alexandriacardinals

Does this photo appear to have appearance difficulties?  Well, it should.  For reasons linked to the inconsistent firing of brain synapses.  It all began yesterday (Saturday) morning.  The supervisor had a busy day lined up for us (well, that’s how I spread the blame).  We had a meeting that lasted from 11:00 am – 2:00 pm from which we hied immediately to the winery for an afternoon of fine music with Anthony Miltich, while also partaking, at least from the beverage standpoint, in the currently re-discovered incredibly healthy Mediterranean diet.  😉  We were subsequently joined by the neighbors of, and allegedly relatives of, the staff photographers, so we slightly overstayed our intended departure time all in the name of good fun.

[Re the insert photo:  Card alum Sam Trumm, now a student at NDSU, was at the game with her folks, but Lauren, also at NDSU, had a school function.  Fellow Card alum Angela Christianson was there with her folks to see the Cards and sister Amanda.]

We raced home and dialed up directions to the gymnasium at the University of Minnesota, Moorhead, for we were going on another road trip.  After sampling several useless sites, we finally printed the best of a bad set of options, and began the trip to the section 8AAA semifinal girls basketball game between our Cardinals and the 25 – 2 Thief River Falls Prowlers, the same team we played in the semifinals last year.  In our rush to make this commitment, I realized several miles down the road that I had forgotten the tools of the trade, i.e., my camera and . . . my brain!  Once there, I relied on the ole snapshot camera for the few photos I took.  Fortunately the staff photographer was there with the proper equipment.  This post will be amended as soon as his material is available.  In the meantime, I was able to video the 1st 3 minutes of the game – the Cardinals came out with all afterburners flaming:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_X1EgWYm2Q

[The Trumm photos are in!  And the rest of the photos are his!  🙂 ]

[Contrary to courtside scuttlebutt, I was not refing the game.]

[Kohler meets the Prowlers.]

[Aaaaayyyyyyy!!!]

[Intros, Karly greets Sarah.]

[And then the Prowlers leading scorer.]

[Jess greets a Prowler.]

[Dani and Sarah]

[Amanda C and Sarah]

[Amanda C and a Prowler]

[Kalli says “Hi!”]

[A bunch of old people came up all the way from Alex.  We’d better win!]

[Amanda C gets a steal on the Prowlers 2nd possession.  Karly provides support.]

[And one – she finished with 22 points.]

[Karly steals . . .]

[And scores – she had 12 points.]

[And this point, the Prowlers had yet to get off a shot . . . and had just barely reached the front court!  Something just learned- the Cardinals have the No. 1-ranked defense in class AAA, allowing opponents 40 points per game or less.  And it’s not from taking the air out of the ball – it’s chaos theory basketball!  😉 ]

[Chaos theory in practice!]

[(Greg’s getting good at this shot.)]

[The Master of Disaster brings it up.]

[The next five photos demonstrate the defense in action with Dani eventually getting the steal and heading up court.  Of course, we enjoy it immensely!]

[Go, Dani, go!]

[Karly – either getting a steal or already on offense?  It’s hard to tell with them.]

[Kalli on D.  She had 7 steals in the game!  Like Sam before her, what our centers lack in size, they make up for in quickness.  It seemed like every time time the Prowlers tried an entry pass, Kalli would jump in front of their center and intercept it.]

[Number 11 was their leading scorer.  A good 3-point shooter, and she hit a couple.  We kept her under control.]

[Kalli goes high.]

[Playing a frenetic pace requires playing lots of players.  If you don’t get tired, you aren’t playing hard enough.  Fortunately the Cards have “deep depth,” as some wag once called it.  Here the wing span of Emily hassles the inbounds while Sarah and Macy track the exterior.]

[Hello, 911?  We’d like to report a multi-player pile up in the backcourt.]

[Listen, ladies, Trumm’s got his camera on us.  Feign indifference.]

[After another Kalli steal of an entry pass, she took it the length of the court for a lay-up!]

[Cardinal fans balanced both sides of the court.]

[The boys’ team was there.  Texting notes back to headquarters.]

(Listen No. 11, you make this shot and you’ll be wearing Betterman like a second skin for the rest of the game.)]

[The double-team moves in.]

[There, there!  That’s Kim Kardashian!]

[Amanda C was 11 – 12 from the line.  The team was 18 – 20.  Crucial when you’re getting fouled the end of the game.  Once again the Cards showed they can step it up come tournament time!  🙂 ]

[Remember that second skin thing?]

[Well, here I am!]

[At the half.  The Prowlers had an impressive record, like last year.  Checking their schedule, they had some good wins.  But just as in the semifinal game last year, the Cardinal pressure was initially something they had never experienced before.  The Cards turned them over early and often and raced to a nice lead.  It looked like an easy win.  But then, like last year, the Cards hit the scoring doldrums, the Prowlers regrouped, showed they are a good shooting team, and worked their way back into the game.  The Prowlers came out after the half and scored the 1st 7 points, taking the lead.  The Cards looked like the team in trouble.  The Prowlers maintained a slight (up to 3) lead for a while when the Card pressure gradually started to have an impact again.  Slowly the Cards regained the lead and continued to build on it for the rest of the game.  A nice win.  Amanda led the way with 22 – Kalli did well inside, and Karly was her usual pesty self on defense.  And the Cards hit their free throws which was key down the end.  Oh, because of big early lead, the Cards rested the starters in the 1st half so they would have gas in the tank at the end.  The 8th-graders played early and often – and did well.  But we had to laugh at one point when the Cards had an extended offensive possession, then momentarily lost the ball, which was recovered again by Kendall, who then turned and launched a long 3, like a shot clock was running out.  And she made it!  🙂 ]

[Amanda C leads off the 2nd half with a happy face.]

[Kalli lowered her flight path – making more free throws.]

[The Cards slowly ground them down.]

[The Mexican place on 6th?  I was thinking Canadian.]

[Lookin’ good from the line, Cards!]

[Karly]

[Amanda C, above and below]

[C’mon, ref!  She’s only an 8th-grader, for Pete’s sake!  (Great shot, Greg!)]

[Her mom’s right here on the bench.  It’ll never happen again!]

[Wrap it up, Amanda!]

[We won!]

[Kohler really liked this one.  She was juiced!]

[Bob “The Voice” returns with Karly for her post-game player-of-the-game for the KXRA listening audience.]

[“The Voices” courtside.  I had a shot of Bob bringing Karly in as player-of-the-game but it was no good.  Yup, my photo.  😦 ]

[Section final next Friday, March 8, 7:30, @ St. John’s, v. Fergus Falls!  See you there!]

Well, as long as we’re here, we bring you, at no additional charge, the staff photographer’s coverage of the quarterfinal game against Little Falls:

[The game was out of hand early for the Flyers.  D’yah think?]

[Silly me!  Wore the opposing team’s color!  The supervisor said, “No DQ for you!”  You will note the regular Super Fans behind us are Ruth and Bud Anderson.  Ruth was my high school classmate and was recently featured, along with Bud, in our class blog.  Little did I know they were internationally-renowned muskie fishermen!  Check them out at: www.65roundup.blogspot.com.  (Did you know muskellunge is Ojibwe for “great fish”?)]

[Just a guess.  A drummer?]

[Parents of some pretty darn good Cardinal players.]

[Sarah drives through traffic.  To my knowledge, she did not violate any laws.]

[Here comes a play!]

[Emily draws a bead on a Flyer.]

[Kalli as our low-post threat.]

[Is it good?]

[So, it was either an “. . . and one,” or she’s shooting two.]

[Nice catch, Mr. Photographer!]

[At the half.  Time for some channel surfing . . .]

[A sitting room only crowd, but I was taking a 7th-inning stretch.]

[Kalli practices her post jumper.]

[Amanda on her way to 27.]

[Dani sinks a free throw.]

[And two!]

[Amanda C challenged by the Flyer star.]

[Ref, seriously, that was a foul!]

[Karly goes in for a two-handed slam!]

[Amanda C, and below]

[Is this taco Tuesday?  With the 3 seniors standing behind, Kohler addresses next year’s team!  😉 ]

[The youth movement.]

[A nice steal and go series by Macy.]

[And it’s good!  When Sam and Angela were the stars of the team, Macy and Kendall would hang around as young gym rats.]

[Bud and Trish, exit stage left.]

[Next year’s team.]

[The Prowlers would be next, of course.]

[Clap, clap, clap – clap, clap, clap – clap, clap, clap!]

[Aaaaayyyyyyyy!]

[Bring on the Lynx!]

[In all his glory!  (Gory?)]

[Player-of-the-game Amanda C]

[Kalli visits with the print media.]

[Dave has now done more interviews than Howard Cosell.]

[Media row.]

[Amanda C with the print media.]

[The coach and her seniors.  Let’s ride this train to the Cities!  😉 ]

[This one was a heartbreaker.]

After our fine dining experience after game one, the elderly Super Fans meandered back to the ‘X’ to scout our next morning’s competition.  We sat among a group of Red Wing fans, who were there for the same reason, with whom we again made our case that the Cards had outplayed, if not outscored, their Wingers.  They were good natured about our ribbing and complimented the Cards on the good game.  The game went as expected – the private school super power, perennial class favorite, and multiple times state champion, The Blake School (as I may have mentioned before, never play team whose name begins with “The” and ends with “School” – that means they likely recruit the lower 48 and Canada) defeated Mound Westonka, though the White Hawks played them close until the end.  So, the Cards would have a rematch at Ridder Arena in the morning against a team who beat us during the Christmas holidays at the their place (Becca and Amy were on injured/sick reserve that game).  Thus, we had a little revenge factor working for us.

Then off to our evening’s lodging for an afternoon nap, as we were now totally exhausted from all the excitement of the big city.  We awoke in time for another fine dining experience at the closest known facility to our location – Champps in Woodbury.  The place was totally packed – I think it was happy hour – and we were “forced” to endure the Gopher men’s basketball team’s debacle against Ohio State, featured on the several hundred TV’s in the place.  The Gopher’s appeared to have recovered in their next game:

[Photo on loan from the StarTribune.]

The next morning we trundled across the parking lot to our next fine dining experience – at Denny’s.  It was memorable only because our young waitress good-naturedly endured elderly people trying to comprehend a breakfast menu.  We tipped her accordingly.  Then it was on to Ridder – I pulled up next to the arena to unload my passengers who were graciously helped over street-side snow piles by the also arriving Iverson family.

[Inside, the supervisor proudly displayed Cardinals-on-a-stick:  Shanee’, Andy, Becca, and Shelby.]

[Family and friends in the neighborhood with Cardinals-on-a-stick.]

[Weren’t we just here last weekend?]

[Viv has Becca and Hanah!  🙂 ]

[And here come your Alexandria Cardinals!]

[De-hat for introductions.]

[And “The Voices” were on hand.  They could be seen at the ‘X’ only by telescope.]

[Brittin, Andy, and Joe]

[Amy]

[Cardinals]

[McKenzie]

[Shanee’]

[Anna]

[Becca]

[Shelby]

[Goal]

[Hats-on-a-goal.]

[Aaaaayyyyyyyyyy!!!]

[LET’S PLAY HOCKEY!]

[Shanee’ (40) fires it into the zone during what was to be an evenly played game between evenly matched teams.]

[Then she poke checks on defense.]

[Shelby chases a trio of White Hawks.]

[High traffic area involving line changes.  Unbelievably, we did not receive a too many men on the ice penalty, which usually happens any time the puck is in the area where we’re changing lines.]

[Cards touch-up and head into the offensive zone – Shelby (38) and Becca (37).]

[White Hawks defend Madi (12).]

[Cards are nicely spaced for an assault!  Melissa (6) and Taylor (24)]

[Amy captures a long White Hawk attempt.  Nicole (23) and Mari (18) provide support.]

[Looks like Lauren (21), Nicole (23), Mari (18), and Kaila (7) have made a push.]

[Shelby’s line in the zone.]

[Anna (31) and Becca circle back.]

[An unknown Cardinal – Mel? – takes on four White Hawks.]

[Taylor’s line in the zone.]

[Interested spectators in the comfy confines of Ridder!  😉 ]

[Taylor draws the puck back to Nicole.]

[Oooohhhhhhh!  (Usual fan reaction when a flurry around the net results in several near misses!]

[Oooooohhhhhhhhh!]

[Cards continue pressure.]

[Here it comes again – the Cards have the puck surrounded, Shelby heads to the goal.]

[Oooohhhhhhh!]

[OOOOOHHHHHHH!!!!]

[Mel and Taylor forecheck like crazy.]

[Running out of Ooooohhhhhhs!  Mel on the doorstep again.]

[Keep it in!]

[After all that pressure, Shelby finally scored . . .]

[Giving the Cardinals a 1 – 0 lead after one.]

[Mel in period 2, a portent of things to come?]

[Help Amy!]

[Mari chases it in – continuing good play from line 3.]

[Mel’s mom – another portent?]

[Shelby’s line in our end.  Aaaaccckkkk, get it out of there!  😉 ]

[That’s more like it – Anna, Becca, and Shelby with another scoring chance.  How did that puck not go in?]

[Oooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!]

[And Anna’s right there!]

[Keep it up, ladies!]

[Becca and Anna moving in.]

[Can you find the puck?]

[The portent!  Melissa got a break out – and played it beautifully!  She took it in . . . and waited . . . and waited for the goalie to make a move, then she buried it!  🙂  ]

[Cards are up 2 – zip.  We’re feeling good.]

[Hugs!!]

[And here we come again.]

[Uffda!]

[Mel, Taylor, Madi looking for that all important 3rd goal.]

[A hockey mom (?) stands in anticipation of a score.]

[Though obviously not here, the White Hawks scored with 2 minutes left in the period.  The Cards would take a 2 – 1 lead into the final period.]

[Let me out of here – I’m claustrophobic!]

[The final period begins.  Taylor’s line takes the face-off.  I didn’t realize it at the time, but I think Becca played the last half of the game on a leg and a half.  She was hurt in the second period and was helped off by a teammate.  She hurt her knee and didn’t appear to have her usual speed the rest of the game.]

[The young defensemen, Lauren and Nicole, chase down the puck.]

[Shelby and Madi]

[Hanah’s line.  Get that puck and scooooorrrreeeee!]

[Cards chase down a mid-ice puck.]

[Another flurry.]

[Mac, “All alone am I.”]

[Becca knocks on the door, bad wheel and all.]

[The future on D, Lauren and Nicole.]

[Tangle in the Cards zone.]

[Shelby one on four.]

[Mel’s racing for the elusive puck!]

[Trying hard to hold the zone.]

[Coming down to the end.  The team fought off about a minute and a half 5 on 3 situation in the period, further contributing to the natural fatigue of the 2nd game in two days.  The White Hawks tied the came with about 8 minutes to go.

[Overtime]

[The Cards looked beat at the end of the 3rd, but they came out flying in OT and dominated play.  Here was another “Awwww, shucks!” situation.]

[Why won’t it go in?]

[Madi wrapping up her fine senior season.]

[Oooooooohhhhhhhhhh!  The crowd stands in anticipation!]

[Nope, again.  😦 ]

[Come back here, you stupid puck!!!!]

[Then, as so often happens in these situations, the Cards got an accidentally penalty and Mound Westonka won on a power play.]

Congratulations again to the team for a terrific season.  You lived up to all expectations – we thought this would be the best team since the state championship year, and you were!  And it’s never chopped liver to make the state tournament.  Thanks again to the six seniors.  It’s been a pleasure watching you play through your careers.  Best of luck to all of you in your futures.  And come back and see us at some games next year!  Oh, and tell your parents they can join the Super Fans next year – all we request is that they bring cookies!

p.s.  A shout out to our snowbird friends in Florida, it’s time to come home!  Right now you’re in a place that has hurricanes, fire ants, old people driving, pythons, poisonous snakes, old people driving, alligators, Cuban cigars, old people driving, Cuban sandwiches (though delicious, artery clogging), Mark Cuban (oops, he’s in Dallas), old people driving, 6-hour voting lines, marijuana bales washing ashore, old people driving, oil spills, lightning strikes, old people driving, pale-skinned tourists in funny clothes, tan-skinned locals in thongs, old people driving, and now, now . . . sink holes!  We have girls playing hockey.  That’s a good thing!  🙂  ]

p.p.s.  Final tournament thoughts.  After the semis, I predicted a state championship for Blake over No.1-seed Warroad.  Blake had too much team speed.  And I look forward to Dani Cameranesi playing for the Gophers next year – she was named player of the year, and from what I saw in the tournament, I’d have to agree.  And Alex has now lost the most games ever in the state tournament.  But we should wear that as a badge of honor – it means we’ve been there a lot.  And it’s just about impossible for an outstate, non-recruiting team to win in the tournament.  The private schools, Blake and Breck, and the public schools of Warroad and So. St. Paul, just have access to too much talent year in and year out for the rest of the class A schools to be competitive with them.  There’s been a few times where we’ve said Alex was the “public school” champ!  🙂

p.p.p.s.  A shout out to fellow original Super Fan, Bob “Weakie” Annen.  “Weakie” hit 75 years of age today – three-quarters of a century!  Being a girls’ hockey fan keeps you young and in good health!

Yeah, I know.  It’s about time, ole hummus breath!  Uffda, I hate to put this up there first because it doesn’t reflect the closeness of the game.  But we’ll get into that . . .

Prior to the game, I was interviewed live on InformedTV about the Cardinals’ team.  To my knowledge, I was chosen only because the 40 more knowledgeable people all had prior commitments.  Anyway, it did go out live over the airways, and I learned from ex-neighbors who just happen to be here for a couple of weeks preparing their old house for sale that they saw it live because they only have rabbit-ears TV.  😉

My demo tape for ESPN:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJrdW7qR4Fc&feature=player_detailpage

[p.s.  Apologies to Lauren, I know her number is 21!  😉  ]

[Taken somewhere north of Itasca State Park by son-in-law Danny just a couple days ago.  Granted, it has nothing to do with the subject matter, but it’s a good representation of winter in God’s country!  😉  ]

[It wasn’t a fair fight Tuesday night.  We didn’t think it would be.  We beat Little Falls 64 – 38 in the first game of the regular season.]

A little pre-game dialectic with Basketball Dan, the internationally-renowned expert on all things spheroid:

To paraphrase Dorothy, I bet you’re glad . . . you’re not in Kansas anymore!  [He’s originally from Wichita.] Girls’ high school basketball tourney starts today – I bet you’re beside yourself with excitement? ~  Me

I emailed Andy to suggest that when they consider retiring, should pick a place that gets less snow…like Buffalo or Syracuse.  I strongly considered the girls bb tourney, but it lost a close call to a more compelling event: there are some interesting icicles hanging from my roof, and I’m going to monitor their melting this week.  And to assure my gender-equality perspective, I plan to give identical level of attention to the boys tourney!  ~  Dan

[Well, the poor guy is from a different generation.]

[“He” just doesn’t know how much fun it is to watch one such as Karly!  😉 ]

[I think here she’s signaling “touchdown”!]

[Team intros, beginning with Amanda C.  As usual, the fun part of this is keeping an eye on the changing facial expressions of Ms. Kohler, the 2nd from the right on the far lane.  😉 ]

[I think I’ll go for player-of-the-game tonight.]

[Dani.  Kendall gives a full gape.]

[Karly.  Kendall sticks her tongue out.]

[Jess.  Kendall relatively well-behaved.]

[Kalli.  Kendall needs a nap (my sentiments exactly!).]

[Amanda C on the tip.  I have no idea what Kendall is doing.]

[Dani goes airborne while Karly closes in, thus beginning a long and exasperating night for the Flyers.]

[Help me!  For Pete’s sake, will someone please help me?]

[Two-on-one.  Karly’s got them right where she wants them.]

[Karly has laser-light focus on the basketball.]

[Touchdown!  Or a made free throw?]

[Dani gets more air time, thus making her eligible for flight pay.]

[Grounded now, but ready to leap at a moment’s notice!]

[I’ll just run you into Jess’s sector!]

[The automatic double-team is impressive in action.]

[OK, somebody did something against the rules!]

[Amanda C gives it the ole one – . . . ]

[Two.]

[The band (or a reasonable likeness thereof).]

It was around this time, about 7 minutes into the 1st half, that I took a 5-minute video to show the complete dominance of the Cardinal defense:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hiz0cti5M24

[The 8th-graders make an early appearance.]

[Ahhhh, moms – we know the play!]

[Did they signal run ‘Indiana’?]

[Dani’s still on point.  Senior Jamie Jenks (33) for the Flyers was a player, the kind you can’t stand in the opposition – she’s left-handed, strong, can shoot the 3, and can put the ball on the floor.]

[Call 9-1-1!!!]

[We’ve got trouble, my friends!]

[Kalli takes the line.]

[Karly and Jess pinch.]

[The staff photographers arrived – and were accompanied by . . . hockey parents?  😉 ]

[And here we are going the other direction.  Using my superior deductive reasoning, I believe that means we’re in the 2nd half.  And Dani tickles the twine.]

[And on her 2nd shot, she makes the ball totally disappear?]

[Karly walks it up – an opportunity to catch her breath.]

[Amanda C with nothing but net.]

[Emily and Kalli stretch sideline to sideline.]

[Amanda C and Karly introduce themselves to the ball handler.]

[Karly’s leap almost reaches the peach sweater in the 2nd row.]

[Emily inbounds and heads upcourt while Karly remembers an Ole & Lena joke she heard earlier in the day.]

[Macy waves, indicating a Kim Kardashian sighting.  Kendall blurrily enters the fray.]

[Was that really Kim Kardashian?  We had so many faux sightings last year.]

[Here Kendall gives the best demonstration as to what it means to play defense inside your opponent’s jersey!]

[Thankfully, she successfully extricated herself from No. 21’s attire to pursue No. 35.]

[A Flyer has an uncontested road to the hoop?]

[Sarah (15) dashes in to defend the post.]

[Several times took the court as a complete five-some.  Kinda like watching a hockey game.]

[Kendall and Jaylen discuss the finer points of whatever they were talking about.]

[Jaylen adopts the tried and true defensive ploy of pretending to not know where the ball is.]

[Again, the teams appear to be playing sans ball?]

[Alyssa (31), Gretchen (54), and Samantha (41) with PT.]

[Anna (33) gets playing time.]

[Halley’s (53) in the game.  In fact, all 18 players who suited played in the game.  Of those, only 3 are seniors – and the JV team had a 23 – 1 record this year.  That would tend to bode well for the future!  🙂  Kalli will be hard to replace, as most post players are, because she is the interior offense.  One of the “kids” will have to step up.]

[Clap, clap, clap – clap, clap, clap – clap, clap, clap.]

[In case you’re wondering, that’s what the team does in the last 10 seconds or so of a game to indicate – IT’S OVER!]

[Amanda C was named player-of-the-game with 27 points, though she only played about half the game.  Here she waits with great excitement for her post-game radio interview.]

[She asked if I was taking her picture.]

[I said, “Of course . . .]

[“I’m the cub reporter, you’re the player-of-the-game, it’s in my contract!”]

[The staff photographer, who usually covers player-of-the-game, was obviously having too much fun in the stands.]

[Bring on Thief River . . .!]

[The staff photographer gets caught up in another stop-and-chat.]

[The Echo Press interviews Kalli.]

[The staff photographer hits the floor just in time to cover the action.]

[Silly me.  Just as in hockey, I totally forgot that this was the last game the seniors -Dani, Kalli, and Jess – would ever play on their home floor.  Kohler didn’t forget.]

[The seniors posed for more photos.]

[On the way out, we caught El and his son David in some secret JHS room watching the end of the Minnesota-Indiana basketball game.  Then announced the Gophers had just won.  We can’t watch in our household of one Hoosier and one Gopher.  😉 ]

Now the Cards play Thief River Falls in the section semifinals on Saturday, March 2, @ 7:30, at Moorhead State.  We plan on being there.  Anyone else?

And since our Hoosier son-in-law is in-state, here are some of his action photos taken up by Itasca State Park:

[The drive into their property was impassable.]

[They were stationed over a deer carcass.]

GOOD NIGHT!