I’ve done lots of varsity-JV stuff but never two varsity games and never different sports,” Field said. “I had no hesitation, not at all. Chris Pack is a friend, but even if it wasn’t Chris I would have been thrilled to help any AD out with something like that.” (In this photo, Field, right, meets with partner Matt Carter and coaches Scott Koenigs of Southland and Kasey Krekling of Hayfield.)

Field was the base umpire for both games, making it a bit physically easier to work during a stretch of nearly five hours and 12 1/2 innings (“It’s a lot of squatting so your quads get a heck of a workout,” he said of behind-the-plate duties). His softball partner was Mark Benfield of Dexter; they parked their vehicles behind the Blooming Prairie school bus before walking across the parking lot to the field that’s next to the community swimming pool and a lovely park.

Field was friendly in communicating with coaches and players. Between innings, he walked toward the Hayfield bench to speak to the Viking playing first base. He said to her, “Be a little more deliberate on your foot. You’re pulling it (off the base) a little quickly.” She nodded, smiled and said thank you.

Hayfield’s softball team went to state for four consecutive years ending in 2018. The Blooming Prairie Awesome Blossoms were the Class A runner-up in 2012 and champion in 2013, so both schools have strong softball histories. Thursday belonged to the Vikings, who won 7-2 without having to bat in the bottom of the seventh and final inning.

The softball game ended at 6:20, a tight squeeze with the baseball game scheduled for a 6:30 start. Field used the restroom at the softball field to change from baseball to softball apparel; softball umpires wear blue shirts with pants that aren’t quite as dark as baseball pants, and baseball umpires wear black tops.

Pack, who had scheduled the junior varsity baseball game for 4:30 instead of after the varsity game, as is customary, made the short commute between the two fields during the softball game. The JV baseball had dragged a bit in the early innings, which turned out to be helpful.

Field has become well-known in the towns where he officiates. At one point during the softball game, a fan said to Pack, “So Scot is working the baseball game, too, huh?”

After changing, Field jogged from the restroom to his Jeep 4x4, got behind the wheel and exited the softball parking lot. He made a couple of right turns and saw the Hayfield school down the street. The baseball field is behind the school, along with the football/track stadium. He arrived at 6:32 after the two-minute drive and found a parking spot in the back of the lot, “away from foul balls.”

He jogged onto the field at 6:33. The Southland Rebels were taking infield, and the Vikings would follow. The JV game lasted long enough that the varsity game wasn’t close to starting at 6:30.

He met his baseball umpiring partner, Matt Carter of St. Paul, for the first time. The fact that Carter had to come from so far away was indicative of the growing issues in finding officials in most high school sports. After learning that the Rochester Area Officials Association had no one available to work a baseball game Thursday night, Pack sent out an email looking for an umpire; that email circulated until Carter saw it and replied.

Before meeting with the two baseball coaches at home plate, Field and Carter talked mechanics and assignments in the parking lot. Field confirmed with Carter, “You’ve got runners on tag-ups?”

The first pitch was thrown at 6:52, with Field once again stationed behind first base, ball-strike-out counter held in his left hand. The school and adjoining athletic fields are on the east edge of town; beyond are farm fields backed by wind turbines, which turned slowly in the April breeze.

Field, who also is an MSHSL basketball official, was well-acquainted with sports and officiating before becoming registered with the MSHSL and joining the Rochester Area Officials Association in 2015. He first worked as a sub-varsity and youth official while a student at St. Cloud State, then did some coaching and officiating as he and his wife Stephanie raised their two daughters; Madison will graduate from Buena Vista University in Iowa this spring and Lindsay is finishing her first year at Waldorf College, also in Iowa.

“It’s very rewarding,” Field said of working as an official. “It keeps you in the game. It’s nice to still be in the game and help those out who are able to play.”

He also has worked as an official with the Rochester Parks and Recreation Department, including sports for adult men and women.

“That certainly gets you prepared for the high school level,” he said. “The challenges of officiating adults can be an experience in itself. I worked on my skills at that point.”

As the sun set during the evening baseball game, Field removed his sunglasses. In the late innings, with the temperature dropping, he walked to the Southland dugout to fetch the jacket he had stashed there before the game. “I’m giving in,” he said with a smile.

Hayfield’s baseball team made its inaugural state tournament appearance in 2019, the last year spring sports were held before the Covid-19 shutdown in 2020.

Southland had come out swinging and put up four runs in the top of the first inning. The Rebels looked to be in control, but the Hayfield nine scored seven in the third and went on to a 15-5 victory. The 10-run margin was reached in the bottom of the sixth inning, ending the game at 9:19 p.m.

Field and Carter shook hands in the parking lot and parted ways, looking forward to working together down the road. Field got behind the wheel again for the 39-mile drive home. He pulled into his garage shortly after 10 p.m.

He’ll be busy again this week, with games scheduled for Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday.

--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: Nothing Stops Owatonna’s Megan Copeland

 

Megan Copeland has achieved a big goal this week. The 18-year-old senior at Owatonna High School will compete Friday in the Class AA state speech tournament, capping a four-year speech career with her first trip to state.

She will compete in Extemporaneous Reading, which is a challenging category. The fact that Megan is blind makes her achievement even more remarkable.

She was born totally blind due to septo-optic dysplasia but she has an infectious, can-do attitude and nothing gets in her way.

“She's a rock,” said Owatonna speech coach Marcia Anderson.

On a Tuesday evening Zoom session, Megan spent about 25 minutes preparing for state with Anderson and fellow coaches Mark Anderson (Marcia’s husband) and Katie Heinz. I was invited to watch them prep, which was followed by some interview time. Megan immediately struck me as the kind of strong, confident teenager we all would like our children to be.

She will be joined at state by qualifying teammates Fardouza Farah (Discussion), Jackson Hemann (Serious Interpretation of Drama) and Julia Christenson (Humorous Interpretation). Megan’s category involves reading from a book titled “All the Light We Cannot See” by Anthony George. A major character in the novel is a blind girl who loves to read novels. Megan enjoys reading futuristic dystopian books and listening to music, particularly Taylor Swift.

In Extemporaneous Reading, every competitor (there will be 24 at state on Friday) uses the same book throughout the season. On competition days, each person learns which sections of the book they can choose from for their seven-minute reading. Megan has read and re-read the entire book multiple times, breaking it down into “cuttings” (or sections) that can be recited in the seven-minute time period and writing her own introduction for each cutting. She does it all in Braille.

MSHSL speech competitions have been held online all season, and the state tournament will also be virtual. That means Megan doesn’t have to lug her 11-pound Braille typewriter, but it also limits interaction with other students.

“Speech was always just a way for me to make friends, and I enjoy public speaking,” she said. “And so it was just a time for me to enjoy myself and be with my friends and to do what I love.”

Megan has been speaking in front of crowds for years. Ten years ago she placed second in a national short-story contest hosted by the National Federation of the Blind, and in sixth, seventh and eighth grade she earned national honors in an essay contest sponsored by Lions International. She read her essays in front of crowds as large as 500 people.

“The more people there are, the more excited I get,” Megan told me. She said competing online is a lot different than being in person.

“You don't get to be with other teams, you don't get to meet speechies from other schools. And that’s a big part of speech. I had a friend on the Medford speech team, and we're still friends to this day. I was kind of hoping ever since I started that if I ever made it to state, I’d get to meet, hopefully, a lot of new people. That's not going to be the case, but that's OK in its own way. Because our team has gotten so close and we've bonded so well with each other now.”

Marcia Anderson said working with Megan has been “such a joy these last few years. I told her the other day that I wanted to try to figure out how we could just make her fail (in school) so that we could have another year.”

Extemporaneous readers voice several characters, and Megan is expert at bringing life to those roles. During the Zoom prep, her coaches talked about the pitch of her voices, transitioning from the narrator voice to character voices, and the proper pronunciation of “soot” vs. “suit.” Megan wore an Owatonna Huskies hoodie and a smile.

“More than anyone else on the team, she does such a beautiful job of being visual with her voice,” Anderson said. “I asked her, “How do you make your words sound so lifelike? Because we can see it and she's like, ‘Well, I don't see it, but I feel it.’ Eye contact and gestures aren't something that is meaningful for Megan, but the vocal inflection is. When she reads, she brings life into the words that other people just don't.”

When Megan finished a well-executed cutting, Anderson smiled and told her, “At least you didn’t make me cry this time.”

Another prep session was scheduled for Wednesday, and Megan asked if they could meet for a final time on Thursday.

“This is my first time going to state, and I'm super excited,” she said. “I feel like I've really grown so much over my four years, and that this is my time to shine. I'm going to rock state.”

 --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 Warm Game On A Chilly Day

 

In normal times, 37 degrees and a light breeze in April would not be considered premium conditions for a baseball game. But these are definitely not normal times, so everyone was happy to be on hand late Monday afternoon when the Fridley Tigers and St. Anthony Village Huskies met at Palm Field in St. Anthony.

St. Anthony has lots of history, baseball and otherwise. The origins of the village -- which lies just to the north and east of northeast Minneapolis -- date to 1838. The baseball pedigree is newer, as evidenced by the banners hanging on the outfield fence; two of them mark Huskies baseball state championships in 2006 and 2008.

The ballpark, named after former St. Anthony Village coach and athletic director Gary Palm, is a true showplace. Most fans sit under covered seats behind home plate, with a few beyond right field, above a sign marking 315 feet, in seats known as Palm’s Porch.

The ballfield is tucked behind the school, along with a JV diamond, softball fields and the football stadium, which is currently home to beeping heavy equipment as preparations for artificial turf are in progress. Also being added is a track, which the Huskies have not previously had.

The athletic facilities are often crowded with fans, although Monday’s action didn’t fit that mold precisely. “On a nice night in May, it’s a hopping place,” said Huskies baseball coach/activities director Troy Urdahl.

The overarching theme these days in Minnesota can be described as happy, giddy, maybe even joyous, with the return of spring high school sports for the first time since 2019. The 2020 spring was, of course, wiped out because of Covid-19 fears, but things are back on track in 2021.

“It's just fantastic to be out here,” said Fridley baseball coach Dan Nalepka after the Tigers’ 6-0 victory. “It's 35 degrees outside, it's snowing but our kids are happy. We're running around having fun, and it's just so great to be out here. It's been two years.”

Even without the warmth of a late-spring evening, the atmosphere Monday was exceptional. Each hitter’s name was announced and the music between hitters and innings ranged from Neil Diamond to Elvis to Dropkick Murphys to AC/DC to Guns N’ Roses and beyond. There were friendly dogs on leashes, folks sitting in lawn chairs with hot tea at the ready, and the concession stand was open for business; three little boys made a run for hot dogs and returned to their seats behind home plate with aluminum-foil-covered delicacies in hand. A few crusty leaves were trapped in the fence, offering a reminder of last fall’s shortened high school seasons.

The familiar coach’s refrain of “Hustle out! Let’s go! On the hop!” came from Urdahl as the Huskies grabbed their gloves after a third out and returned to their defensive duties. It was glorious.

“I think we're a little more forgiving of pretty awful weather this April, because we're just happy to be back outside and having opportunities to play,” Urdahl said after the game, as his players tended to the field.

Fridley senior pitcher Micah Niewald, who gave up one hit and struck out seven over six innings, said, “It feels great, after missing last year. It was hard but now it feels good to be back and playing baseball.”

The game started at 4:30 p.m. and the final out came at 5:55. That’s a snappy game time of 1 hour, 25 minutes, a brisk pace that matched the conditions.

The return of baseball and other spring sports is a very positive sign in the fight with Covid-19. The return of students to in-person classes is another step in the best direction, along with other hoped-for spring traditions like proms and graduations.

“That's why this is nice, because they have an opportunity to have something a little more normal,” Urdahl said. “We're getting back into school and having a spring season.”

--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: Let’s Celebrate How Far We’ve Come

 

Today is a great day. It’s the 10^th day of April in 2021 and by all appearances we are in a much better spot than a year ago. The winter state tournaments are culminating today at Target Center – where I’m sitting as I write this – with boys basketball state championship games. And spring sports are underway all over our great state, and that’s even more cause for celebration.

How to sum up what we’ve been through over the last 13 months? I don’t think I am capable of expressing the emotions, the doubts, the uncertainties, the questions with so few answers. Let’s start with the basic timeline …

March 2020: The girls state basketball tournament is stopped at the halfway point and boys basketball tournaments are cancelled as Covid-19 becomes real in Minnesota and around the world.

Spring 2020: Spring sports in Minnesota are wiped off the face of the earth. No season.

Fall 2020: Fall sports return but end with section tournaments in some sports and no tournaments in others.

April 2021: An abbreviated, late-starting winter season concludes with state tournaments, limited spectators and varying formats. At the same time, spring sports are on track for a normal season, and happiness abounds.

It’s been quite the wild ride so far, huh?

We can’t forget the kids from the class of 2020 who missed out on so much, whether it was a chance to compete for a basketball state championship, take part in a spring sport or not experience a normal prom, graduation or even school. They will never get those moments back, and that is so regrettable. We owe them so much.  

Back when the world turned upside down, I invited coaches, athletes and administrators to write about what was happening. I posted many such notes from around the state on John’s Journal a year ago. Today I’ve been reading through those, and it seems like it was so long ago. Here are a few excerpts …

March 18, 2020

For all we are going through now, many people have it much worse so we will focus on that in our daily "new normal" lives. We told our team today that they are being the ultimate team players. They are making a sacrifice to protect the people who aren't as strong (I stole that from an online post). We also told our players to never wish away a day, even if some of the days will be not so fun. It's easy to cherish every day when they are fun and easy days, but true leaders will cherish every day, even the tough ones.

Scott McCready
St. Charles High School
Math Instructor
Athletic Director
Head Baseball Coach
MSHSL Sub-Region Coordinator

March 23, 2020

We are all being called to a different kind of competition of sorts right now. It’s a “bigger-picture” competition. We are being asked to perform a difficult, civic responsibility for our own health and the health of our neighbors in our community and world, and to live up to that challenge of isolating for a bit. This is an important and serious task. We’ve been prepared for this. Our coaches and advisors have taught us well about resiliency, challenges, planning, hard work, overcoming obstacles, and achieving success.

It’s an interesting and difficult time. It’s still a time to coach and be coached. We can do this!

Go Jackets!
Erin Anderson
Activities Director
Perham-Dent Public Schools

March 26, 2020

There’s no doubt that this is an incredibly difficult time for our players. Many have lost competition opportunities this past winter and will lose their opportunity to compete this spring. This difficulty is eased by the promise of better days. If we all do what is needed and not what is easy, those better days will come sooner rather than later.

Greg Spahn
Head football coach
Grand Rapids High School

At 7:20 a.m. on this Saturday a Twitter message was posted from the Jackson County Central softball team account (@4theHUSKIES)

WAKE UP!!!! IT’S GAMEDAY!!!!!! It has been 98 weeks to the day, 686 days since we last put on the Huskies uniform. The streak is over!! We get to play today and we could not be more happy for our kids!!!! It’s going to be a BEAUTIFUL day for 2 games!!

Let’s ponder that: 98 weeks, 686 days. So much has been lost and yet we have so much to be thankful for. Let’s begin with all the administrators at every school in Minnesota. They have worked so hard behind the scenes, doing everything possible to keep kids and families safe. And all the custodians who cleaned and disinfected every space. And the food service professionals who took extra, important care in their work on behalf of students and staff. And coaches who made sure they and the athletes in their care followed protocols and remained safe. And officials who ensured games could be played.

The MSHSL office has a small, tight-knit staff and nothing has been normal there for the last 13 months, just like everywhere else. Employees have worked from home, online meetings have been constant and critics have been unyielding. The professionals who work for the MSHSL on behalf of your school -- most of whom have names you will never hear – have worked tirelessly on behalf of every participant, every team, every school and every community. Tears have been shed by these folks. There have been sleepless nights. Angry, obscenity-filled phone calls have been answered. Angry, obscenity-laced emails have been read.

In the midst of that, quieter messages have been heard. The angry make the most noise, but the appreciative are always with us. A constant message has been received throughout these 13 months, a message conveyed to schools as well as the MSHSL: Thank you for doing this hard, next-to-impossible work, under the worst conditions imaginable. Thank you for standing up for what’s right, and for what’s best for the kids.

On Oct. 1, 2020 I posted this Twitter message after a revised calendar for winter sports and activities was approved by the MSHSL board of directors:

Something to remember …

This is for the kids.

This is for the kids.

This is for the kids.

Shortly after 1 p.m. Friday, the girls basketball teams from Minneota and Belgrade-Brooten-Elrosa tipped off in the Class 1A championship game. Late Saturday night, the final horn blew on the boys 4A title game between Cretin-Derham Hall and Wayzata. That horn signaled an end to our winter state tournaments; not long ago we weren’t sure if they would take place at all.

Two photos from this weekend stand out to me. One shows Waseca head boys basketball coach Seth Anderson, his father/assistant coach Tim Anderson and their son/grandson Jack, posing with the Class 2A championship trophy. It is pure joy.

What might be the most impactful photograph of the winter sports season ... and maybe the entire last 13 months … was taken Friday night by John Muhlenpoh, who along with Tim Kolehmainen are talented professional photographers hired by the MSHSL to chronicle our championship games. It’s a photo of Chaska’s Kaylee Van Eps and Rosemount’s Helen Staley following Chaska’s two-point victory over the Irish in the Class 4A title game.

Both are seniors, both had just played their hearts out in their final high school game. Helen is holding the state runner-up trophy, her head resting on Kylee’s shoulder as they embrace. Helen had taken the game’s final shot, a three-point attempt that was ever so slightly off target. She scored a game-high 17 points but the shot that she wanted the most didn’t go in. I think the photo epitomizes the difference between winning and losing, and how sportsmanship really matters.

The games were played, the winners were elated, the runners-up showed tremendous grace.

Well done, everybody. Let’s have the best spring ever.

--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: 78 Consecutive Wins And A Shared Record

There was a minor conflict at the Mahlen residence in Fosston on Wednesday evening. The family was watching the Class 4A girls basketball state semifinal between Hopkins and Chaska, and Brynlea Mahlen, a ninth-grader, was rooting for Hopkins because she is a big fan of former Royals star and current UConn All-American Paige Bueckers.

“She has followed Hopkins since Paige was in seventh grade,” said Brynlea’s mother, Rochelle. “She was cheering for Hopkins throughout their streak.”

The Royals’ winning streak was 78 games before they faced Chaska at Target Center. That matched the state-record 78-game streak by the Fosston Greyhounds from 1999-2002. Rochelle was the head coach of those teams.

As the game went on, Rochelle asked Brynlea, “Are you still cheering for Hopkins? She said, ‘I don’t know now.’ ”

Chaska defeated Hopkins 67-62, ending the Royals’ streak and forging a tie for the all-time longest win streak. The Royals’ last defeat had come early in the 2018 season. They won 4A titles in 2018 and 2019 and had advanced to the 2020 title game before the tournament was halted because of Covid.

Fosston’s 78-game streak began a few days before Christmas in 1999 and ended with a loss to Kittson County in a 2002 section final. The Greyhounds won Class A state championships in 2000, 2001 and 2003. (The national record for girls basketball is 218 consecutive wins by a team from Baskin, Louisiana, from 1947-53.)

The players on those Fosston teams, now 30-something, and their coaches maintain connections on Facebook, and they were involved in a group text during the Hopkins-Chaska game. Afterwards, some of the players got together on a Zoom call. Comparisons were made to the 1972 Miami Dolphins, the last NFL team to complete a perfect season.

Rochelle (Horn) Mahlen, an elementary teacher in Fosston, coached the Greyhounds from 1993 through 2003, when she had been married for a year and was pregnant with her first child. Her husband, Nate, is an assistant women’s basketball coach at the University of Minnesota Crookston. The head coach there is Mike Roysland, whose daughter Kelly was a star for Fosston during the streak, played at the University of Minnesota and is now an assistant to Gophers head coach Lindsay Whalen.

Kelly Roysland Curry is now a mother of two; her husband Eric Curry is a top NCAA basketball official. Kelly, a 2003 Fosston grad, also played on two state championship volleyball teams and was named the state’s Ms. Volleyball award winner in 2002. She was a six-time letter winner in golf, placing in the top 10 at state four times, including second place in 2002.

“It was pretty fun,” Roysland said of watching Wednesday’s game on television. “To have everybody watching together was really fun.

“We really had a good group, we all came up and played together when we were younger.”

She said she had mixed emotions watching the Chaska-Hopkins game.

“I had not really put much thought into the record until they tied it. I know what it’s like to accomplish something like that. And it’s nice to have your name in the record books in some fashion. I was thrilled for Chaska because they’re a really good team. I’ve also experienced that same kind of heartbreak with losing in a big game like Hopkins did. There are lots of individuals on both teams that are really good players.”

Before Fosston’s streak, the state record for consecutive girls basketball wins was 56 by Rochester Lourdes from December 1989 to December 1991. (The state record in boys basketball is 69 by Edina from 1965-68.)

“We really didn’t even kind of know that there was a record out there until we were at 30-some games,” Mahlen said. “One of my assistants said, ‘Hey, you know we could maybe have a shot at the all-time winning streak.’ It wasn’t talked about a lot until we got real close. This was a very mature group, a one-game-at-a-time thing. The goal was always the state tournament.”

The Fosston players and coaches will send gifts (as yet undetermined) to the Chaska and Hopkins teams.

“We thought it was a great ballgame with two great teams,” Mahlen said of the Chaska-Hopkins contest. “We’re sending some things off to both teams to acknowledge what they’ve done.

“I think our kids sit back and see exactly what they accomplished, and it’s just unheard of. We’re just a little school in northern Minnesota. We had some very good players and we played teams like Minnetonka, Bemidji, Moorhead, we did what we could to have these kids ready for big games.”

--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: Without Bands, The Sound Of Silence

 

Crazy Train, Seven Nation Army, Firework, 25 or 6 to 4, Uptown Funk, Final Countdown, Gangnam Style, Hey Baby, The Horse. Name a popular pep band song and try to remember how it sounds. Because most of us haven’t listened to a live pep band, marching band or school orchestra for more than a year.   

The last time we heard two pep bands play during a big game in a big arena was last year’s girls state basketball tournament at Williams Arena and Maturi Pavilion. From Waseca and Sauk Centre and DeLaSalle and Farmington and Hopkins and Stillwater and St. Michael-Albertville and beyond, the bands played loud and proud as their teams competed. That tournament, of course, was stopped at the midway point due to the Covid-10 pandemic, and bands have now been basically sidelined for more than 12 months.

“As is the whole year, it’s just weirder than weird,” said Marshall High School band director Wayne Ivers. The Tigers girls basketball team played in the state semifinals at Target Center on Tuesday evening and will play for a state title on Friday. In normal times the band kids would have boarded a bus for Minneapolis and played their hearts out before, during and after the games, making lifetime memories.

“For us, it’s a state tournament two or three times a year,” Ivers said. “The kids get really used to it. It’s what they do.”

For band programs all over the state, this school year has been filled with challenges. With virtual learning, it’s difficult for directors to gauge if students are getting enough practice time, and with hybrid learning entire bands are not able to come together and rehearse.

“I’m fortunate to work with other colleagues so we can split (students) up for (online) lessons,” said Farmington High School band director Erin Holmes. “But it is weird to not see some of the kids in person for two and a half months.”

Tim Gleason, a band director and head girls basketball coach at Winona High School, said, “We’re mindful of everything we’ve lost; I miss what we used to have. Even watching the NCAA tournaments, we’re so used to watching on TV and seeing the bands. Bands are so much a part of those experiences. When you think Grand Rapids or Farmington, part of what you think about is the band. That’s part of our culture, part of our school environments.”

State-mandated attendance caps for fall and winter sports limited what bands could do. If bands sat in the bleachers, they counted against the spectator limit. Pep bands and marching bands were permitted to play before football and soccer games but usually weren’t able to remain and watch those games. And that’s no fun.

The Fergus Falls High School band played at two football games while standing on the track.

“Playing outside was easy, with everybody spaced out and staying safe,” said director Scott Kummrow. “But now recruiting kids for band is difficult because the kids aren’t seeing our things at full speed. Hearing the pep band, they get turned on to it, and they want to do that. We haven’t had any events with everybody there, blowing the roof off the place.”

The Farmington marching band rehearsed in small groups last summer, with the entire group never coming together until near the end.

“We tried to march all summer, staying in pods,” Holmes said. “I worked with kids on four different fields. We got one full marching band rehearsal with everybody and one performance for our parents and that was it.”

Band teachers and band kids, however, are nothing if not adaptable. Put a challenge in front of them and they’ll figure something out.

“They’re working really hard, no matter what,” Holmes said. “They are missing it but they’re excited about every little opportunity. We did some concert stuff this fall, we did hockey and basketball sendoffs this winter. They were excited to do whatever they could do; wearing masks, bell covers, whatever it took.”

At Fergus Falls, Kummrow and his colleagues got creative and put together a recording of pep band tunes.

“When it became clear that nothing was going to open for us, the other directors and I came up with the idea of a pep band recording, an album,” he said. “We had a sound engineer who worked with us on five nights and the band boosters brought supper to the kids every night. When I ask the kids what’s the best thing about this year, they say those recording sessions were awesome. We also got something that we needed, with people always wanting recordings of our stuff.”

St. Charles High School band director Andy Marsolek, a former student of Gleason’s at Winona, found a work-around while the band was unable to perform at basketball games. He gathered kids in the band room with microphones that were connected to the sound system in the gym. That allowed teams and fans to at least hear the band.

Dan Gaisford, director of Hopkins High School’s pep band (known as the Lean Mean Performance Machine), said the band was able to rehearse outdoors last fall, but when the weather turned cold no indoor sessions were held for several weeks as they waited for masks and bell covers for their instruments to arrive.

The Lean Mean Performance Machine played from the track at two football games last fall and plans to play at a track meet this spring.

In normal times, band directors maintain a hectic schedule of lessons and rehearsals during the school day and regular performances at sporting events. Marshall’s Ivey talked about the strangeness of being home at 4 o’clock most days.

“That’s just unheard of,” he said. “On a regular Tuesday in the middle of winter I’ll do stuff after school, do pep band and get home at 9 o’clock. It’s so different. There’s none of that.

“A lot of the fun stuff is pep band, marching band, jazz band, taking a bus to Minneapolis for the big game. Those are the things the kids love, and poof! My ninth-graders don’t even know what playing in a pep band is like. We’re really worried about retention and recruitment, because none of those thing have happened.”

When the Fergus Falls boys basketball team played in the state tournament on Wednesday, people not making the trip watched the game on a big screen in the school auditorium. An added special twist was the presence of the pep band, performing their favorite tunes just as they would had they been at the game in person.

“We tried to make it seem as much the real thing as we can,” Kummrow said. “It’s all about thinking about what the kids have lost and not just giving up. When I talk to alumni about their favorite experiences, they’ll talk about trips and things, but playing at playoff games always comes up. It’s such a fun atmosphere with so much on the line. That energy is so much fun.”

Holmes has an added perspective on band performances at sporting events, because her husband Jon is Farmington’s head girls hockey coach. When the Tigers qualified for the recent state tournament at Xcel Energy Center, the band performed at a send-off from school. But at the tournament, the absence of live music was quite noticeable.

“In the Xcel Center, I could hear Jon coaching from the bench,” Erin said. “That was strange.”

--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: The Pack Is Back At Boys State Basketball

 

Bryce Pack and his sons know all about the boys state basketball tournament. In fact Bryce, now in year three of retirement after 37 years as an MSHSL football official as well as a life of teaching, coaching and serving as an athletic director – ending his career at Red Rock Central in Lamberton – has missed only four state tournaments since his first in 1967, and that was because the baseball team he played on at Southwest State was on a southern trip each time.

The Pack brigade is a regular sight at state, often staking out seats in the first row at Target Center … and sometimes I’m lucky enough to see them sitting behind my courtside table so we can say hi and check in on each other. (The photo above is from the 2019 NCAA Final Four in Minneapolis.) Here’s the batting order of Bryce and Deb Pack’s four sons…

--Chris is the head boys basketball coach and activities director at Hayfield.

--Nick is a concrete contractor who lives in Baldwin, Wis., and officiates at the high school level as well as in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference and the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. His company worked on the Minnesota Vikings’ TCO Performance Center in Eagan.

--Casey is the head boys basketball coach at Maple Lake and is the referee on a high school football officiating crew as well as a crew in the college ranks.

--Colby is the head boys basketball coach at Heron Lake-Okabena/Fulda, activities director at Fulda and a football official who has worked Prep Bowl games.

It’s pretty clear that the Pack sons have taken after their father as teachers, coaches, administrators and officials. They will gather again this week at Target Center, but Chris will not be sitting with the family. He will be even closer to the action, watching from the Hayfield bench when the Vikings (19-4) meet Badger/Greenbush-Middle River (20-3) in the Class A semifinals at noon on Wednesday. Chris previously coached the Vikings at state tournaments in 2001 (when they were Class 2A runner-up) and 2013 during his 21-year coaching career.

A third generation is part of the picture in 2021, with Chris’ sophomore son Ethan a member of the Hayfield starting lineup along with senior scoring leader Ethan Slaathaug, juniors Easton Fritcher and Kobe Foster and sophomore Isaac Matti.

The state tournament will cap off a busy winter for Bryce and Deb, who have been to more than 50 games involving their family tree. “I’ve been lucky enough to have three head coaches in the family in order to get tickets,” Bryce said of a season that has been played with spectator limits due to Covid protocols.

Bryce dealt with Covid last fall, needing oxygen and being hospitalized for nine days. Deb also tested positive but with less serious symptoms.

“That was a pretty scary time,” said Chris, who has been doing everything possible to keep his team safe. The Vikings junior varsity and C squads are part of a pod separate from the varsity, and those players had to quarantine at one point during the regular season.

“You try not to think about it, but it just seems to always be there,” he said. “We kept a small roster of 10 players on varsity and added five more for the playoffs. We’re trying to limit possible exposures as much as we can, trying to keep it as tight as possible.”

This state tournament won’t be quite the same as past years. Tickets will be good for only one game during the semifinals Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, with fans allowed to watch two championship games per session Friday and Saturday. That means the Pack brigade won’t be able to camp out in the front row for all-day viewing. But everyone understands.

“No offense to my dad and my brothers,” Chris said, “but I’d rather be there with my team.”

--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: From NFL Star To Basketball Dad

 

Chad Greenway has played in plenty of big games. He was an All-American linebacker at the University of Iowa and a two-time Pro Bowl selection during his 11 years with the Vikings.

He’s become more of a spectator since retiring from football in 2017. This week, Greenway will be cheering for his daughter Maddyn and her Providence Academy teammates at the girls state basketball tournament.

He said Maddyn is thrilled at the opportunity to play at Target Center, and he advised her to give it everything she had and enjoy every moment.

“I told her I went to one NFC championship game and never made it back, so don’t take this opportunity for granted.”

The Lions (21-1) will meet New London-Spicer (23-0) in the Class 2A semifinals at 5 p.m. Tuesday at Target Center. The winner will advance to Friday’s 3 p.m. championship game against either Albany or Glencoe-Silver Lake (they play at 2 p.m. Tuesday). There are no consolation brackets or third-place games this year, so teams that fall in the semifinals will see their seasons end.

New London-Spicer coach Mike Dreier is the state’s career leader in girls basketball victories with 983 in a 43-year career that includes 19 trips to state and championships in 1997 and 2002 along with six second-place finishes.

This is Providence Academy’s third appearance at state. The Lions qualified in 2011, won the 2A title in 2012 and had advanced to the state semifinals last year before the tournament was halted due to Covid-19.

Maddyn Greenway, a 5-foot-6 seventh-grader, leads the Lions in scoring with a 21.4 average. She scored a career-high 34 when Providence Academy defeated Southwest Christian 74-47 in the Section 5 tournament final and had 32 in last week’s state quarterfinals as the Lions held off Duluth Marshall 94-91; Marshall senior Gianna Kneepkens scored a state-record 67 in that game.

 

“I’ve never seen something like that,” Chad Greenway said of Kneepkens’ performance. “She scored 67 and dare I say it was a quiet 67, she was just methodical and shot the ball really well. Maddyn got an opportunity to guard her off and on, and for us to kind of be the better team and come out on top was special.”

Maddyn is the oldest of four daughters of Chad Greenway and his wife Jennifer, who was a multi-sport high school athlete in Illinois and captain of the University of Iowa track and field team. Both Chad and Jennifer have helped coach their daughters’ youth basketball teams. In fact, Chad had coached all of Maddyn’s teams until this season.

“Now I’m a fan and a dad,” he said with a chuckle. “It’s a challenge, you can’t control anything. You’re cheering, you’re rooting, it’s been a lot of fun. You get such a proud feeling of seeing the work meet with the opportunity. She cares so much about the game and being good at it eventually and continuing to work at it.”

Chad was a multi-sport high school athlete in Mount Vernon, South Dakota, competing in nine-man football, basketball, baseball and track and field. He led his football team to two state championships and was named South Dakota's player of the year. He was a record-setting track and field performer who still holds a state meet record in the triple jump. He says his favorite sport was basketball, and he was probably headed to a college basketball career before Iowa offered a football scholarship.

Now the former football star is president of the Wayzata Girls Basketball Association. His daughters are active in basketball, soccer and other sports. He said Covid-19 “kind of drove us to Providence Academy,” which is in Plymouth.

They live in the Wayzata school district, but “Providence Academy was being diligent and thorough about safely having in-person school,” he said. “We’ve really had a great experience there, and we’re raising our kids Catholic so that fits really well. The basketball piece kind of fell into place. We thought, ‘If she can play varsity at this level, let’s get her in.’ They needed a point guard and she fit that mold.

 

“It’s been pretty cool.”

--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: Information On Tickets And Awards

 

There have been some questions posed about the number of tickets that are available for next week’s state basketball tournaments at Target Center compared to this week’s state hockey tournament games at Xcel Energy Center.

The numbers are different, for a reason. For example, the buildings are working with varying spectator limits for their main occupants. For Wild games at Xcel, the limit is 3,000 fans. For Timberwolves games at Target Center, the current allowable number is 1,200.

Here are further details, based on Covid-19 protocols…

--A total of 500 spectators will be allowed for each basketball semifinal game at Target Center on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. There will be six games on Tuesday, six on Wednesday and four on Thursday. Tickets allow fans to watch one specific game; after each game the arena will be cleared, Covid safety procedures will be conducted, and the 500 ticket-holders for the next game will be allowed in. If the attendance limits were higher, this process would be even more cumbersome and the game schedule would be disrupted even more than usual.

--For the state championships (four girls games Friday, four boys games Saturday), the spectator limit will be 600 fans for each two-game session.

The state hockey tournaments and the state basketball tournaments are the biggest spectator events at either arena in nearly a year, which means cautious steps are being taken under the veil of Covid-19.

Another difference at these tournaments concerns postgame awards ceremonies. If you’ve attended hockey games at the X or watched on TV, there are no handshake lines between the two teams. They stand at the blue lines, give their opponent a stick tap, leave the ice and quickly exit the arena, still in uniform (which is how they arrive).

After hockey and basketball state title games, things will be very simple and brief. Each team will receive a trophy and pose for a team photo. Medals will be given to each school, which they can later distribute to the players in whatever manner they choose.

These winter state tournaments, for all sports and activities, are definitely different. But there has been a powerful sense of appreciation from players, coaches, fans and media. We all remember how the postseason came to a sudden and ugly end last year as Covid struck. We also recall the total loss of spring sports in 2020 and fall seasons that ended with section playoffs in some sports (but not all), and how the lack of state tournaments left everyone with a empty feeling.

The good news -- even in the face of limited spectators, different awards ceremonies and everything else that has changed – is that state tournaments are happening.

Thanks to all.

--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: Memories And Lessons In A Strange Year

 

The girls basketball team from Houston High School had a history-making year. The Hurricanes were undefeated in the regular season and swept four opponents to win the Class A Section 1 championship and advance to the state tournament for the first time in school history.

The season came to a close Tuesday at Mankato East with a 67-34 loss to perennial power Minneota in the state quarterfinals. But that didn’t diminish the Hurricanes’ accomplishments in this strange season of Covid-19. They were champions of the Southeast Conference and outscored their opponents by an average of 64-39.

The memories of the season, however, will extend far beyond the games and the success. I phoned Houston coach Dale Moga after he arrived home from the game in Mankato (in-person interviews are not allowed at postseason events due to Covid protocols) and asked what he will remember about this season in 20 years.

“Twenty years from now? I think just appreciation and the relationships that were built,” he said. “You kind of take it for granted when you see the kids every day. But when they’re at home working, you’re at home working, it’s not the same. In 20 years I’ll think about the relationships and the bonds that were created.”

That’s a common thread across Minnesota, for every team at every school in every sport and activity, going back to when activities resumed last fall.  … after spring sports were canceled in 2020. The bonds that have been built, the relationships forged, despite distance learning, Covid protocols and everything else that’s strange about this experience.

When Minneota traveled to Mankato to face Houston, the team rode a bus together for the first time all season. Imagine that; something so mundane as a bus ride seemed out of the ordinary during a season in which most players rode with parents to road games after health officials warned that gathering closely for extended periods in a bus was not optimal in the fight against Covid.

Minneota coach Chad Johnston was on the bus for the trip to Mankato, then joined his wife and kids in the family vehicle for the ride home. He also chatted with me on the phone after the game. Chad has a unique perspective on this year of Covid because he’s also the head football coach at Minneota.

The last time I talked with Chad in person was on Oct. 9, when Minneota opened the football season against MACCRAY in Maynard. I wrote this about that evening: 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.

The Minneota girls basketball team will meet Mountain Iron-Buhl in the state semifinals on Tuesday at noon at Target Center. That experience will certainly spark memories of a year ago, when Minneota was preparing for a semifinal game with Waterville-Elysian-Morristown before virus concerns caused the tournament to be canceled. Shortly after, there was a Covid outbreak in the Minneota area.

“When we left the state tournament last year, we would never have known that by that Monday we wouldn’t be in school,” Johnston said. “It was June before we saw each other again. We’re just happy that these girls are getting this opportunity.”

Indeed, it’s the opportunity that matters most. And it’s terribly sad and undeniably unfair that many teams across the state, throughout the winter season, have had to shut down because of Covid exposure and positive tests. A dance team was unable to compete at the state tournament, and the same thing happened to teams in the girls and boys state hockey tournaments (fingers crossed for next week’s girls and boys state basketball tourney games at Target Center). All schools and teams taking part in activities, from last fall through this spring – and hopefully not beyond – know the risks of competing and have agreed to follow the protocols.

If a basketball team comes down with a squad-wide case of influenza next week and is unable to play on its scheduled day and time, there may be questions about rescheduling that game. They may even ask if they can be allowed to play at a site other than Target Center, so as to not disrupt the tournament schedule. Unfortunately, the tournament TV contract mandates that all televised games must be played at the same site. And for a game to be moved to a different day and time, is that fair to the teams whose planned-for slot is being taken? Of course not.

It’s rotten timing when teams doing the right thing -- following protocols developed by the Minnesota Department of Health and the Centers for Disease Control – are unable to compete, whether it’s the regular season or the state tournament.  

Dan Westby, head coach of the volleyball and girls basketball teams at Marshall, watched his basketball team defeat St. Croix Lutheran 63-32 in the Class 3A quarterfinals Tuesday at Mankato East. The Tigers will meet Holy Angels in the semifinals at Target Center at 7 p.m. Tuesday.

Like Johnston, Westby has the perspective of coaching in the fall as well as the winter. He’s appreciative of the many tough decisions that have been made to ensure these opportunities are possible.

“So many people have put in so much time and effort in trying their best to see these things through,” Westby said. “A lot of people have made a lot of decisions; I’m glad I don’t have to make them. I look at our boys basketball program, last year they qualified for state on Thursday and the state tournament was cancelled on Friday. It certainly made us appreciate the opportunity we have this year. Overall, looking back, I think anybody that’s been involved in this stuff and had an opportunity to go to a state tournament will appreciate it.

“Whatever decisions you make, not everybody will be pleased. I know the League is doing everything they can. Our AD (Bruce Remme) has had to reschedule games and it’s difficult enough to do it once, much less several times.”

Moga, who is in his first year as Houston’s activities director, knows all about rescheduling things.

“It was quite the experience,” he said of the last year. “You learn how to schedule real fast when you have to do the same schedule three times.”

--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