SPORTS FEEVER by Chris Fee of KROX Radio – chrisjfee@yahoo.com
Here we go!! We have hit the month of May, and things will get crazy for the next month. There are still proms going on, graduations, and graduation receptions, you have sporting events, and so much more. This is always a crazy and challenging time of year for student-athletes. It is also a fun time because the weather is nicer, and playing (and broadcasting) spring sports is a lot more enjoyable when it is nice out.
Good luck to all teams, and hopefully the weather will cooperate!
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The Minnesota State High School League elected to move to district football scheduling several years ago because Eden Prairie had a hard time finding opponents. Okay, that is part of the reason, but other teams started having problems finding games too. I know when I played back in the 93 and 94 seasons, Crookston had to play Wayzata, Holdingford, Lac qui Parle Valley, and others out of the area. So district scheduling makes sense if the MSHSL doesn’t seem to care about section play……which is weird when you have to win your section to go to state. But, I digress.
So here is the purpose of the District Football schedule –
The Mid-Northwest Football District has been created by the MSHSL to provide a separate, competitive structure for the sport of Football only. Schools within the District will be divided into sub-districts as determined by the member schools and the District Committee.
Purpose:
The purpose of the District Football structure is:
a) to aid member schools in developing a full, regular season schedule with other schools within the District.
b) to aid in the creation of equitable competition in football between schools of similar size and in the same general geographical area.
c) to promote fair play and sportsmanship
The unofficial football schedules have been finalized, and there will be some pretty big changes this fall as far as schedules go.
One big change for Crookston High School will be that they are dropping down to play a Class A schedule for two years, as the numbers are going to be low, and they are coming off a no-win season, and it would more than likely be the same thing with the same type of schedule in the fall. So Crookston was allowed to drop down to play the Class A schedule and will play a lot of area teams in the hope of being a little more competitive and wait a few years until the numbers increase (which they have great numbers in 3rd through 8th grade).
From my understanding, the schedules won’t be approved until June, but I have seen some coaches and ADs posting their schedules, so I figured I could post it, too.
Crookston will be in the Valley Plains West District with Ada-Borup-West, Red Lake, Mahnomen/Waubun, Polk County West, and Red Lake County. The unofficial schedule is listed below.
at Nevis
Mahnomen/Waubun
at Polk County West
Cass Lake-Bena
Ada-Borup-West
at Red Lake County
Bagley
at Red Lake
Hopefully, in a couple of years, Crookston will be able to build up the numbers and the talent level and be in the Red District with East Grand Forks, Park Rapids, Thief River Falls, Warroad, Roseau, and Pelican Rapids, or they just go Section 8AA teams play each other again. This isn’t ideal for Crookston, but it is the best move to build the program, and not getting killed by Barnesville by 70 points (when they took it easy on the Pirates by playing the backups the entire second half) will be nice for a couple of years. It did no good for Barnesville either.
I read through everything and didn’t see a do not share message so I am sharing it. If I am not supposed to, my apologies!
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We have some stats and standings for the Northwest Diamond Baseball Conference and the Pine To Prairie Conference. They are below.
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The NFL draft was held last weekend and while Ada-Borup’s Mason Miller (NDSU) didn’t get drafted, he signed with the Detroit Lions as an undrafted free agend. Miller was a three-year starter and first team All-American in 2024 for the NDSU Bison.
Do you want to make the NFL? There are four conferences that had the most drafted and it should come as no surprise. The list of the top seven conferences are below.
SEC – 79
Big 10 – 71
ACC – 42
Big 12 – 31
FBS Schools – 7 (2 from NDSU)
American Athletic – 6
Mountain West – 6
Individuals drafted from each school-
14 Ohio State
13 Georgia
12 Texas
10 Oregon
8 Ole Miss
7 Alabama, Florida, LSU, Miami, Michigan
6 Maryland, Notre Dame
5 Iowa, Penn State, South Carolina, UCLA, Virginia Tech
4 Arizona, California, Colorado, Iowa State, Oklahoma State, Syracuse, Tennessee
3 Auburn, Boston College, Clemson, Kansas State, Louisville, Minnesota, Missouri, Pittsburgh, Rutgers, Southern California, Texas A&M
2 Arkansas, Boise State, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Nebraska, North Dakota State, Oklahoma, SMU, TCU, Texas Tech, Tulane, UCF, Wisconsin
1 Alabama A&M, Arizona State, Bowling Green, Central Arkansas, Central Michigan, Cincinnati, Colorado State, East Carolina, Illinois, Marshall, Memphis, Michigan State, Montana, Montana State, Navy, NC State, Nevada, North Carolina, Purdue, Sacramento State, Stanford, Toledo, UConn, UNLV, Utah, Utah State, UTSA, Vanderbilt, Virginia, Washington, Washington State, West Virginia, Western Kentucky, Western Michigan, William & Mary
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The Minnesota vs UND Men’s Hockey rivaly continues in 2025 as the Fighting Hawks will host the Gophers October 17-18 at the Ralph.
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Lukas Justesen (Sr., Detroit Lakes) has been named to the NSIC All-Second Team, released earlier today by the conference office. Justesen became the first Golden Eagle since 2022 to be named to an all-conference team, when Connor Humble was named to the first team.
Justesen helped lead UMC to eight top-10 finishes this season, including a third-place finish at The Mule in early September, which was their highest finish in a field of over 15 in over 15 years. The Golden Eagles finished in fifth place at the NSIC Championships.
He finished with seven top-20 finishes, including a pair in the top-10, both of which came within the final three tournaments of the season.
At the NSIC Championships, Justesen had a solid three day tourney finishing seventh place.
Justesen also became the first Golden Eagle since Humble in 2022 to take home NSIC Men’s Golfer of the Week and just the fourth Golden Eagle golfer to win weekly honors since 2011.
Concordia-St. Paul swept all the awards; Thomas Gutzmer was named Golfer of the Year, Josh Esterly was named Newcomer of the Year and Peter Maki was named the Coach of the Year.
| First Team | Year | School | Hometown |
| Will Allen | SR | AU | Harrisburg, SD |
| Logan Schoepp | Jr. | BSU | Bismarck, ND |
| Thomas Gutzmer | Grad | CSP | Jordan, MN |
| Josh Esterley | R- Fr | CSP | Chaska, MN |
| Peyton Coahran | JR | WSU | Spicer |
| Luke Maas | Soph | WSU | Watertown |
| Second Team | Yr. | School | Hometown |
| Tommy Marker | Sr | CSP | Shakopee, MN |
| Gavin Argent | Sr | U Mary | Minot, ND |
| Lukas Justesen | Sr | UMC | Detroit Lakes, MN |
| Mason Weeks | Sr. | USF | Spirit Lake, Iowa |
| Logan Chouinard | Soph | WSU | Elk River |
| Tyler Gandrud | FR | WSU | Anoka |
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The Crookston High School Summer Strength and Conditioning program “Powered by Sanford Sports” will be June 2 through August 8. There will be no sessions June 30-July 4 due to the MSHSL blackout week.
For the registration and sign up info, click the following link – Crookston Weights Summer Sign Up — Signup Sheet | SignUp.com
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JOKES
“Dad, I am hungry.”
“Hi Hungry, I’m Dad.”
“Dad, I’m serious.”
“I thought you were Hungry?”
“Are you kidding me?”
“Nope, I’m Dad.”
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Three guys are drinking in a bar when a drunk comes in, staggers up to them, and points at the guy in the middle, shouting, “Your mom’s the best lay in town!”
Everyone expects a fight, but the guy ignores him, and the drunk wanders off and bellies up to the bar at the far end.
Ten minutes later, the drunk comes back, points at the same guy, and says, “I just screwed your mom, and it was sweet!”
Again the guy refuses to take the bait, and the drunk goes back to the far end of the bar.
Ten minutes later, he comes back and announces, “Your mom liked it!”
Finally the guy interrupts. “Go home, Dad,… you’re drunk!”
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A very shy guy goes into a bar and sees a beautiful woman sitting at the bar.
After an hour of gathering up his courage he finally goes over to her and asks, tentatively, “Um, would you mind if I chatted with you for a while?”
To which she responds by yelling, at the top of her lungs, “No, I won’t sleep with you tonight!”
Everyone in the bar is now staring at them.
Naturally, the guy is hopelessly and completely embarrassed and he slinks back to his table.
After a few minutes, the woman walks over to him and apologizes. She smiles at him and says, “I’m sorry if I embarrassed you. You see, I’m a graduate student in psychology and I’m studying how people respond to embarrassing situations.”
To which he responds, at the top of his lungs, “What do you mean $200 for a blowjob?”
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A husband and wife were at a party chatting with some friends when the subject of marriage counseling came up.
“Oh, we’ll never need that. My wife and I have a great relationship,” the husband explained. “She was a communications major in college and I majored in theater arts. She communicates well and I act like I’m listening.”
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A British man was killed by a shark while on his honeymoon in Australia.
Reports say he didn’t suffer too long…
As he was only married 3 days!
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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 an assistant coach on the University of Wisconsin-Superior Men’s Hockey team.
Reese Swanson is a freshman playing hockey at St. Olaf.
Carter Coauette is a freshman playing football at Minot State.
Isabelle Smith is a freshman playing Tennis at Concordia College.
Isaac Thomforde is a freshman playing Tennis at Northwestern College in St. Paul.
Emilee Tate is a Sophomore playing Softball at Northland Community and Technical College.
Halle Bruggeman is a Sophomore on the University of Wisconsin-Stout Women’s Rugby team.
Ethan Boll is a Red-shirt Freshman on the University of North Dakota Football team.
Breanna Kressin is a Junior on the Hockey Cheer Team for THE University of Minnesota Golden Gopher Hockey team.
Jacey Larson is a Sophomore playing hockey at Dakota College at Bottineau.
Aleah Bienek is a Junior playing hockey at Trine University in Indiana.
Joslynn Leach is a Senior playing golf at Concordia College in Moorhead. The Cobbers wrapped up the Fall season.
Brooks Butt is a Junior playing football at the University of Jamestown.
Ty Hamre is redshirt Junior playing football at Bemidji State University.
Elizabeth Erdman is a coach for the Moorhead Red Dragon swim team.
Crookston School District Coaches
Blake Bergeron is the head Pirate Wrestling Coach.
Ben Parkin is the head Pirate Baseball Coach.
Jason Cassavant is a Jr. High Baseball Coach
Amy Boll is the head Pirate Girls Track head coach
Sarah Reese is the Pirate Head Girls Soccer coach
Marley Melbye is an assistant girls golf coach
Connor Morgan is the Pirate Boys Hockey assistant coach
Ben Trostad is the Pirate Boys Hockey assistant coach
Ethan Magsam is the Pirate Boys Hockey assistant coach
Chris Dufault is a youth wrestling Coach
Non-Crookston High School coaching/Admin/etc
Elise Tangquist is the Head Girls Golf Coach at Horace High School in Fargo, ND.
Carmen (Kreibich) Johnson is the head Little Falls Volleyball coach.
Tim Desrosier is an Assistant Coach for Warren-Alvarado-Oslo Pony Boys Basketball
Pat Wolfe is the head wrestling coach for Fosston/Bagley.
Austin Sommerfeld is an Assistant Athletic Director for Strategic Communication at the College of St. Scholastica in Duluth.
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.
Josh Edlund is the head football coach and phy ed teacher at Flandreau, South Dakota.
Allison Lindsey Axness is Assistant Varsity Volleyball Coach at Champlin Park
Jeff Olson is the Head Wrestling Coach and Head Baseball coach at Delano.
Jake Olson is an Assistant Football Coach and Head Boys Tennis coach at Delano.
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 North Dakota.
Mike Hastings is the Wisconsin Badgers Men’s head Hockey coach.
Mike Biermaier is the Athletic Director at Grand Forks Schools.
Stephanie (Lindsay) Perreault works with the North Dakota State stats crew for Bison football, volleyball, and basketball in the winter. Stephanie’s husband, Ryan, is the assistant director for 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
Jaren Bailey is serving our country and is currently in the Marines’ Boot Camp.
Ben Andringa is serving our country in the Army and is now a Ranger.
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 a grad of West Point and currently serving in the U.S. Army.
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.
The post SPORTS FEEVER – May 1, 2025 first appeared on KROX.