John’s Journal: From Morning TV To High School Speech

Jason DeRusha is always busy, it seems. His alarm goes off at 2:45 on weekday mornings in his Maple Grove home so he can arrive at WCCO TV in downtown Minneapolis in time to anchor morning shows from 4:30 to 7 a.m. and 9 to 10 a.m. He’s frequently heard on WCCO radio and is the food critic for Minnesota Monthly magazine.

He is past president of the Board of Governors of the Upper Midwest Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. He’s a frequent speaker and host for charity fundraisers. He has earned nine Emmy Awards for his television work.

He’s also a dad. And, proving that life comes with twists and turns, he’s the first-year coach of the debate and speech teams at Maple Grove High School.

Jason and his wife Alyssa have two sons; Seth is a junior at Maple Grove and Sam is in ninth grade. Both boys participate in debate and speech, but the teams were left without a coach as the current school year approached. The previous coach had stepped down and time was running short before the debate season began last fall.

Jason sent an email to the school and asked how he could help.

“Those were famous last words for any parent,” he said with a laugh. “The next thing I knew, I was doing a Zoom interview and getting a background check as an employee of the school district.

“This really was about trying to do the right thing as a dad. With my job in TV, I’ve sort of never been able to coach my kids’ soccer teams or teach their church school or any of that stuff.”

He jokes about debate practice in the fall and speech practice in the winter conflicting with his afternoon nap, but he’s all-in.

“He’s very energetic and involved, which is really great for the team,” said senior debate and speech participant Mira Cook during a speech tournament at Wayzata High School on Saturday. “He is very involved in everything that goes into it; not only the coaching aspect, but the kids themselves, which is really nice. He’s very invested.”

DeRusha took part in high school speech while growing up in suburban Chicago. He was a three-time state finalist in a category called Radio Speaking, in which students are given a stack of news stories that they shape into a timed radio segment. His high school had its own radio station, which became his home away from home and helped him get started on a broadcasting career. After graduating from Marquette University in Milwaukee, he worked at TV stations in Davenport, Iowa, Rockford, Illinois, and Milwaukee before joining WCCO in 2003.

One sticking point in his new coaching position was that he knew nothing about debate. That didn’t dissuade him from taking that job, which became more about administrative duties than coaching.

“To be completely honest, he was there to manage us,” said Seth DeRusha. “He didn't really do anything debate-related. He got us signed up, he got us judges, and he made sure we were going to be there, which is what he could do.”

Jason said, “The respect I have for the people who have done this for years and years, they’ve been really generous. I didn’t know anything about debate. The kids had to teach me everything. Next year I’ll be ready to go. It took a full season to get my arms around it.

“I just thought, ‘I speak for a living, I might have some things to offer these kids.’ But debate is barely about public speaking. It’s about research and preparation. Debate topics included Bitcoin, NATO and the Baltic states, whether the unlimited right to strike is just or not. These kids are tackling important issues. The beauty of debate is it forces kids, based on a coin flip, to argue one side or the other of these issues. If you required everyone in our country to argue both sides of an argument, we’d be in a better place.”

DeRusha knew how vital these activities were to his own children, as well as many of their friends.

“Debate and speech are so important for kids who maybe aren’t as athletic or don’t have other interests. This becomes the hub of their friend group, and all of Seth’s friends are from debate,” he said. “I didn’t want those kids to not have this experience. You’d never have a soccer or tennis or football team go a season without a coach, and it was a realistic possibility that these teams wouldn’t have a coach. I was not going to let that happen.”

Speech tournaments are a Saturday mainstay, starting early in the morning and filling up much of the day. For Saturday’s event at Wayzata, the Maple Grove team was on a school bus before the sun had fully risen and they weren’t home until dusk was settling in.

The Crimson speech team gathered in the Wayzata cafeteria between rounds. DeRusha checked on kids as they came in from performing, several of them competing in speech for the first time. His initial question to each of them was, “How’d it go?”

The kids gave their assessments, dug into the lunches and snacks they brought along, and hashed over the early rounds of the competition as they awaited word on who advanced to the final rounds.

“He gives us feedback on speeches, which is really good to hear, especially from someone who has kind of used speech in their life,” Mira said.

To the general public, Jason is the most recognizable debate and speech coach in Minnesota. Even at Maple Grove High School, his role has raised questions along the lines of, “Is that the guy on TV?”

“Occasionally, we actually do hear that,” Mira said. “It's mostly from people within our own school, who are kind of like ‘Oh my God, you guys have a celebrity as your coach.’ ”

Seth DeRusha said he sometimes refers to his dad as Coach “to make fun of him.”

“All my friends are obsessed with him in a jokey way,” Seth said. “They take pictures of him when he’s walking into the school. It's like a joke. At the last tournament, one of the people who was working at the tournament recognized my last name and asked me about it. So it's funny like that.”

As much as DeRusha has done to make sure the students are able to participate in the activities they love, it’s a two-way street. In early December, for example, he posted this message and a team photo on his Twitter account, @DeRushaJ:

“So proud of these absolute legends: the Maple Grove Senior High debate team just won the Northern Lights National Qualifiers tournament and all of these young people earned the right to compete at the National Speech and Debate Tournament in Louisville this summer. But they also showed me how loving and caring they are as humans, as they faced some tough decisions in the final phase of the tournament. It has been my absolute honor to coach them along the way - as usual I’ve learned more from them than they learned from me. Our future is in good hands with all of these scholars.”

“These moments with these kids have been an incredible gift,” he said. “The kids are amazing.”

--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: More Basketball History In The Offing For Dreier

Had Mike Dreier made a different decision 44 years ago, who knows what might have happened? What we do know is that Dreier, head coach of the New London-Spicer girls basketball team, is on the cusp of history.

When the Wildcats’ home game against Litchfield tips off Tuesday night, Dreier will have 999 career victories. Should it end with New London-Spicer (14-1) defeating the Dragons (12-6), Dreier will become only the second coach in Minnesota high school basketball history – and the first girls coach -- with 1,000 wins.

The other is Chisholm legend Bob McDonald, who retired after the 2013-14 season with 1,012 boys basketball victories over 59 seasons. McDonald was 80 years old when he stepped down and 87 when he died in 2020. Dreier, 70, has a chance to pass McDonald’s total before this season ends.

Asked how it sounds to have his name and Bob McDonald’s in the same sentence, Dreier said, “It doesn’t sound like they belong together. He was an icon.”

Always deferential, always wanting the team to be the focus, always respectful of the game and the opposition. But Dreier’s career coaching girls basketball may have never began if not for a choice he made when he was hired as a teacher. There were two coaching jobs available and he had the pick: seventh-grade boys basketball or assistant varsity girls basketball.

He wanted to coach basketball and the varsity job had more appeal. So he was hired as an assistant before another fateful turn: the head coach stepped down before the season began, and 26-year-old Mike Dreier was suddenly the head coach.

Victory No. 1 was a 29-22 decision over Kimball on Dec. 12, 1978. His first season ended with a record of 3-15, and that’s the only losing record in Dreier’s career. His overall record is 999-184 for a winning percentage of .844.

According to records maintained by the National Federation of State High School Associations, only 12 girls basketball coaches in the country had won at least 1,000 games before the current season began. The national record is 1,416, set by Leta Andrews of Texas in 2014.

Dreier graduated from Burnsville High School in 1969 before embarking on a circuitous college path. He started at Winona State, transferred to Bemidji State, then the University of Minnesota and finally Hamline to complete his undergraduate education.  

“I squeezed four years of college into six and two-third years,” he quipped.

While in school he coached youth sports, including those on which some of his eight siblings played. “I fell in love with it,” he said.

Dreier taught social studies, history and physical education until retiring from teaching a decade ago. His coaching style is hard-nosed on the court and studious off the court.

“I think first and foremost is that he fine-tunes everything, he looks at details,” said 27-year-old Joey Dreier, one of Mike and Vonnie Dreier’s three sons and one of his dad’s assistant coaches, along with Margaret Essler.

“It's pretty amazing,” Joey said. “He will see one or two girls out of position and he’s able to point that out to them and have the girls be able to hear that and understand it. I think back to my childhood; he has his office downstairs and he was up until midnight or one o'clock in the morning, looking at tape and breaking it down to be ready for practice the next day.

“It's pretty crazy how, even after 40-some years, it's still the same energy and the same stuff that he brings day in and day out.”

Basketball is a family affair for the Dreiers. Vonnie is the official scorekeeper for most home games, Matt is the head girls coach at Annandale (also in the Wright County Conference) and Tim, who lives in Las Vegas, makes it home for games when he can.

Mike Dreier’s teams have played in 19 state tournaments, winning championships in 1997 and 2002 and finishing as the state-runner-up six times. The Wildcats have won 20 games or more in 34 of the last 37 seasons, including one stretch of 21 years in a row. They won 22 of 23 West Central Conference titles from 1982-2005 and 29 conference championships overall, including five in their current conference, the Wright County.

New London-Spicer went to state in Class 2A last year, losing to Providence Academy in the semifinals. That team was led by five seniors, three of them standing six feet or taller. This year’s team is younger and smaller.

“I’m totally pleased with how we’ve done so far,” Dreier said. “It looked like it was going to be a building process, and maybe it still will be, but they’ve just come on and played with a lot of confidence and determination. These kids have waited for their turn to get on the varsity floor.”

Dreier’s milestone wins have come like clockwork: No. 500 in the 2001-02 season, No. 600 in 2004-05, No. 700 in 2009-10, No. 800 in 2013-14 and No. 900 in 2017-18. He has plaques to mark them all but pays little mind to such things.

“To be honest with you, the only time I think about it is when somebody mentions it,” he said. “It isn’t anything I’ve ever aspired to try to do. It’s been an awful fun ride getting to where we are and seeing where we’ve been.”

Earlier this season, Dreier was named a recipient of the John Wooden Legacy Award by the National High School Basketball Coaches Association. He learned about the honor in an email and never mentioned it to anyone, including his family.

Joey said, “I saw the news somewhere and I said, ‘Dad, what is this that you’ve got going here?’ It’s something that he's not going to go and tell anybody about. It's all because of the team and the teams that he has around him and the positive attitudes, the work ethic that they all have.”

Mike Dreier agreed that what he values the most are the kids he has coached.

“That’s a big part of what’s it all about, the relationships you develop. No doubt about it. It’s really special, the relationships with the kids. When you work with a group of kids, it’s amazing how close you can become to them. Year after year, it exponentially expands and it’s great.”

He has no plans to retire, saying, “I’ve never thought that long-term about it, as long as I’ve got kids who respond and are trying to get better and parents who aren’t a pain in the butt and a supportive administration.”

Current senior Nyla Johnson, one of many second-generation family members to play for Dreier, said seeing their coach near 1,000 wins is special for everyone.

“It's such a surreal moment to be a part of because it's such a long legacy of Coach Dreier. We're just super excited to be a part of it and share that with him.”

Another senior, Isabelle Schmiesing, was asked about the Wildcats’ formula for success. Anyone who has seen them play understands her answer.

“He really emphasizes rebounding and defense,” she said. “We've always talked about how offense wins games but defense wins championships. And I think that's definitely showed in his record. He's just a big defense person and I'm big defense person myself. So I love that way of coaching.”

Dreier’s 999^th win came Thursday night in a 67-47 decision at Glencoe-Silver Lake. No. 2 on the girls basketball coaching list is Myron Glass of Rochester Lourdes, who retired in 2014 with 719 victories. Third is New Prague’s Ron Gunderson, who had 684 when he retired in 2017. Next, at 661, is current Norwood Young America coach Gary Lembcke.

Glencoe-Silver Lake coach Jeff Monahan said there are few surprises when the Wildcats are the opponent.

“We know what we're going to get every time,” he said. “Mike’s always so classy. He respects our team, too. I always enjoy playing them. They're always rated really high and it helps our team, too. But it's a challenge. You want your teams to compete, and I think there have been times where, going in, we maybe don't think we can win. But I tell the kids that you’ve got to fight, but have fun playing them.

“We always enjoy traveling up there and he's always a phone call away to help me, which is the best.”

Dreier’s booming voice has been heard from the bench in countless gyms around the state, and it can be intimidating.

“When I was younger, I was terrified,” Schmiesing said. “But as I got older I learned that you’ve got to listen to what he says, not necessarily how he says it.”

Mike and Vonnie have two grandchildren, with a third coming soon. The players said they love to see those toddlers in the gym.

“When his granddaughter comes to practice, when she comes to hang out with us, his face lights up,” Johnson said. Schmiesing wore a big grin, saying, “It’s a whole different side of him. He runs over with a smile on his face.”

The gym in New London will be crowded Tuesday night. As is customary when Dreier has reached a milestone, former players gather to talk about their own teams and cheer for the current Wildcats and the coach they all know and love.

 “He wants the best for us out on the court and has our best interests in mind,” Johnson said. “We know that he cares about us.”

--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: Chatfield’s Fryer Is Heart Of The Arts Winner

Nicholas Fryer remembers like it was yesterday. He was in middle school when high school students from the Chatfield High School speech team visited Nick’s English class to talk about the activity. He was hooked.

“I really did not know what the speech program was,” Nick wrote in an email conversation. “I knew that I wanted to participate in speech when they gave the preview of poetry, because poetry was very appealing to me and I really loved reading poetry, as well.” 

I interviewed Nick via email because he has dealt with hearing loss since birth. Now a first-year student at Winona State University, Nick graduated from Chatfield last spring. His high school arts career was bookended by two key events: Speech students visiting that day in class, and his first appearance at the MSHSL state speech tournament near the end of his senior year.

Nick put in six years of dedication to speech despite obstacles that may have derailed others, and for that accomplishment he has been named the MSHSL Heart of the Arts Award winner. The award was created by the National Federation of State High School Associations to recognize individuals who exemplify the ideals of the positive heart of the arts and represent the core mission of education-based activities.

“He had to work much harder than my other students on things they took for granted,” said Chatfield speech coach Rachel Schieffelbein. “He has cochlear implants, but still struggled with being able to hear and articulate the correct pronunciation of certain words, with enunciation, and with being able to properly control his volume, often coming in too loud. He worked, without complaint, for six years.”

Nick took part in other high school activities, including theater, choir, yearbook and art club. His accomplishments are remarkable considering that his hearing problems were obvious when he was just a baby. His cochlear implants, along with years of therapy, the ability to read lips and an unwavering attitude of determination, have taken him far.

“People who don’t know him don’t realize he’s deaf,” said Nick’s mother, Julie Fryer. “He worked so hard on speech therapy as a young child. For us it’s just another day in the life.”

Joining the speech team as a seventh-grader, Nick had to work much harder than other students when doing things they barely thought about.

“He became a captain on the team and helped other students who joined the program," Schieffelbein said. "He was someone I could always count on to keep things upbeat, show up for the work with a smile on his face, and not get down when things didn't go his way. And it was years before his hard work started to pay off.”

In the poetry category of speech competitions, contestants choose poems from published works. The ability to interpret meaning and emotion through honest facial and body expression is key during a 10-minute presentation.

Nick’s work began paying off when he collected ribbons at speech competitions when he was a junior at Chatfield. That season was cut short by the Covid-19 pandemic and his senior speech season was held in a virtual format since in-person gatherings were off limits.

“That brought with it a whole new slew of issues,” Schieffelbein said. “Trying to practice over Zoom, making it so much harder for him to understand us, his coaches, was a huge challenge. It also often felt like starting over, working on volume control. But he never complained or showed his frustration. He just kept working and kept cheering on the rest of his team as he watched them succeed. He was beyond thrilled just to make it to sections, and watching him make it to state was one of the biggest highlights I've had as a coach. I've never had anyone more deserving of moving on.”

Nick wrote, “I knew speech was going to be challenging as a deaf person, and one of those challenges was my pronunciation of some words or sentences in the poems I was reciting. I really wanted people to hear me clearly in the poems that I was reciting, and it definitely gave me anxiety for sure. At the beginning of my time in speech, I had a hard time with it. I overcame that challenge by repeating words or sentences over and over again daily in every practice session with my coaches.

“My coaches were determined to help me and we never gave up and every time I practiced more, I gained more confidence in myself. All of that hard work really showed off in the 2021 speech season and I was very proud of myself for being dedicated and never giving up.”

Before the 2021 speech season began, Nick sat down with Schieffelbein and assistant coach Stephanie Copeman. He laid out his goals for the season, including his hopes of reaching the state tournament.

“The moment I realized that I was going to compete at state as a senior was overwhelming and joyful,” he wrote. “I felt relieved because it showed me that the past years of my hard work was finally paying off. It was great seeing it achieved. It also taught me that when you put your mind to something, you can do anything in this world.”

--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: Adapted Floor Hockey Is A Hit In Mankato Debut

 

MANKATO – The first goal in the history of the Mankato adapted floor hockey program was a beauty, as was the celebration, as was the entire first game ever.

Mankato, with athletes from Mankato East and Mankato West, played host to the team from Stillwater/Mahtomedi on Monday inside the little gymnasium at Franklin Elementary School, which has stood in a quiet Mankato neighborhood since 1928. A large crowd of fans watched from balcony seats, and they saw quite a show.

The game’s opening goal came quickly. After Mankato junior goaltender Jacob Watson made a couple of sharp saves, the puck was knocked to the opposite end of the floor. It found its way to the stick of Mankato ninth-grader Shanti Esters, who gave it a whack and saw it bounce off the goalie’s pads. Shanti gave it a second knock with the same result, and the third time was the charm. The puck went in, the crowd went wild and Shanti began a celebratory run down the court.

She was so excited, and rightfully so, that she lost her footing at midcourt and went down. Her big smile, shining brightly through her facemask, never wavered as she tumbled. And after landing, she posed. Yes, she posed, putting one arm behind her head, sticking up one knee with that perfect smile on her face. It was magical.

“That first goal today and the celebration, it was probably one of the best things I've seen in my 19 years,” said Mankato East activities director Todd Waterbury, who helped shepherd the team into existence. “It was just a lot of fun with the joy around here, a lot of positivity.”

Shanti scored again in the third period, setting off another round of cheering. The game went the way of Stillwater/Mahtomedi, which won 17-2, but the outcome was much less important than the event itself.

“I really truly didn't know how it would go. But our kids did great,” said Mankato coach Dylan Boettcher, 28, who attended Franklin and played hockey at Mankato East. “They exceeded my expectations. Honestly, the scoreboard doesn't necessarily show it; Stillwater is a great team, it looks like they've been playing for a long time.”

The crowd was hockey-flavored, including a whole bunch of players from the Mankato West girls hockey team, as well as some from the Minnesota State Mankato women’s squad. Between the second and third periods, anyone wearing a hockey jersey was invited to come down to the court and try to make a shot from one end to the goal on the other end. The hockey-playing girls from West, using a different kind of stick and a much lighter puck than they are used to, didn’t have tons of luck but they sure had fun.

The Mankato athletes wear uniforms that are black and gray, just like the combined East-West girls and boys lacrosse teams. They looked awfully sharp. The pregame period was filled with music on the little gym’s PA system … the tunes included “Sweet Caroline,” “Ice Ice Baby” and “Party in the USA.” It was good stuff.

All the players from both teams were introduced before the game began; athletes waved their stick in the air and some waved a hand to their families sitting up above. The Guns N’ Roses classic, “Welcome To The Jungle” played as the game began.

After the clock ran out on the first adapted floor hockey game in Mankato history, the teams lined up for a postgame handshake line, just as in every other high school sport. They thanked the officials, Ryan Swafford and Aaron Anderson, who are veteran hockey officials working their first adapted floor hockey game.

The hockey players from Mankato West came down once more and gathered with their counterparts on the floor hockey team for a photo. They held a sign that read “Let’s Go Mankato.”

Boettcher gathered his team around him, telling the kids, “You guys did a great job. Have a good night with your families.”

Dylan’s wife, Heather, watched from the balcony in a chair that included this hand-written sign: “Reserved for coach’s very pregnant wife” … the word “very” was underlined. A cesarean procedure was scheduled for the next day, with Dylan and Heather looking forward to welcoming their first child.

East and West already have adapted bowling programs, with floor hockey the district’s first adapted team sport; the MSHSL also sponsors adapted programs in soccer and softball. The Minnesota Association for Adapted Athletics pioneered those activities in the state, and they came under the MSHSL umbrella in 1992. Programs are offered for Cognitively Impaired (CI) and Physically Impaired (PI) students. The Mankato team is in the CI division.

“It’s important to me to make sure it’s a big deal,” Dylan Boettcher said. “I’m hoping this can be a jump start for adapted sports in Mankato. I’ve fallen in love with the people involved in activities for special needs kids.”

Waterbury offered an apt summary of the new program, saying, “The opportunity is what we're all about. That’s what the League's about, it's what our district’s about, to increase the opportunities for those who don't have a lot of chances to be involved in an activity.

“I just think it's the best thing we could do. You saw the people here today. Not only our school community, but the college representation that was here and all the other folks. It tells you the importance of it and what a big deal it is.”

--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: Game Night At Roseau’s Hockey Cathedral

 

ROSEAU – The chapel was quiet a couple hours before services began. A few older congregants had already gathered on a frigid January evening, sitting on wooden benches and chatting in a warm space above ice level, occasionally turning their heads to look through windows that offered a view of the frozen, reflective worship space.

As more and more folks arrived, a theme was clear. Some wore the green and white of the Roseau Rams, with others draped in Warroad Warriors black and gold. The towns are only 22 miles apart, within earshot of the Canadian border, and high school hockey is a binding agent, a cultural touchstone and darn near a religious experience.

On this Tuesday night, the most famous hockey rivalry in Minnesota was on center stage for the first time this season. Even though some fans live in one town and are employed in the other, hockey draws a clear line in the ice. That was evident as Warroad fans grimaced upon paying for admission and having a big green Roseau Ram stamped on the back of their hand.

“We’re small schools and we’ve had hockey forever,” said 81-year-old Bob Lund, father of Roseau head coach Greg Lund and assistant Bill Lund. “It’s our game.”

Bob was sitting on a folding chair that was placed against the boards near the entry, a high honor for someone who has seen it all through the years. Bob was a youngster when Roseau Memorial Arena was built in 1949; he remembers the days before plexiglass when the boards were topped with chicken wire, and when gravel, instead of concrete, provided the base for the bleachers.

The lobby areas of the arena are a Roseau hockey Hall of Fame. Walls are covered with framed photos of all the greats in Ram history who went on to play hockey in college, the NHL and the Olympics. Also displayed are team photos, state championship trophies and all manner of wonderful memorabilia.

The hockey rivalry between Warroad and Roseau is special. Boys in both towns have been smacking pucks with sticks for more than a century, and the first official high school game between the two was played in 1945, the same year as the inaugural MSHSL state tournament. On this glorious Tuesday evening in early 2022, the Rams and Warriors boys would meet for the 179^th time.

Both programs are familiar throughout Minnesota. Roseau has been to the state tournament a record 34 times, winning seven state titles between 1946 and 2007. Warroad has made 22 state appearances and has won four crowns, most recently in 2005.

In pregame discussions, one thing was clear: When Roseau and Warroad meet on the ice, you can throw out the records. Over the years, surprises have happened more times than anyone can remember.

“That's the thing, every year it doesn't matter what our records are,” said Warriors coach Jay Hardwick, a 1998 Warroad graduate. “It's still going to be a great hockey game.”

This was one of the biggest games in the state this season, and certainly the biggest in Roseau County, home of both towns. Warroad came in with a record of 11-0 and holding the No. 2 ranking in Class A. Roseau was 11-1 and ranked eighth in Class 2A.

Warroad had recorded one-goal victories over Mounds View, Bemidji and Grand Rapids, with its other eight wins coming by margins between two and 12 goals. Roseau lost to Andover 4-3 in its second game of the season before starting a 10-game winning streak. Among the teams the Rams defeated were Minnetonka, Moorhead, Grand Rapids, Rogers, Bemidji and Mahtomedi.

A good-sized crowd watched the junior varsity teams play before the Zamboni groomed the ice for the night’s main attraction. Hometown radio crews sat at a table a few rows behind the penalty boxes, Jon Michael from Warroad’s KQ92 next to Jason Merritt and Tracy (Bobcat) Ostby on Roseau’s WILD 102. The exquisite Roseau High School pep band, under the direction of Chris Barnes, pumped out great music. Among the orchestra members were a few junior varsity hockey players, hair still wet from showering, dressed in game-day suits and ties.

Game No. 179 in the series stayed true to the predictions. Surprises can indeed happen, and on this night good things happened for the visiting Warriors. The teams played a fast and scoreless opening period, and the first massive roar from the overflow crowd of more than 3,000 came with Roseau on a power play in the second period.

When Warroad’s Ryan Lund swiped the puck, raced down the ice and scored a shorthanded goal, the Warriors student section waved black and gold pompoms and screamed, the sound reverberating off the ancient and arched and sacred wooden beams in the ceiling.

Matt Hard scored to make it 2-0 Warroad late in the second, and Murray Marvin-Cordes got two in the third period before Daimon Gardner closed out Warroad’s 5-0 victory. Warriors goaltender Hampton Slukynsky stopped 28 shots; Roseau goalie Carter Christianson had 22 saves.

The game showcased plenty of talent, including four of the state’s top scorers. Roseau’s Max Strand ranks third with 44 points, Warroad’s Gardner and Jayson Shaugabay are tied for seventh with 36, and the Rams’ Noah Urness (31) is tied for 10th.

Roseau had been shut out by Warroad only four times previously in all these years. Tuesday’s result made the all-time series standings look like this: 105 wins for Roseau and 69 for Warroad with five ties.

Despite the loss, Greg Lund appreciated the importance of the rivalry.

“This is what everybody looks forward to,” he said. “We saw what happened here, it was a huge, huge game for everybody and the fans love it.”

Before the teams took the ice, Hardwick had asked the Warriors if they were nervous. A few heads nodded affirmatively.

“I said, ‘You know what? It's OK to be nervous.’ I told them I've played in these games, a couple of them for section championships, and I've coached in 20-some of these and I still get nervous. But that's OK because it means you care and it means something to you.”

Roseau has an MSHSL enrollment of 348 high school students and Warroad has 295. With Roseau opting up from Class A to Class 2A, the two teams no longer play hammer-and-tong battles to decide which one wins the Section 8 title and goes to state; they faced off in Section 8 playoff games 23 times between 1947 and 1998.

“These are always great games, and there’s a lot of respect for each other,” Bob Lund said, sitting along the boards in the rink where he watched his kids and grandkids skate. “I wish we had 20 games like this every season.”

After graduating from Minnesota Duluth in 1966, Bob coached hockey in Silver Bay for two years before returning to his hometown. The family business is a furniture and carpet store … and hockey.

A newer rink, known as the North Rink, is attached to Roseau Memorial Arena. (There is a third rink in town, Roseau Sports Center.) Some of the locals joke about the North Rink being a de facto day care center, where kids can be dropped off at any time of day or night. Hockey is so big in Roseau that each youth team has its own locker room at the North Rink, meaning families don’t have to lug equipment back and forth from home. Kids also are allowed to run a tab at the well-stocked concession stand, with parental eyebrows sometimes rising when they stop in to pay off the balance.

During Tuesday night’s game, youth hockey players dressed in blue jerseys wandered through the crowd selling 50-50 raffle tickets. As is the custom, youth teams are not allowed to wear Roseau green and white … they earn that right when they reach high school hockey. A lot of cash was dropped into the 50-50 bucket, with the winner taking home more than a thousand dollars.

After the final horn, the Warroad fans celebrated and the Rams faithful shook their heads and reiterated that you just never know what might happen when these teams meet.

The 180^th game in the series is scheduled for Jan. 25 at the Warroad Gardens arena, built in 1993. There is talk of, at some point in time, having the teams from Roseau and Warroad schedule their two regular-season meetings on a back-to-back, home-and-home Friday and Saturday.

No matter the schedule, the Warriors and Rams will continue to skate under the historic wooden ceiling in Roseau, building memories and making history in one of Minnesota’s hockey cathedrals.

From his folding chair on the glass, Bob Lund looked around the arena and smiled at what has been built ... architecturally, athletically and spiritually.

“It just might last forever,” he said.

--See more photos on the MSHSL Facebook page.

--More on the Warroad-Roseau hockey rivalry: https://www.roseauhockey.com/page/show/2283012-roseau-warroad-rivalry

--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