Month: March 2022

It is hard to believe we are officially done with the Winter Sports Season after almost five months of activity.  I was hearing a lot of Section 8A Boys and Girls Basketball coaches wanting to seed the full section instead of breaking up into west and east teams.

Anybody that reads the column knows that I am a proponent of seeding all teams with no subsections.  Even though the Crookston girls would have gone to the section championship game for sure with the north/south split, I think it is the best for the section tournament fans and teams.  Crookston also could have been in the section championship playing Fergus Falls if they wouldn’t have lost the last two regular-season games.  So it is what it is.

I think the Section 8AA tourney was solid and the seeding went well.  It is nice to all be at one location and Detroit Lakes might be the place in the future. It is a beautiful gym and a huge upgrade from the old confines at Concordia-Moorhead, of which I have NEVER been a fan of the gym there.   It was a much better atmosphere at Detroit Lakes too.
I don’t have a problem with the first two rounds at the high seed.  It gives you a little more of an advantage to the top-seeded teams.

Hopefully Section 8A boys and girls basketball coaches will speak loud and clear as a group to the Region 8A committee and have it changed to seeding all the teams, instead of sub-sections.  We will see, but it is up to the coaches to push for the change if they really want it.

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Congratulations to the Sacred Heart Eagle Boys Basketball team on a tremendous and record-breaking season!!  They finished the season 30-4 and were consolation champions in Class A!
Kobe Tomkinson was named to the all-tournament team.  We (KROX) were able to broadcast all three games and to say there was some interest in their games is an understatement.  We had almost 6,000 people listening to the three games online.  That doesn’t include the radio!  So that was pretty impressive and the interest from Sacred Heart and all of Section 8A was there!

It was the first-ever trip to state for Sacred Heart and they brought home some hardware.  It doesn’t get much better than that!   Now the baseball team will be one of the favorites in Section 8A this spring.

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The NCAA Men’s Hockey Frozen Four will have a strong Minnesota and local connection with THE Minnesota Golden Gophers and Minnesota State Mankato Mavericks making up half of the field.

Minnesota State Mankato Men’s Hockey coach is Mike Hastings (a Crookston High School graduate), and he is assisted by Todd Knott, a Red Lake Falls Lafayette High School grad.

— — —

Mike Hastings has been named one of eight finalists for the 2022 Spencer Penrose Award, the American Hockey Coaches Association announced Tuesday.

The Spencer Penrose Award is presented annually to the CCM/AHCA Division I Men’s Ice Hockey Coach of the Year.

The 2015 and 2021 Penrose Award winner, Hastings has led the Mavericks to five consecutive MacNaughton Cup championships and the school’s second NCAA Frozen Four appearance this season. Minnesota State rolled to the Central Collegiate Hockey Association regular season title with a 23-3-0 mark in league play, went undefeated in CCHA postseason tournament action to win the league’s Mason Cup as league playoff champions and, most recently, won the NCAA Albany Region with wins over Harvard and Notre Dame.

The Mavericks, who stand 37-5-0 for the season and have won their last 17 games in a row, play in the Frozen Four in semifinal action against Minnesota April 7.
Under Hasting’s tutelage, the Mavericks have posted a 273-89-24 mark during his ten seasons behind the bench in Mankato, the top record in college hockey during that span.

MSU has captured seven league regular-season titles, four league postseason championships and posted ten 20-win seasons during his tenure. Hastings earned his fifth conference coach of the year award earlier this season.

Joining Hastings on the finalist list are North Dakota’s Brad Berry, Denver’s David Carle, Quinnipiac’s Rand Pecknold, Northeastern’s Jerry Keefe, AIC’s Eric Lang, Minnesota’s Bob Motzko and Michigan’s Mel Pearson.

The 2022 Spencer Penrose Award winner will be announced on April 20th.

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Two Crookston Pirate wrestlers had a great weekend last weekend.  Ethan Boll and Carter Coauette competed in two separate tournaments.

Ethan Boll wrestled at the 2022 National High School Coaches Association National Wrestling tournament in Virginia Beach, Virginia this past weekend. Boll went 6-1 on the weekend in finished third place!

In the first match of the tournament, Ethan beat Aiden Gatton of Winter Springs, Florida by pin in 66-seconds.  Ethan led 7-1 when he won by pin.
In the second round, Ethan beat Jeffrey Klugh of Currituck County, North Carolina, by pin in 39 seconds.
In the third round, Ethan beat Charles Higdon of Woodstock, Georgia by pin in 58-seconds.
In the quarter-finals, Ethan beat Hampton Kaye-Kuter of Mendon, Massachusetts 10-2.  Kaye-Kuler was the All-State champion at 220-pounds in Massachusetts.
In the semi-finals, Boll lost to Trent Sibble of Bolivar-Richburg High School inNew York by pin at 1:55.  Sibble was in the state championship at 220-pounds in New York.
In the consolation semi-finals, Ethan beat Erick Brothers Jr. of West Virginia by pin at 3:13.  Boll was leading 7-6 when he got the pin.  Brothers is a three-time state champion in West Virginia.
In the third-place match, Ethan beat Gabe Fisher of Nashville, Tennessee 8-6 in sudden victory overtime.  Fisher is a two-time Tennessee state champion. 

 

Carter Coauette is competing with the Grand Forks Gladiator wrestling team this spring and competed in the North Dakota State Folkstyle tournament this past weekend in Bismarck, North Dakota. Carter wrestled at 145 pounds and won all three matches by tech falls to win the championship.

In the first round, Carter beat Koda Moore-Hicks of Drayton by a 10-0 Tech Fall.
In the semi-finals, Carter beat Anton Perales of Manvel by 11-0 tech fall.
In the Championship, Carter beat Augustus Maughan of Fargo by a 12-1 tech fall.

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Minnesota State Moorhead Men’s basketball coach Chad Walthall has stepped down from his job as coach to take a job in the private sector.

There are a lot of names that are being mentioned and former Minnesota State Moorhead assistant coach and current University of Minnesota Crookston Golden Eagle Men’s Basketball coach Dan Weisse has been one name that has been casually thrown out.

I know Walthall was making $125,000 a year and I know for a fact that Weisse is nowhere near that so it could be a job that is enticing to Dan.  I haven’t talked to Dan about it, but I would think if he applied, he would be in the running.  Everybody in the conference knows Crookston is the toughest place in the NSIC to coach.  It is tough to recruit kids to the campus.  Every coach respects Dan because they know it isn’t a great job as far as success and low pay, limited finances for assistant coaches and many more reasons.   The Fargo Forum article said Crookston is a tough job…..and they are 100 percent correct.

We will see what happens.

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The NCAA D2 Men’s Basketball transfer portal has a lot of players in the portal, including many from the NSIC.

Crookston –
Ethan Channel (6’4 JR)
Zen Goodridge (6’7 JR)
Dylan Hushaw (6’2 Soph)
Hunter Lyman (6’8 Fresh)
Jerome Mabry (6’3 Soph)
Tyrese Shines (6’3 Soph)
Brian Sitzmann (6’4 Jr)
Zach Westphal (6’2 Soph)

St. Cloud State –
Cameron Alexander  (6’2 JR)
Ryan Bagley (6’3 JR)
Caleb Donaldson (6-4 Soph)
Joe Mutimer (6’2 Fresh)
Anthony Roberts (6’4 Soph)
Josh Tomasi (6’10 Fresh)

Minnesota State Mankato –
Quincy Anderson (6-4 Soph)
Noah Hart (6’3 Fresh)
Shawn Hopkins (6’4 Soph)
Harlyn Owens II (6’3 Jr)
Gavin Ralph (6’3 Fresh) transferring to UW Platteville
Devonte Thedford (6’2 Jr)

Sioux Falls –
Dekel Cohen Sharon (6’5 Fresh)
Cedrick Johnson (6’2 Soph)
William Kondrat (6’7 Jr)

Winona State –
Alou Dillon (6’8 Jr) is transferring to U of Mary
Cal Greene (6’7 Fresh)
Nick Klug (6’1 Jr)
Alec Rosner (6’2 Jr)

Augusta –
Leo Flenor (6’7 Soph)

Northern State –
Austin Holt (6’5 Soph)
Carter Lancaster (6’4 Fresh)
Cael McGee (6’3 Fresh)
Andrew Rohrbach (6’0 Fresh)

Minot State –
Jayden Houston (6’1 Fresh)

Mary –
Kai Huntsberry (6’1 Soph)
Jacob Jackson (6’1 Fresh)

Concordia St. Paul –
Jack Iverson (6’6 Fresh)
Walker Johnson (6’6 Fresh)
Keenan Jones Jr. (6’5 Fresh)
Elijah Ormiston (6’8 Fresh)

Bemidji State –
Mohamed Kone (6’2 Jr)

Wayne State –
Zach LaFave (6’5 210)
Lucas Vogt (5’11 Fresh)

Minnesota Duluth –
Henry Shannon (6’6 Fresh)

Transfers coming in –
John Grigsby (6-9 Fresh) from Wyoming

— — —

Several Section 8A and 8AA Boys Basketball players made the Minnesota High School Basketball Coaches Association Academic All-State team.

Sam Gapp – Sacred Heart
Kobe Tomkinson – Sacred Heart
Evan Grover – Warroad
Rylin Petry – Fertile-Beltrami

The Section 8A Coach of the Year was Destry Sterkel of Sacred Heart.
The Section 8AA Coach of the Year was Dave Cresap of Perham.

— — —

The North Star Boys Basketball Conference held its end of the year banquet on Tuesday evening and handed out the following awards –

All-Conference –
Warren-A-O – Gavin Gullickson, Tyson Mortimer, Jackson Woinarowicz
Sacred Heart – Kobe Tomkinson, Paul Gapp
Goodridge-Grygla – Lewis Jones, Blake Rychlock
BGMR – Kobey Dallager, Zach Blawat
Northern Freeze – Max Klopp
Red Lake County – Owen Chervestad

All-Conference Honorable Mention – 
Red Lake County – Connor Duden
Stephen-Argyle – Will McGlynn
Kittson Co. Central – Kaden Vig

Team Champion – Sacred Heart
Coach of the Year – Destry Sterkel
Most Oustanding Player – Kobe Tomkinson

Jay Sorenson Memorial Award – Colten Pagnac of Stephen-Argyle, and Gavin Gullickson of Warren-Alvarado-Oslo

— — —

The 2021-2022 All-Heart O’Lakes Boys Basketball All-Conference Team has been announced and it is listed below –
Kaden Zenzen – Barnesville – SR *
Owen Leach – DGF – JR *
Brevin Stoa – Hawley – SO *
Sam Senske – Hawley – JR *
Timmy Guler – Pelican Rapids – SO *
Ian Fahje – Pelican Rapids – JR *
Micah Thompson – Perham – JR *
Soren Anderson – Perham – JR *
Tate Inniger – Barnesville – JR
Logan Bitker – DGF – SR
Zach Bredman -Barnesville – SO
Kaden Altobelli – DGF – SR
Alex Sanchez – Breckenridge – JR
Jack Johnson – Breckenridge – SR
Mason Gratton – Hawley – JR *

MOST VALUABLE PLAYER – OWEN LEACH – JR – Dilworth-Glyndon-Felton* (Unanimous selection)

— — —

The University of Minnesota Crookston women’s basketball team announced the signing of Dana Melby (G, 5-10, Gonvick/Clearbrook-Gonvick H.S.) to a National Letter of Intent.
Melby was a First Team All-Northwoods Conference pick as a senior and junior. She earned Second Team All-Conference accolades as a sophomore. Melby was a co-captain for Clearbrook-Gonvick H.S. She was a four-year Team Academic All-State pick. Melby secured over 850 points and 600 rebounds. She notched a triple-double and numerous double-doubles in her career. Melby set the school record with 24 rebounds in a game.
She is the daughter of Jacob and Cynthia Melby. Melby is undecided on her major. She has been on the Honor Roll and is a National Honors Society member.

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JOKES

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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

Katherine Geist, a sophomore, is running track for Carleton College.

Emma Boll, a freshman, is playing softball at Northwestern University in St. Paul.

Emma Borowicz is a freshman running track at Minnesota State Mankato.

Ben Trostad is a senior playing Men’s Golf at UMC.

Kaleb Thingelstad is a freshman playing golf at Kansas Wesleyan University.  KWU is done for the fall season.

Joslynn Leach is a freshman playing golf at Concordia College in Moorhead.  The Cobbers wrapped up the Fall season.

Brady Butt is a sophomore playing football at the University of Jamestown.

Rachel Hefta, is a junior playing volleyball at Hastings College in Nebraska.

Ty Hamre is playing football at Bemidji State University.

Paul Bittner is playing professional hockey in Germany, for Düsseldorf EG.

Gretchen Theis is a sophomore at NDSU on the Equestrian team.

Kate MacGregor is a senior swimming at Minnesota State Moorhead.

Aleece Durbin, is a Junior on the University of North Dakota Women’s Track and Field team.

Nick Garmen is a junior playing tennis at the University of Minnesota Morris.

Crookston School District Coaches –
Emily Meyer is the Pirate head girls hockey coach and softball assistant coach.
Lacia Hanson is the Junior High softball coach.
Jeremy Lubinski is a Pirate 8th Grade Football coach.
Amy Boll is the head Pirate Girls Track head coach
Sarah Reese is the Pirate Head Girls Soccer coach
Cody Brekken is the Crookston Community Pool Supervisor
Marley Melbye is the Head Girls Swimming 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 –

Collin Reynolds is the head baseball coach for the University of Colorado Buffalo Club Baseball team.

Trent Stahlecker is a School Security Specialist & he works for the Brevard Public Schools, Florida

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.

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 the Director and Fitness at Mission Ranch and Fitness in Camel, California.

Kyle Buchmeier is a Tennis Pro at the Reed-Sweatt Family Tennis Center in Minneapolis

Ben Andringa is serving our country with the Army in New York.

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.

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.

 

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The Crookston Pirates girl’s basketball team is coming off a tremendous season which saw the team finish with a record of 23-6 with a Section 8AA semifinal appearance. A big reason for the team’s success was the play from Senior Emma Osborn, who shined all season, specifically from beyond the three-point line.

Osborn hit 102 three-pointers this past season shattering the previous single-season record of 72 for Crookston Pirates girl’s basketball. To put things into perspective, she finished her career with 122 three-pointers, which ranks 6^th all-time in school history, and shows just how dominant of a season she had shooting the basketball.

One other accolade she accomplished this season was also tying the single-game record for made three-pointers of 7, which she did several times. According to her head coach Darin Zimmerman, she also could’ve easily broken the record if she had gotten more playing time. “We had such a great season as a team that in quite a few of those games we had a big enough lead where we could get other girls playing time,” said coach Zimmerman. “So ironically if we hadn’t been as good in some of those games, there is no doubt in my mind she would’ve broken that record more than once.”

Osborn started playing the game of basketball at a very young age, but it hasn’t always been smooth sailing. “I started back in kindergarten, and a fun fact is that I actually quit for an entire year because I got hit in the face with the ball one game,” said Osborn. “My friends ended up getting my back into the sport, and the rest was history from there. It’s become a sport I’ve loved.”

While Osborn has been playing the game all her life, her shooting skills really started to develop back in 9^th grade. “I really started to shoot a lot in 9^th grade while I was playing on the C team,” said Osborn. “I never really had a love for shooting, but I started to realize it was the strongest part of my game and I really wanted to put an emphasis on that.”

Coach Zimmerman is most proud of her development from last year to this year as a basketball player, and not just her ability to shoot the basketball. “Emma has always been a very strong shooter, that is one area that she really evolved in, and a skill set she always had,” said coach Zimmerman. “Specifically, she got much better at getting her shot off quickly. I don’t know if there was anyone in the state that had a quicker shot than she did this past year. All that to say, while she is a great shooter, she developed as a great basketball player as well over the years. She became a much better defender and was a pretty good rebounder for us as well. All around she became a better basketball player compared to a good scorer and shooter which may have been what she was a few years ago. I’m incredibly proud of the work she put in to get to that level and she stood out this year because of it.”

Another fun fact about Osborn and her shooting skills, is she like most shooters, can find her stroke in an instance. “There are sometimes where I will have the worst warmup ever, but as soon as we get into the game I shoot really well,” said Osborn. “One game that sticks out from this past year was against East Grand Forks. I think I scored 31 points that game, but in warmups, I could not hit anything. Similarly, I would sometimes shoot well in warmups and then have an off game. So, I don’t know why that was, but it was kind of funny how it would work like that.”

Osborn has also participated in tennis, softball, and Track & Field at one point or another over the years, but she says basketball along with tennis are the two that stand out. “Basketball and tennis are the two that have always hit closest to home,” said Osborn. “It’s interesting because basketball definitely has more stress on me, but I would say I’m much better at that than tennis. So, they both have their ups and downs.”

In a season with a lot of great accomplishments as a team, one of Osborn’s favorite memories happened before it even began. “I would go all the way back to this past summer and our trip to Wisconsin Dells as a team,” said Osborn. “I had never been there, and it was a great experience with the team. The other part would be just to have this one last season with the girls that I grew up playing with. That combined with all the success we had as a team and the season that I had just made this a very special year.”

Coach Zimmerman says his favorite memory of Osborn from this past season, and the thing that will always stick out is just how incredible her hot shooting streak was. “During her best stretch which was probably the middle of January to towards the end of the season, I will always remember thinking every time she shot the ball, I thought it was going in,” said Coach Zimmerman. “I was almost surprised when it wouldn’t go in. I don’t think I’ve ever had a player that consistent before as far as shooting the basketball from that distance. It just always seemed like it was going in and I’ll always remember that from this past season.”

While she may not be playing the game anymore, she does have advice for future Crookston Pirate girl’s basketball players, and younger shooters in the area. “For me, it was all about getting into the gym and putting the time in,” said Osborn. “You have to put time into it if you want to be successful, and if your shot isn’t where you want it or if you’re missing lots of shots, figure out why and spend time working on correcting it. That is when you will start to see success.”

Osborn is still deciding where she would like to attend college in the fall, but as of now, she does not see herself pursuing basketball at the next level. She plans on going into veterinary school and focusing on academics while in college to help get her to where she would like to be in life. One thing is for sure, she will be greatly missed from the Crookston Pirates girl’s basketball team next season.

 

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The North Star Boys Basketball Conference held its end of the year banquet on Tuesday evening and handed out the following awards – 

All-Conference –
Warren-A-O – Gavin Gullickson, Tyson Mortimer, Jackson Woinarowicz
Sacred Heart – Kobe Tomkinson, Paul Gapp
Goodridge-Grygla – Lewis Jones, Blake Rychlock
BGMR – Kobey Dallager, Zach Blawat
Northern Freeze – Max Klopp
Red Lake County – Owen Chervestad

All-Conference Honorable Mention – 
Red Lake County – Connor Duden
Stephen-Argyle – Will McGlynn
Kittson Co. Central – Kaden Vig

Team Champion – Sacred Heart
Coach of the Year – Destry Sterkel
Most Oustanding Player – Kobe Tomkinson

Jay Sorenson Memorial Award – Colten Pagnac of Stephen-Argyle, and Gavin Gullickson of Warren-Alvarado-Oslo

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