The Fall Sports Season Ends

Posted on November 3, 2013 by tomobert63

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[Attribution:  This photo is on loan from Bob Cunniff’s Facebook page.  The photo was taken by Doug Hasz.  The subjects are Doug’s daughters, Megan (67) and Bethany (68) (and I hope I got that right), and their cross country coach, Mark Nelsen.  Bethany had just won the state cross country meet, with Megan finishing second.  Certainly the highlight of a terrific fall sports season for Cardinal girls.]

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[Attribution:  This photo was pilfered from the Echo Press website.  It shows the Hasz sisters leading the pack in the state cross country meet held Saturday at St. Olaf.]

But before Saturday, there was Friday night . . .

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[The supervisor and I went up to Fergus Falls to see our Cardinals play the Moorhead Spuds for the section volleyball championship.  It was our first road trip of the year . . .]

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[And, of course, the first priority of any road trip is . . . where are we going to eat?  As kind of a last minute decision, we decided on Bello Cucina in downtown Fergus, not far from the high school.]

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[Inside I noticed a couple on the far side of the room.  I said to the supervisor, “That looks like Paulette Friday over there?”  It was, and she, Alexandria’s story teller, and her husband Ralph stopped by on their way out.  🙂 ]

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[For “Weakie,” blackened swordfish with corn salsa and sweet potato fries.  🙂 ]

Spuds – 3, Cardinals – 1

am14269Then it was on to the game.  There were apprehensions.  The No. 1-seeded Cards had already beaten the Spuds twice during the regular season, but they were close games.  And the old adage is, it’s hard to beat a team three times in one season.  Plus, the Spuds were peaking at the playoffs.  The Cardinals peaked in their lead up to the conference championship, which they won against Rocori in the penultimate conference game.  Since that game, however, the Cards had been unable to capture that mojo, and struggled in the first two rounds of the sections.  Our fears were unfortunately confirmed.

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[In the Fergus gym, the coaches . . .]

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[The band . . .]

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[The team . . .]

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[The team heading back to the coaches . . . everything goes full circle?]

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[Warming up with Wensia . . .]

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[And Morgan . . .]

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[And the whole team . . .]

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[I don’t know whether it was a conscious decision . . .]

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[But I probably took most of the “action” photos . . .]

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[During warm-ups so I could just be a fan during the game.]

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[Amanda C . . .]

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[And Emily, with Amanda H to follow . . .]

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[And the aforementioned Amanda H . . .]

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[And looks like Liz . . .]

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[Yup, Liz . . .]

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[And Wensia . . .]

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[And Brooke . . .]

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[And looks like Kalley . . .]

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[And Amanda C, again . . . The competition, a/k/a, the school photographer, is in the background.  Seeking advice from a professional, I asked him what advice could he give me.  He said point at your subject and push the button down.  😉  Well, he noted he did shoot at a really high ISO, 6400!]

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[Give me a head with hair, long beautiful hair . . .  (OK, I’ve probably used that before.)]

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[WENSIA!!  The cry from the crowd when she buries one.  🙂 ]

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[And Emily . . .]

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[Ooops?]

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[And Amanda H . . .]

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[And we’ll finish with Alexis . . .]

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[Lookin’ good!  🙂 ]

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[Ready for player introductions?]

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[Let’s do it!!]

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[The fan club made it . . . in fact, we had a good turn out of Alex folks!]

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[So, do we get to go to Mable Murphy’s after the game?]

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[Or should we wait until we get home and do D. Michael B’s?]

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[Kalley, can you get us a table for 20?]

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[What?  No Blizzards?]

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[“The Twins” are ready . . .]

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[We’ll see them in the same positions next year.]

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[And we’re playing . . .]

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[Liz will be back next year.]

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[Wensia appears to be the subject of everyone’s attention, including “The Voices” who were hiding behind the net from me.]

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[Liz and Amanda H track the ball to the Spuds side . . .]

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[Our point!]

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[Now the first step in the tango is a slide step right.]

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[Can you tango?]

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[My only support back here are the drummers?]

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[As Kalley serves, band director Greg DeGier (background) holds up the sign-up sheet for the compulsory spit valve maintenance class.]

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[I’ll take Wensia to block.]

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[Did she or didn’t she?]

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[No way!  Kim Kardashian couldn’t have followed us from Alex?]

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[Let’s have a meeting?]

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[There she is again?]

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[Jump, Kalley!]

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[Game 1, we came back nicely from an early deficit.  And now I became mostly a fan . . .]

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[Future Cards?]

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[Game 2, this time we couldn’t quite overcome a big early deficit.]

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[We gotta get untracked here!]

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[Yah, sure, you betcha!]

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[Game 3, this one was the killer.  We fell way behind, large double digits.  And staged a great rally that almost caught them at the end.  By not being able to pull it off really sapped any chance we had in Game 4.]

The Spuds played really well and deserved to win.  The Cards fell way behind early in every game and that has to be physically and mentally stressful playing catch up all the time.  The Cards never were able to maintain any successes.  Looking back, it’s amazing the games were as close as they were.  We must have a set a record for net violations in this match – lots of free points for the Spuds.  And though we served well this time, we had several instances of not playing the ball, thinking it was going out and it didn’t.   But it was a fun season – and congratulations to the team for their conference championship.  The team was very entertaining to watch . . . and has now made the supervisor a big time fan.  She said she couldn’t sleep after we lost this game!  😉  Good luck and thanks to seniors Amanda C and Emily, though we’ll see them in other sports yet this school year.  And we look forward to next year!

Saturday Professor Anthony Miltich was at the winery.  There was a good crowd, so once again it was pretty noisy.  Nevertheless, I took three videos:

“Departure”:   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzdnE42dmWk

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[We believe this was the class of ’74 from Lisbon, North Dakota – they said they were planning for their 40th reunion.  One of the classmates is now an Alexandrian!  🙂 ]

“Make You Feel My Love”:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZkjOPsq5qFg

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[Anthony with Debi Kilde . . . they once were part of a tour group.]

“Home on the Prairie”:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqlIMA_1ALI

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The last song was spontaneous and unrehearsed.  Makes it fun.  Anthony should feel free to ask Debi to join him anytime.  😉

Up next:  I was hoping (for all the good reasons) to miss next weekend’s girls’ hockey season openers – we would rather have gone to the Cities for the state volleyball tournament.  Now we’ll look forward to hockey against Albert Lea on Friday night and against North Metro on Saturday night.  Then on Saturday, rush immediately to SAWA to catch as much of Lisa Lynn as possible!

About tomobert63

The Journey Begins Thanks for joining me! This is the follow-up to the original, “alexandriacardinals.wordpress.com,” which overwhelmed the system’s ability to handle it any more. Thus, this is “Part 2.” As the original was initially described: 10-26-07-4 “It all began in a 5,000 watt radio station in Fresno, California” . . . wait a minute, that was Ted Baxter on the Mary Tyler Moore Show! Let’s see . . . oh yeah, it all began in 2003 when retirees, i.e., old people, in Alexandria, Minnesota, who had no desire to become snow birds, went looking for mid-winter entertainment here in the frozen tundra of West Central Minnesota. We discovered girls’ high school hockey, fell in love immediately, and it remains our favorite spectator sport to this day. Initially, and for several years, reports on these games were e-mailed to those who were actually snowbirds but wanted to keep abreast of things “back home.” It was ultimately decided a blog would be more efficient, and it evolved into a personal diary of many things that attracts tens of readers on occasion. It remains a source of personal mental therapy and has yet to elicit any lawsuits. ~ The Editor, May 9, 2014 p.s. The photo border around the blog is the Cardinal girls’ hockey team after just beating Breck for the state championship in 2008. It’s of the all-tournament team. The visible Breck player on the left is Milica McMillen, then an 8th-grader – she is now an All-American for the Gophers. The Roseau player in the stocking cap I believe is Mary Loken, who went on to play for UND; and the Cardinal player on the right, No. 3, is Abby Williams, the player we blame most for making us girls’ hockey fans who went on to play for Bemidji State. *********************************************************************************** Photos contained herein are available for personal use. All you have to do is double click on any of the photos and they will become full screen size. You can then save them into your personal “My Pictures” file. They make lovely parting or hostess gifts, or holiday gifts for such as Uncle Ernie who wants to see how his grand niece is doing on the hockey team. If any are sold for personal profit, however, to, for example, the Audubon Society, National Geographic, Sven’s Home Workshop Monthly, Curling By The Numbers, or the World Wrestling Federation, I only request that you make a donation to the charitable organization of your choice. You have two hours and fifteen minutes. Pencils ready? Begin! **********************************************************************************
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