HBO is giving viewers a glimpse of the new Game of Thrones prequel House of the Dragon, sharing first-look photos for the series One of the pictures shows Emma D’Arcy and Matt Smith in character as Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen and Prince Daemon Targaryen. Another image features Steve Toussaint as Lord Corlys Velaryon, aka the Sea Snake. The third photo shows Olivia Cooke and Rhys Ifans in costume as Alicent Hightower and Otto Hightower.
House of the Dragon is based on George R.R. Martin’s book Fire & Blood, which recounts the history of House Targaryen. The series is set 300 years before the events of Game of Thrones. HBO is also developing three more Game of Thrones spinoffs, 9 Voyages, aka Sea Snake, 10,000 Ships and Flea Bottom.
ABC confirmed on Twitter that it has renewed the crime drama Big Sky for a second season. “There are more mysteries to solve out there under the #BigSky with Season 2!” the post reads. Big Sky premiered in November and is in the midst of its first season. ABC said the show was the fall’s number one new series in total viewers and among adults 18-49.
Big Sky is based on The Highway series of books by C.J. Box. The series, created by David E. Kelley, stars Kylie Bunbury and Ryan Phillippe as Cassie Dewell and Cody Hoyt, two private detectives who co-own their own agency. Katheryn Winnick co-stars as Jenny Hoyt, a former cop and Cody’s estranged wife. The show also features Valerie Mahaffey and Dedee Pfeiffer.
Executive producer Elwood Reid (The Chi, The Bridge) will replace Kelley as showrunner in Season 2. Kelley will remain as executive producer and will still be involved creatively.
The Crookston Pirate Wrestling team held its end of the year banquet and handed out awards. There was a pretty cool thing at the banquet. Current Pirate Wrestling Head Coach Wes Hanson coached his team to a Section 8A Championship. Back in 1988, Wes’ father, Corky Hanson was an assistant coach for the Pirate Wrestling championship team! The picture below is the two together. Wes with a blanket from the team and Corky with his jacket from 1988.
Wes Hanson and his dad, Corky Hanson. We coached the 2021 Section champs, Corky coached the 1988 Section champs!
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Hawley High School graduate, University of Minnesota Crookston graduate, and now Augustana University graduate student and baseball player Parker Hanson had his backpack stolen last week. It normally wouldn’t be a story, but if your not familiar with Hanson, he was born without a left hand and has a prosthetic arm. His arm was in his backpack that was stolen out of his car. Overall, the backpack had $15,000 to $25,000 worth of equipment, but Hanson said the equipment isn’t worth anything to anybody but him and you can’t resell it to anybody because it is specifically made to fit him.
Parker posted the following to Facebook –
To the person in Sioux Falls last night who felt the need to steal other people’s property, I hope those prosthetic arms and attachments bring you more use than they brought me. I hope you can use them to better yourself more than I did for myself. I hope you use them to motivate others the way I strived to. I used them every single day, so I hope you can too. So if anyone sees a tan Nike back pack full of prosthetics, please let me know.
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University of Minnesota Crookston baseball player Mason Ruhlman (Sr., Algonac, Mich.) was named NSIC Player of the Week. The Golden Eagles have obtained three NSIC Player of the Week nods this season. Ruhlman joins Brock Reller (Sr., OF, Grand Forks, N.D.), who received the recognition March 8 and March 15. Ruhlman is a first-time honoree.
He hit .500 (9-for-18) for the week with a 1.333 slugging percentage. Ruhlman hit four home runs and three home runs. He hit a three-run home run, a grand slam, and 2 two-run home runs for 11 RBIs and eight runs scored. One of his home runs was a walk-off against Bemidji State Saturday. On Sunday, he hit a game-tying home run in the eighth inning. Ruhlman leads the Golden Eagles hitting .348 with 33 runs scored, eight home runs, one triple, eight home runs, and 28 RBIs.
Ryan Jares of Augustana was named the NSIC Pitcher of the Week.
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The National Federation of High Schools has adopted the shot clock for High School basketball beginning in the 2021-22 season. We will see what that means in Minnesota over the next year or two.
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Congrats to Roseau High School graduate and current Mayville State Volleyball player, Victoria Johnson on being named NAIA All-American Second Team on Tuesday.
Johnson finished the season with 476 kills, a .315 hitting percentage, 136.0 total blocks, and 1.07 blocks per set.
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Gene Glynn, Minnesota’s first Mr. Basketball in 1975 and a former Minnesota Twins coach, has been named St. Clair High School Boys Basketball Coach.
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Congratulations to East Grand Forks Green Wave boys hockey player and all-around student-athlete Landon Parker on being named the recipient of the Class A Herb Brooks Award.
Characteristics and values nominees should feature:
True love for hockey — a real passion
Commitment and loyalty to school, team, and community
Willingness to sacrifice for the team
Integrity
Courage of his/her convictions
Goal-oriented approach
Sharp focus and strong competitive drive
Excellent work ethic
Willingness to accept challenges
Mental toughness
Strong hockey skills
Strong leadership qualities
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JOKES
A husband and wife are sitting on the couch watching TV. The wife looks at the husband and he is staring at the ceiling above her head, she looks up and asks, “What are you staring at?”
“A spider,” he replies.
“I don’t see anything,” she says.
“Oh, it must have fallen on your head,” he said calmly.
The wife jumps up screaming…
The man says, “While you’re up, can you get me another beer?”
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Recently scientists revealed that beer contains small traces of female hormones.
To prove their theory, the scientists fed 100 men 12 bottles of beer and observed that 100% of them gained weight, talked excessively without making sense, became emotional, and couldn’t drive.
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A guy spots a sign outside a house that reads “Talking Dog for Sale.” Intrigued, he walks in.
“So what have you done with your life?” he asks the dog.
“I’ve led a very full life,” says the dog. “I lived in the Alps rescuing avalanche victims. Then I served my country in Iraq. And now I spend my days reading to the residents of a retirement home.”
The guy is flabbergasted. He asks the dog’s owner, “Why on earth would you want to get rid of an incredible dog like that?”
The owner says, “Because he’s a liar! He never did any of that!”
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How are former Crookston Pirates athletes doing in college or elsewhere?
****LET ME KNOW OF OTHERS TO ADD TO THE LIST email me at chrisjfee@yahoo.com
Paul Bittner is playing professional hockey in Sweden for Vasby IK of the HockeyAllsvenskan league.
Aleece Durbin, is a Junior on the University of North Dakota Women’s Track and Field team.
Ben Trostad is playing Club Hockey at UMC.
Ty Hamre is playing Club Hockey at UMC.
Brandon Boetcher is playing Club Hockey at UMC.
Brady Butt is a freshman playing football at the University of Jamestown.
Brita Fagerlund, is a Senior on the University of Jamestown Jimmy Women’s Track team.
Rachel Hefta, a Sophomore, is playing volleyball at Hastings College in Nebraska.
Nick Garmen is a sophomore playing tennis at the University of Minnesota Morris.
Thea Oman, a sophomore, is swimming at St. Ben’s.
Crookston School District Coaches – Emily Meyer is a girls hockey and softball assistant coach. Lacia Hanson is the Junior High softball coach.
Carrie Clauson is a Junior High girls tennis coach.
Jeremy Lubinski is a Pirate 8th Grade Football coach.
Amy Boll is the head Pirate Girls Track head coach and assistant volleyball coach
Sarah Reese is the Pirate Head Girls Soccer coach
Cody Brekken is the Head Pirate Girls and Boys Tennis coach and Crookston Community Pool Supervisor Marley Melbye is the Head Girls Swimming coach Mitch Bakken is the head Pirate Baseball coach.
Brock Hanson is a Pirate Baseball volunteer assistant coach. Ben Halos is a Pirate Baseball assistant coach.
Alex LaFrance is a Pirate Baseball volunteer assistant coach.
Jeff Perreault is the Pirate Girls Golf head coach Wes Hanson is the Pirate Wrestling Head Coach and assistant boys golf coach Kevin Weber is a Pirate Boys Basketball volunteer assistant coach Connor Morgan is the Pirate Boys Hockey assistant coach Sam Melbye is the Pirate Boys J.V. Hockey coach Chris Dufault is a youth wrestling Coach Colton Weiland is an assistant wrestling coach
Non-Crookston High School coaching –
Cody Weiland is an assistant wrestling coach at Proctor/Hermantown
Kaylee Desrosier is a softball coach for Fargo Davies Middle School.
Josh Edlund is an assistant football coach and phy ed teacher at Flandreau, South Dakota.
Allison Lindsey Axness is Assistant Varsity Volleyball Coach in Champlin Park
Jeff Olson is Head Wrestling coach and Head Baseball coach at Delano.
Jake Olson is an Assistant Football Coach and Head Boys Tennis coach at Delano.
Carmen (Kreibich) Johnson, is Head Volleyball coach at Little Falls High School.
Katy Westrom, is Head Girls Tennis Coach and Head Boys Tennis coach at Monticello High School.
Matt Harris, is an Assistant Principal/Athletic Director at Saguaro High School in Scottsdale, Arizona.
Marty Bratrud is the Superintendent and High School Principal at Westhope High School.
Gordie Haug is an assistant football coach at the University of Wyoming
Mike Hastings is the Minnesota State Mankato Men’s head Hockey coach
Mike Biermaier is the Athletic Director at Thief River Falls High School
Stephanie (Lindsay) Perreault works with the North Dakota State stats crew for Bison football and volleyball and basketball in the winter. Stephanie’s husband, Ryan, is the assistant director for the Bison media relations
Jason Bushie is the hockey athletic trainer at Colorado College
Chris Myrold is a Tennis Pro on Nevis Island in the West Indies
Kyle Buchmeier is a Tennis Pro at the Reed-Sweatt Family Tennis Center in Minneapolis
Jarrett Butenhoff is serving our country with the U.S. Navy
Joshua Butenhoff is serving our country on a Submarine with the Pacific Fleet with the US Navy.
Peter Cournia is a 2002 Crookston High School Graduate and also a grad of West Point and is currently is serving in the U.S. Army.
Erik Ellingson is serving our country with the U.S. Air Force at Minot.
Philip Kujawa class of 2004 from Crookston High School. He is an Army recruiter in Rochester.
Scott Riopelle is head of Crookston Parks and Recreation
Rob Sobolik is the General Manager of the Fargodome
That’s it for this week. Thanks for the comments and if you have anything to add or share, please e-mail chrisjfee@yahoo.com or call. Thanks for reading and listening to KROX RADIO and kroxam.com
Ahead of an expected announcement this week by Governor Walz loosening Minnesota’s COVID restrictions, Rep. Deb Kiel, R-Crookston, is calling for transparent and concrete dates and/or metrics for the end of the peacetime emergency. Just this week, Florida lifted all remaining COVID restrictions, and Governors of Democrat states like New York and California have established target dates for the lifting of capacity limits and other COVID restrictions. Other deep-blue states like Connecticut lifted capacity limits starting as far back as March.
“Minnesota families and businesses have been kept in limbo for far too long, waiting for the Governor to unilaterally decide how the state should move forward,” said Kiel. “With multiple statements from the Governor saying that Minnesotans can assume this summer will be ‘very normal-looking’, it is clear that the emergency phase is over and the Legislature can take up its duty as an equal branch of government in these final weeks of session. It is long past time to end this period of governing by only one branch of government. It is time for the emergency powers to end.”
House Republicans have voted more than a dozen times to end the peacetime emergency, and have put forward numerous proposals to end or modify the Governor’s Chapter 12 powers, as well as proposals to establish timelines and metrics that would end the peacetime emergency. Democrats have refused to advance those proposals in the House, and have even stonewalled proposals from their own party to wind down the Governor’s emergency powers.
The Section 8A Champion Crookston Pirate Wrestling team held its end of the season banquet to celebrate one of the best seasons in program history at the Crookston Inn and Convention Center. The team also received their Section 8A Championship medals and their Section 8A individual tournament placer medals. Team awards were handed out during the celebration. All the award winners are listed and pictured below. We also have a video of the Pirates getting their medals.
Team awards – -Section 8A Champions and State Wrestling Team Tournament participant -Minnesota Wrestling Coaches Association Silver Academic Award (3.436 GPA)
Section 8A Coach of the Year – Wes Hanson
State Individual awards – All-State – Ethan Boll (5th place at state) All-State All-Academic team – Zach Brown
Pirate Individual awards – Most pins – Ethan Boll (20) Rookie of the Year – Evin Trudeau Most Improved – Nolan Dans Most Dedicated – Ethan Bowman Most Dominant – Ethan Boll (averaged 4.5 team points per match)
Category leaders – Most wins – Ethan Boll (38) Most team points – Ethan Boll (208) Most major decisions – Ethan Boll (6) Most wins by decision – Ethan Bowman (8) Most 3 point near falls – Nolan Dans (14) Most 2 point near falls – Ethan Bowman (12) Most escapes – Cameron Weiland (24) Most reversals – Ethan Bowman (24) Most tech falls – Ethan Boll and Zach Brown (2) Most takedowns – Ethan Boll
Win Club Members – 50 win club – Hunter Knutson (52), and Carter Coauette (60) 75 win club – Braxton Volker (78) 100 win club – Ethan Bowman (101), Nolan Dans (115), and Ethan Boll (123) 150 win club – Zach Brown (171 – 4th place all-time for most wins as a Pirate
The Polk County Commissioners met on Tuesday morning and approved four conditional use permits. Two of the permits were for septic systems for garages/shops at lake homes. Another permit was for the construction of an accessory structure/shop, and the fourth permit was for the construction of self-storage sheds just outside of Fertile.
CONDITIONAL USE PERMITS –
The commissioners received information about the four conditional use permits from Jacob Snyder, Director of Planning and Zoning for the county.
The first conditional use permit approved was for John Bohm. He is looking to build a garage larger than 800 square feet on a lot on Maple Lake. Snyder proposed approval with stipulations, including it cannot be used for a living quarters. Board unanimously approved.
A conditional use permit was requested by Tim Brinkman. He would like to hook an existing septic system to a new accessory structure on Oak Lake, near the Win-E-Mac School in Erskine. Brinkman said they would have minimal use in the workshop. The board unanimously approved.
A conditional use permit was requested by Troy Erickson. He is looking at hooking a new septic system to an accessory structure on a back lot on Union Lake. The lot is 103 feet wide and 184 feet deep. Erickson would hook it up to a 40 by 60 foot shed that was built last year and they would like to have a bathroom in the shed. The board unanimously approved.
The four conditional use permit was requested by Aaron Swenby for three self-storage unit buildings on 2.435 acres of land in Section 21 of Garfield Township. The land is right next to the Catholic Church on the southeast edge of Fertile (just outside the city limits). The proposed self-storage buildings would be 32-feet by 120 feet, 32 feet by 100 feet, and 32 feet by 80 feet. Swenby would be required to plant trees around the buildings and the sign can’t be over 10 feet in height and cannot be located in the right-away.
Plans are to construct one building per year. Swenby will landscape the property and it will be well lit. The board unanimously approved the permit. “We put in several stipulations to address how it could affect neighboring properties,” said Snyder. “The biggest one was the water and stormwater area collection. We wanted to figure out a way that we could push it to the northwest so we’re not pushing excess water onto the septic system to the south by the church. And anything that happens to the east with the residential lots in the area. We also put in a condition that they would need to spade in some pine trees and some shrubs to make it aesthetically pleasing and some conditions addressing outdoor lighting.”
With property and homeowners looking at doing work around their homes and lake homes, Snyder asks residents if they are looking at doing projects to contact his office beforehand. “Give us a call. Some dirt work things do require permits if they are in excess of certain volumes and any landscaping practices such as adding pavers,” said Snyder. “Sometimes it isn’t something we permit but it is something we can guide you on with some best management practice stuff like not doing it on the shoreline and working with you if you need or permit or not. Call early so we can get you all the information you need and if it is special permitting stuff you need, that stuff can take some time because there is a public hearing required. You need to get an application in 25 days in before the meeting.”
DESIRE TO LEARN PLATFORM
Polk County Public Health Director Sarah Reese informed the board that they will be using $14,000 of their budget to go to the Regional Prevention Coordinator that deals with substance abuse for 13 area counties. The money is in the budget because they saved money on a lack of travel costs because of COVID. Reese said she wanted to be transparent because it was a significant amount of money. “Because of COVID we weren’t traveling so we had a very large travel budget that the DHS and Regional Prevention Coordinators would like to instead use for this contract. We still have to meet the training requirements,” said Reese. “It is a one-time $14,00 payment that will go to the contract and no Polk County dollars will be used, it will all be from the DHS.”
The Crookston Lions Club will host a spaghetti dinner benefit for Brett Schulz and family on Saturday, May 8 at the Crookston Eagles Club from 5:00 to 8:00 p.m. A free-will donation, raffle, silent auction, and other activities will be held. The dinner will include spaghetti, garlic toast, and a salad.
Brett Schulz was injured in a tragic work accident on April 8 that led to his hospitalization at the Hennepin County Burn Center. He is expected to undergo multiple surgeries over the next few months to repair burns on 40 percent of his body.
“We have a generous community and area. It is amazing what has been given to us to help raise funds for them. We have had a nice collection of firearms we will be raffling off. We have some other items, too many to list,” said Crookston Lions Club past president Steve Krueger. “Throughout the night we will have nice raffle items from grills, coolers, gift cards, meat bundles, and all kinds of items.”
All proceeds raised will go toward him and his family to help with any expenses that come about during his recovery. If you can’t make the dinner, there is an account set up for the Schulz Family at United Valley Bank in Crookston (formerly Northern Sky Bank).
The first of three NCAA Division II Baseball Regional Rankings were released and the NSIC has four of the eight teams under consideration in the central region. Augustana, Minnesota Crookston, Minnesota State and St. Cloud State were listed from the NSIC. Due to the disparity of games played this season and the limited data available, schools are listed as “under consideration” in alphabetical order this week for championship selection.
The 39-team NCAA Central Region is made up of teams from the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference, the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletic Association (MIAA) and the Great American Conference (GAC). Automatic bids are awarded to the tournament champions from each conference with the final three spots awarded on an at-large basis. In all, six teams will advance to the NCAA Regional Tournament.
The NCAA DII Baseball Selection Show will stream on NCAA.com on Sunday, May 23 at 9 p.m. central time.
CENTRAL REGION RANKINGS (D2 record – In Region record) 1. Augustana (NSIC) 28-9 28-9
2. Central Missour (MIAA) 31-6 29-6 3. Minnesota-Crookston (NSIC) 22-6 22-6 4. Minnesota State Mankato (NSIC) 26-6 26-6
5. Missouri Southern State (MIAA) 27-10 24-10
6. Pittsburgh State (MIAA) 25-11 25-11
7. Southern Arkansas (GAC) 24-12 24-12 8. St. Cloud State (NSIC) 19-11 19-11
The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources reminds boaters to give yourself enough time to renew your watercraft registration if it has expired.
As a result of COVID-19 and an increase in requests, the DNR License Center has been working on processing a backlog of mail-in boat registration renewals.
To help customers avoid long wait times for processing, the DNR is encouraging boaters to renew boat registrations online or at a local deputy registrar’s office, rather than by mail. If you renew online, you can print out the confirmation page as your temporary permit. You also may write down your temporary authorization number from the confirmation page.
Your registration card and expiration decals will then be mailed to you. To renew online visit the DNR online license sales webpage and click on “Get Started” and follow the prompts. To renew in person, visit a deputy registrar. Deputy registrar locations are available on the Minnesota Department of Public Safety website.
