I am making
progress … admittedly slowly … on selecting my Top 10 John’s Journal stories
from the 2022-23 school year. I have settled on 10 stories but the hard work is
putting them in order from No. 10 to No. 1. That task is ongoing.
I also have
selected five other stories that just missed out on Top 10 status but are
worthy of being named Honorable Mention. I’m not ranking them in any order other
than chronologically. Here are brief excerpts from those five stories, along
with links to the original posts…
Sept. 26/ The
Battle For The Paddle In Detroit Lakes
DETROIT LAKES -- It’s a good
thing the traveling trophy that’s on the line when Detroit Lakes and Perham
meet on the football field isn’t a Faberge egg or a collection of fine china.
The trophy is a
wooden canoe paddle, and the matchup is aptly called the Battle for the Paddle.
There are a number of terrific traveling football trophies in our state, and I
have seen many postgame celebrations as players from the winning team raise the
artifact high and holler their lungs out. Among my favorites, in no particular
order, are the Battle Axe (Luverne and Pipestone), Babe’s Bell (Bemidji and
Brainerd), Bay Bell (Minnetonka and Wayzata), Tractor Trophy (Northfield and
Farmington), Little Brown Jug (Fairmont and Blue Earth) and Armistice Day
Trophy (St. Charles and Chatfield).
The scene Friday
night was routine … until it wasn’t. Since Perham had defeated the Lakers 30-27
last season (scoring the winning points on a 52-yard hook and ladder play with
13 seconds to play), the Paddle was in the hands of Perham activities director
Erin Anderson as this year’s game wound down. There was no drama, with Detroit
Lakes scoring on its first play from scrimmage – a 79-yard run by Ethan Carrier -- and winning 49-6.
As the players
went through the traditional postgame handshake line, Anderson stood on the
field with the Paddle, which bears logos of the two schools and scores from
previous games. He handed the Paddle to the celebrating Lakers and offered one
of them a congratulatory pat on the shoulder. That’s when things got beyond
wild, because in the midst of their wild stompin’ hootin’ and hollerin’ and
grabbin’ at the Paddle, the Lakers broke the thing into two pieces. No problem,
because now they had TWO trophies to raise into the night sky.
https://www.mshsl.org/about/news/johns-journal/johns-journal-battle-paddle-detroit-lakes
Jan. 21/ A Familiar Name Is Back On
The Bench In Chisholm
When Joel McDonald resigned last
summer after 23 years as the head boys basketball coach at Hibbing High School,
his plans didn’t include spending so much time inside the most famous gym in
Minnesota, where he set scoring records and his father set coaching records.
But here he is, a
first-year assistant coach for the Chisholm Bluestreaks, who play on Bob
McDonald Court inside historic Roels Gymnasium.
Joel finished his
high school career in Chisholm as Minnesota’s all-time scoring leader in 1991.
As the coach at Hibbing, the Bluejackets went to the state tournament in 2021
for the first time in more than 30 years. Bob McDonald, who coached for 59
years and won more games than any boys basketball coach in state history, was
87 when he died in 2020.
Joel, 50, is the
youngest of six siblings. His brothers Mike (Cambridge-Isanti) and Tom (Ely)
are longtime high school coaches and Paul McDonald coached at Vermillion
Community College for 29 years.
https://www.mshsl.org/about/news/johns-journal/johns-journal-familiar-name-back-bench-chisholm
Feb. 14/ Three
Siblings, Three Hockey Officials
The Szymanski kids grew up in a
sports-oriented family in Sauk Rapids. Ryan, Matt, Justin and little sister
Kaelyn were athletes at Sauk Rapids-Rice High School. They all became hockey
officials, which set up a special day for their family recently when Ryan, Matt
and Kaelyn officiated together for the first time.
“It was the most
fun reffing experience I’ve had,” Matt said. “It was really special to do that
with both of them.”
Ryan and Matt had
worked together on the ice previously, but never with their sister. All three
are teachers as well as officials…
--Ryan Szymanski,
35, is a special education teacher at Sauk Rapids-Rice High School.
--Matt Szymanski,
32, is a fourth-grade teacher at Cottage Grove Elementary School.
--Kaelyn
Szymanski, 25, is a special education teacher at Pleasantview Elementary in the
Sauk Rapids-Rice school district.
Justin, 30, who
lives in Milwaukee, used to officiate. Matt has cut back on the number of games
he works after becoming a father last year. They all umpired baseball games and
Matt also has worked as an MSHSL soccer official. Becoming officials seemed
like a no-brainer after their competitive careers ended.
“It’s pretty much
ingrained with us,” Ryan said.
https://www.mshsl.org/about/news/johns-journal/johns-journal-three-siblings-three-hockey-officials
March 16/ The Curse Is Gone As MIB Wins Class 1A Championship
Nobody was saying the girls
basketball team from Mountain Iron-Buhl was carrying a jinx, but the Rangers’
history at the state tournament sure could have made you think.
Year after year,
the Rangers followed a pattern: Great regular season, whip through the Section
7 playoffs, head down from the Iron Range to the Twin Cities for the state tournament
… and come up short of a title.
They came to state
in 2011 for the first time since 1994. They were the Class 1A runner-up in
2012. They returned in 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 and were runner-up again in 2017.
Another appearance came in 2018, then 2019, 2021 and 2022. (MIB
missed state in 2020, the year Covid halted the tournament after two days and
no champions were crowned.)
The Rangers were
proud of their matched pair of second-place medals, but nobody wants to keep
going to the well and seeing someone else pull up gold.
Maybe the 12th trip to state in 13 years was the
magic number. Because they climbed the last mountain on Saturday, defeating
BOLD 52-21 at Williams Arena to finally, finally, finally have gold medals on
blue ribbons placed around their championship necks.
The team’s star
and scoring leader, junior Jordan Zubich, summed everything up nicely
afterwards, saying, “We’ve been down here so long. I said when we were in the
lines getting our medals, ‘Holy crap, guys, we just broke the streak! We broke
the MIB curse!’ It's crazy.”
April 3/ Spring
Sports Held Outdoors? Yes, In Southeast Minnesota
I awakened Monday morning without
any concrete coverage plans. That was because under the current weather
conditions in Minnesota, there was little chance that anything was happening
outdoors. My own yard was evidence of that, with snow everywhere after the
latest storm dumped inch after inch.
Everything changed
at 8:06 a.m. A message from the Pine Island Baseball Twitter account carried
big all-caps news: “GAMEDAY UPDATE!!! PLAY BALL!!!! VARSITY AND JV BOTH WILL
PLAY IN LAKE CITY TONIGHT AT 5:00!!”
I had been
watching the status of that game for a day or two, realizing that southeast
Minnesota had not received any April snow over the weekend and competitions
just might be possible. After seeing the baseball game would happen, I looked
at some schedules and zoned in on two other events, a softball game at
Dover-Eyota and a track meet hosted by Plainview-Elgin-Millville.
Assuming that the
roads would be clear (which they were), I decided to visit all three Monday
events -- softball game, track meet, baseball game – as a memorable way to
observe my first day of 2023 spring outdoor competitions. https://www.mshsl.org/about/news/johns-journal/johns-journal-spring-sports-held-outdoors-yes-southeast-minnesota
--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
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