February 9

The Community Read this month is William Kent Krueger’s Ordinary Grace.  The New York Times best-selling author came to Alex to talk about the book.  He has been here several times before – I’ve visited with him on previous visits.  On this night I told him I was going to leave early to “cover” a girls’ basketball game.  “Oh, you like girls’ sports?”  “I do.”  “Good for you.”

[Alex librarian Jake Odland addresses the SRO crowd.]

[Then Kent (as he prefers to be called) had us chuckling to some funny anecdotes before he began reading from his book.]

[Then it was off to “girls’ sports.”  Our Cards were taking on the dreaded Moorhead Spuds.  Here Emma Ziegler (1) is introduced.]

[Kendall Kohler (3)]

[Macy Hatlestad (11)]

[Emma Schmidt (25)]

[Kayla Feldhake (43)]

[Let the festivities begin . . . ]

[Kayla gets it . . .]

[Then displays proper block out positioning when a shot goes up.]

[Kendall tracks star Spud guard, Sam Haiby – only a sophomore, but a 5’8″ point guard – she will be a handful the next couple years.]

[Schmidty and Macy put the squeeze on a Spud.]

[Oooops, full flaps for Macy.]

[Kohler never stops coaching – reminding the bench whose turn it is to pick up the post-game Blizzards.]

[Macy . . . swish, swish . . . in the Cards next game she was 17 for 18 from the line.]

[Schmidty’s 5’10”-ishness is a nice feature at the point of the defense.]

[Dee-fence!  Dee-fence!]

[Kendall, who then had a 30-point game against Bemidji (or was that before this game?)]

[Kiyana Miller (21) and Macy guard the perimeter.]

[“Special K?”  With Kiyana, Kayla, Kelby Olson-Rodel (13), and likely Kendall off screen.]

[Kiyana with free throws.]

[Is this still her?  How many did she get?]

[At the half – another defensive struggle.]

[We couldn’t handle Haiby in the 2nd half . . . nor her back court running mate, 5’10” eighth grader, Jalen Ennen, who I believe made every shot she took.  We were obviously tired after 3 games in 5 days . . . ]

[I have never seen us get beat down the court as often as we did in this half.  Spuds won 59 – 53.]

February 11

[The boys were hosting Brainerd.  The JV had another strong win.]

[The team stops when 6’8″ sophomore, Justin Balcome (43), goes for dunks during warm-ups.]

[A lob to himself, then a two-handed put down.]

[In other warm-ups, two on ones.]

[Jaran Roste (1)]

[Matt Bloom (3)]

[Spencer Hockert (15)]

[Brayden Amundson (23)]

[Alec Wensman (25)]

[All the introductory hand gesturings are adopted from hieroglyphic discoveries amid ancient Mayan ruins.]

[And away we go!]

[Matt shows off the levitating ball trick.]

[While Matt catches a quick cat nap, Brayden makes a move to his left.]

[Brayden launches a 3 over a hard charging Warrior.]

[Will it go?]

[Apparently not.]

[Alec seems to get to the foul line often early in games as we try to establish an inside presence.]

[Jake Drew (33) and Jeremiah Burnham (5) on D.]

[Matt seeking a receiver.]

[Jaran penetrates and dishes to Alec – our best offensive option.]

[Jake, Secretary of Defense]

[Alec back at the foul line.]

[Then Matt – I believe this was after a Warrior apparently abused the King’s English.]

[All D all the time?]

[The Warriors came out hot in the 2nd half . . . ]

[Starting a run that lead to a 6-point lead.]

[A Cardinal time out allowed an opportunity for kudos to the cheerleading squad, if only visually for the one on top of the pyramid:  Ellie Wallace, Brooke Bitzan, Shanay Anderson, Tawni Laughnan, Aliah Roers, Jillian Sparks, and Emmersyn Harris.]

[Then Spencer joined the fray.  I believe he is the Cardinals leading scorer but had been shut out in the first half – then he had about a 17-point 2nd half?]

[In the middle of things is Robert Anderson (35), having the best game I have seen him play.  Among the fans in the stands, we “voted” him player of the game.  He picked us up with hard drives up the middle when we were having trouble penetrating the Warrior defense.]

[Jaran goes airborne on defense.]

[Meanwhile, the cheerleaders went to the other side to entertain Laura and Larry McCoy.]

[Back to the game, obviously waiting for the TV timeout to end.]

[Get back!  Get back!]

[Jaran and Matt discuss Monday’s book report on Ordinary Grace.]

[Way to go, team!]

[Brayden on D, sent this to his grandparents in Florida – what they are doing in Florida I have no idea?]

[Matt with a free throw.]

[After falling behind by 6, we were now up 9.]

[The man of the moment, Mr. Anderson.]

[And a good solid comeback win!]

[Good game, good game, good game, good game . . . ]

[And the girls’ team was there for fan support.  I walked in behind a couple of them before the game started and thought . . . in “my day” if a girl was wearing a letter jacket, it was her boyfriend’s; now they earn their own!]

There are three rules for a writing a novel.  Unfortunately, no one knows what there are.  ~  W. Somerset Maugham

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