The Best Of John's Journal From 2020-21/ No. 1: The Coach, The Baby And A Wild Delivery

 

What a ride. The 2020-21 school year was remarkable and memorable for lots of reasons, with many of them shaded by the Covid-19 pandemic. But the No. 1 John’s Journal story from 2020-21 has nothing to do with the virus and everything to do with family.

I initially learned about what happened when I checked my email on the morning of June 9 and saw this…

John-

Yesterday our Sb coach just coached 2 games in the section tournament and gave birth to her 4th child 15 minutes later on the road. Delivered by her assistant coach.   Call me if you want details!!!

Joe Kemp

Joe is the activities director at Wabasso High School. I’ve known him for a long time and you betcha I called him immediately.

Upon learning about what happened with Wabasso softball coach Tiffany Eichten after her team’s season came to an end – and even before interviewing the people involved -- I knew this story was very special and just might be my favorite story of the year. And that’s where it is, right at the top of my list.

I often tell people that the best sports stories are not about winning and losing but about the people involved. This is a great example of that philosophy, with a very pregnant coach giving birth in the back of the family’s car, with her assistant coach (an obstetrics nurse!) assisting as her husband drove to the closest hospital.

Here’s an excerpt …

Eichten and assistant coach Andrea Ellanson have been leading the Wabasso softball program for seven years and know each other well. As the day went along, Ellanson kept an eye on Eichten. Tiffany confirmed to her that contractions had begun.

“In the fourth or fifth inning of the second game I looked at her coaching third base and I knew something was not right over there,” Ellanson said. “She came into the dugout and I said, ‘How far apart are your contractions? Five, 10 minutes?’ She said, ‘Probably five.’ I asked her if she needed to go and she said, ‘No. I’m fine.’ ”

Tiffany didn’t want to leave her team on such a crucial day, worrying that the players might not be able to focus if she suddenly departed.

During the seventh inning Ellanson sent a text to Tiffany’s husband, Christopher, who was at the game. She told him his wife was in labor and he needed to be ready to get her to the hospital as soon as possible once the game ended.

The email from Joe arrived at 9:17 a.m. Soon after that I chatted with Joe on the phone, and then talked with Tiffany, Andrea and Christopher. The story was posted that day at 4:04 p.m.; doing the interviewing and writing was pure joy.

It’s one of the most remarkable stories I have ever heard and it was my great fortune to be able to write it.

Click here to read story: https://www.mshsl.org/about/news/johns-journal/johns-journal-coach-baby-and-wild-delivery

 

 

 

The Best Of John's Journal From 2020-21/ No. 2: National Honor For Kylen Running Hawk

 

As I wrote in the previous post, it was extremely difficult to decide on the order of the top John’s Journal stories from 2020-21. Today we announce No. 2 on my list, and it is a story that began in January, took a step toward the national stage in March and culminated in a big event in Florida in the final week in June.

Kylen Running Hawk, a member of the Class of 2021 at Morris Area High School, was named Minnesota’s Heart of the Arts Award winner in January. Kylen was active in many school activities, including choir, theater, speech and mock trial. He 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.

In the weeks following Kylen’s Minnesota award, he was named the national winner of the Heart of the Arts Award by the National Federation of State High School Associations. This is a tremendous honor for a tremendous young man. 

Everything culminated when Kylen, joined by his family, was honored at the annual NFHS summer meeting in Orlando, Florida.

Click here to read the first story: https://www.mshsl.org/about/news/johns-journal/johns-journal-morris-senior-named-heart-arts-recipient

Click here to read about Kylen’s national honor:  https://www.mshsl.org/about/news/johns-journal/johns-journal-national-honor-kylen-running-hawk

The Best Of John's Journal From 2020-21/ No. 3: A Circle Of Gold Is Complete

 

In looking back through all the John’s Journal stories from 2020-21, three entries really stood out above the rest. It’s no surprise that those three stories are at the top of my list. But how to sort them into No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3? I really struggled with this.

Today I am unveiling No. 3, and this unbelievable story came about due to happenstance, luck, good fortune, however you wish to label it. I detail in the story, originally posted on Feb. 18, how in 2018 I had come into possession of a gold medal from the very first boys state hockey tournament in 1945. It had been found by a Minnesota native in 2018 in a Goodwill store in Texas and found its way to me. I was happy to present it to someone who owns an Olympic gold medal.

Here’s how the story began …

Phill Drobnick of Eveleth was the coach of the 2018 U.S. Olympic gold medal-winning men’s curling team. His late grandfather, Ron Drobnick, was the goalie on the Eveleth High School team that won the first MSHSL state hockey tournament in 1945.

Phill owns a large gold medal for his Olympic accomplishment. His grandpa was awarded a small gold medal as a 1945 state champion, but somewhere over the years Ron’s medal went missing. But as of today, a mystery gold medal that was given to one of the members of the 1945 Eveleth Golden Bears -- and was found by a Minnesota native in 2018 in a Goodwill store in Texas -- is in the hands of the Drobnick family, completing the circle of gold.

We don’t know if the medal once belonged to Ron Drobnick, who died in 2007. When his widow, Margaret, died in 2013, the family went through their belongings. They located Ron’s third-place medal from the 1946 state tournament but the gold medal from 1945 was nowhere to be found.

Click here to read the story:  https://www.mshsl.org/about/news/johns-journal/johns-journal-circle-gold-complete

The Best Of John's Journal From 2020-21/ No. 4: The Most Important Play Of The Year

 

The No. 4 story among my Top 10 John’s Journal entries from 2020-21 is really special because it epitomizes the beauty of friendship and inclusiveness. Brody Larson, a member of the Class of 2021 at LeRoy-Ostrander High School, wore a football uniform for the first time and saw action on the field for the first time on Senior Night last fall. At 4 feet, 4 inches tall and 86 pounds, Brody became the biggest name in the game on that night.

Wearing the same No. 28 jersey that his father wore when he played for the LeRoy-Ostrander Cardinals in 2003, Brody scored a touchdown and a two-point conversion.

Here’s an excerpt …

Brody is a survivor, an inspiration. And we need him, his teammates and their spirit and togetherness right now.

“In today’s world of negativity and all these things going on, I tell our boys all the time, ‘You’ve got to understand what we truly have. Brody got the short end of the straw,’ ” said LeRoy-Ostrander coach Trevor Carrier. “ ‘You’ve got to appreciate what you have and Brody epitomizes that.’ Everyone loves him. He makes you smile.”

Click here to read the story: https://www.mshsl.org/about/news/johns-journal/johns-journal-most-important-play-year

The Best Of John's Journal From 2020-21/ No. 5: “He’ll Always Be With Us”

 

We are halfway through the annual exercise in which I go back through all the John’s Journal stories from the previous school year and select my personal Top 10 favorites. Today we unveil story No. 5, which was posted on June 11 after the Class A Section 3 baseball playoffs ended with Adrian/Ellsworth qualifying for the state tournament.

It was an emotional day in Milroy when the Dragons, needing one win, lost to Yellow Medicine East – which came out of the elimination bracket – before winning the second game of the day to reach state. Two years earlier, they lost one of their three-sport teammates when Carter Braun was killed in a vehicle accident. The Dragons kept Carter and his family close to their hearts and kept his jersey on the bench with them at every game.

Here’s how the story opened …

MILROY – When the winning run was scored on a bases-loaded walk with two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning Thursday night, ending a grueling day of doubleheader baseball with an unlikely trip to the state tournament at stake, the Adrian/Ellsworth Dragons hooped and hollered and hugged. They received their Class A Section 3 championship trophy and gold medals and were heading to the outfield to pose for photos in front of the scoreboard.

Qualifying for state was big, but coach Joe Kruger knew what was even more important. He told the boys, “Get Carter’s jersey. He’s definitely with us.”

Carter Braun’s No. 8 jersey has been on the bench with the Dragons all along, ever since he was killed in a vehicle accident two years ago this month. There are six juniors on the team roster; that number is seven when you include Carter. And Carter is included in everything.

Click here to read the story: https://www.mshsl.org/about/news/johns-journal/johns-journal-hell-always-be-us

The Best Of John's Journal From 2020-21/ No. 6: Nothing Stops Owatonna’s Megan Copeland

 

We have arrived at the No. 6 story on the countdown of my personal favorite Top 10 John's Journal stories from the 2020-21 school year. This story, which was posted on April 21, is a profile of one of the most inspirational high school students I have ever known.

Here’s how the story began…

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.

In my mind, Megan epitomizes what school activities are all about: opportunity and growth. Listening to her talk about her experiences in speech through the years was very special. Here’s another excerpt…

“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.”

Click here to read the story: https://www.mshsl.org/about/news/johns-journal/johns-journal-nothing-stops-owatonnas-megan-copeland 

The Best Of John's Journal From 2020-21/ No. 7: "I Had Tears In My Eyes" ... The Best Story From The State Track Meet

 

The No. 7 story on the countdown of my personal favorite Top 10 John's Journal stories from the 2020-21 school year was originally posted just a couple weeks ago, on June 21. It was not written by me, but it was sent to me by a good friend. Tom Fischer is retired teacher and coach who is a veteran official, and he witnessed something very special at the state track and field championships.

It involved two friends who also compete against each other in wheelchair racing, Blake Eaton of Duluth Denfeld and Macario Palomares of Buffalo. This is a story of teamwork, selflessness and sportsmanship, all in the name of good competition. It is very inspiring.

Click here to read the story: https://www.mshsl.org/about/news/johns-journal/i-had-tears-my-eyes-best-story-state-track-meet

The Best Of John's Journal From 2020-21/ No. 8: They Cheer, They Skate, They Inspire

 

The No. 8 story on the countdown of my personal favorite Top 10 John's Journal stories from the 2020-21 school year was originally posted during the hockey season on Feb. 26. It features one of the most unique groups of cheerleaders in the state, the Minneapolis public school hockey cheerleaders.

The group, which consists of talented figure skaters, originally skated during intermissions of home hockey games for the Minneapolis boys and girls teams; students from all seven Minneapolis public high schools are eligible to be members of the teams. The theme is the same for the cheerleaders, who hail from different schools.

Here’s an excerpt: Roosevelt ninth-grader Lydia Martin said her love of skating first drew her to the team, along with family tradition. Her mother was a cheerleader at Southwest and her father was the Husky mascot for St. Cloud State hockey games. Lydia said she also enjoys being part of a district-wide activity.

“It’s a sense of community. We are all from different parts of this big city, different schools, different friends, yet we come together to make one team.”

The cheerleaders do more than cheer at games. They also have built a social media following with YouTube “Hockey Talk” videos focusing on game results, their own skating prowess and lots of entertainment (videos can found by searching Minneapolis Hockey Cheerleading on YouTube, and information on other social media platforms can be found at @612RINK).

Click here to read the story: https://www.mshsl.org/about/news/johns-journal/johns-journal-they-cheer-they-skate-they-inspire

The Best Of John's Journal From 2020-21/ No. 9: Without Bands, The Sound Of Silence

Here is the second installment in the countdown of my personal favorite Top 10 John's Journal stories from the 2020-21 school year. This story seemed to resonate because we all noticed the lack of pep bands at events throughout the year.

I wrote this story during the state girls and boys basketball tournaments at Target Center. Being in the big arena is always special, but with limited spectators, no student sections and no bands, it didn't feel quite right.

Here's the opening paragraph: 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.   

Another excerpt: 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.”

Click here to read the story: https://www.mshsl.org/about/news/johns-journal/johns-journal-without-bands-sound-silence

The Best Of John's Journal From 2020-21/ No. 10: The Lessons Of Covid-19

 

As I have done every year for more than a decade, I have selected my personal favorite Top 10 John's Journal stories from the past school year. The 2020-21 year was unlike any other, with Covid-19 lurking everywhere and impacting everything. 

There were lots of stories about how the pandemic changed things, and today's entry -- No. 10 on the Top 10 list -- came about because of the virus. The occasion was an October football game between Bemidji and Edina, which was scheduled just two days before kickoff ... after both teams lost that week's opponent due to Covid protocols. Everything was new, especially for the first-year head coaches for both teams.

As I wrote, "This season is wild enough even for experienced coaches, but imagine being new in the job and trying to get routines in place when everything can be flipped upside down in a heartbeat." The story began like this...

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

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

Click here to read the story: https://www.mshsl.org/about/news/johns-journal/johns-journal-lessons-covid-19

Lissimore Honored With NFHS Citation

MSHSL associate director Lisa Lissimore received one of the most prestigious awards in high school activities circles Wednesday when she was awarded an NFHS Citation. She was among eight leaders in state high school associations who received National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) Citations. The eight individuals were approved by the NFHS Board of Directors at its meeting last month.   

An award designed to honor individuals who have made contributions to the NFHS, state high school associations, athletic director and coaching professions, the officiating avocation and fine arts/performing arts programs, the NFHS Citation is one of the most highly regarded achievements in high school athletics and performing arts. The 2021 Citation recipients received their awards at the annual NFHS Summer Meeting in Orlando, Florida. 

Lisa Lissimore is pictured here with NFHS president Kerwin Urhahn and NFHS executive director Karissa Niehoff. 

Lissimore has served as associate director of the MSHSL for 32 years, administering the sports of basketball, softball, swimming and diving, cross country, synchronized swimming and badminton. She also manages the MSHSL Hall of Fame and several recognition programs for high school students. Lissimore has served on several NFHS committees, including the Citizenship Committee, Student Services Committee, Hall of Fame Screening Committee and Strategic Planning Committee.  

Congratulations to Lisa on this high honor.