alexandriacardinals

Fergus Falls has been ranked No. 1 or 2 all year in girls’ class AAA basketball.  There’s a reason for that.  They’re good.  They have size, depth, and shooting – you don’t really need much more than that.  We’ve seen them play our Cards twice now.  And I suspect they were two of the better games the Otters played all year – so good on them.

The Cards played with them until about 7 minutes were left in the game.  Then we hit the wall – we were pooped.  You can tell when you’ve lost your legs – we started missing bunnies and free throws.  So, down the stretch, if we missed two free throws, the Otters would come back and score and just slowly stretched the lead to the end of the game.

We played them man-to-man, rather than our usual 1-3-1.  The 1-3-1 works great if you have the size advantage on the perimeter – we do not have that against the Otters, who can pass over our traps and generally can find an open 3-point shooter.  Playing them man-to-man I think limited their 3-point shooting, though they still made their share.  I was probably most impressed with Whitney’s defense on the Otters’ center. 

LT played her usual good game and scored a game high 21 points.  Kalli was aggressive offensively against sometimes two players taller than she – she still was able to score or draw fouls.  We ended the regular season with a terrific 20-4 record, despite losing three starters from last year.  We are seeded No. 1 in the south division of our section and will play Sauk Rapids in the first round of the tournament at home on Tuesday.  Fergus finished with a 25-1 record and the No. 1 seed in the north division of our section.  I’m sure the team is hoping for one more shot at them in the section finals!  🙂  [It pains me to say the Otters may be the team to beat for the next couple of years.  They have key players back again next year, and their JV team is mindful of their varsity with size and shooting ability.]

[The student section was in fine fettle with t-shirts and photos on a stick proclaiming Kohler to be the real “Coach K”!]

[The Cards appear.]

[The students go crazy!]

[Lonely, I’m Mr. Lonely . . .]

[Biggest basketball crowd of the year, befitting the game’s status.  I arrived over an hour early and found parking to be at a premium.]

[. . . even drew the Red Hats!]

[Good thing the band wasn’t scheduled – there wouldn’t have been room!]

[El was there to keep an eye on the students.  Once a teacher, always a teacher!]

[Cara warms up.]

[Did I mention it was a REALLY big crowd?]

Let the fun begin.  Here is the video for player introductions and the opening minutes – you kinda get a feel for the intensity:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSvs9uE8Q1Y

[Cara leads LT up the left side.]

[It’s tiring getting by those big picks.]

[Amanda C on D.]

[LT between two Otters who may become D-1 players.]

[Certain hockey folks have moved over to follow the pum’kin pushers!]

[Amanda, LT, and Kalli make first half free throws.]

[The halftime show was a big hit!  🙂 ]

[The student section brings the team out for the 2nd half by doing the “roller coaster ride.”]

[LT]

And then my photography became bad luck:

AND THANKS AGAIN TO THE SENIORS FOR A GREAT SEASON:

Two days before the game, we had our biggest snowfall of the year – 4″ of heart attack snow.  It was also a tragic day with three separate fatal car accidents in the area, undoubtedly all weather related.

Oh, and the kids got a Smart Car yesterday!  😉

Oh (again), as an older retired person who has pretty much lost interest in the college and pro sports scenes, today has been a particularly fun day – even absent our Cardinals, it was all day with the girls’ state hockey tournament, four games with the two semi-finals in classes A and AA.  The tournament action started this morning with a great game in class A – So. St. Paul upset Warroad 4-2.  I have to admit I kept waiting for the PA to announce the Warroad players’ home towns during the pre-game introductions!  😉  The 2nd class A game featured some real fireworks as Breck beat Red Wing 8-4.  What was most amazing is that both these teams are virtually junior high teams – they are loaded with 7th – 9th graders!  Of course, they also had some upper class stars, as did the 1st game, many of whom are going on to play for the Gophers.  This evening’s 1st game, still ongoing, features Roseville v. Edina – Roseville apparently has five D-1 players.  Now if you’ll excuse me, it’s back to the action!

I know.  You’ve been wondering.  No games for a week.  What’s going to be used as filler?  So, back by popular demand (OK, it’s the first thing I thought of) is the ever popular, “Where in the World is Ruthie?”  Of course, this was patterned after NBC’s slightly less popular, “Where in the World is Matt Lauer?”  But what do you expect – Lauer has never been to Farwell!

This “game” has been played for the last few years by some-with-nothing-better-to-do and who had the misfortune to be in my e-mail address book.  Prizes for the winners over that period of time have included such as a year’s worth of lint from our dryer trap or personally experienced best driving directions from here to there.  With some adieu, we now present either 24 or 26 places the supervisor has been in the 24 odd years we have been acquaintances.  I have no idea what she was doing in the even years.  The photos were chosen totally at random from the first 24, or 26, I ran across that suited the subject matter.  The photos are numbered for your convenience, or indifference, whichever occurs first:

You have 30 minutes.  Begin.

[Editor’s note:  Numbers “7” and “11” have been excluded for obvious reasons.  They were simply forgotten.  It happens.  I’m old.]

And in the just for fun department:

John Hawkes (r) was in town yesterday – as a native, he knew enough to leave just before the snowstorm hit.  As you’ll recall, he was nominated for an Oscar last year – and this year he won an acting award at the Sundance Film Festival.  He is standing next to Bryan Stoeck, an Alex 1977 classmate.  Bryan’s dad, Boris, used to deliver fuel oil to our house back in the days we lived in Victoria Heights.  The photo is courtesy of Tom Anderson.  Tom was also Alex class of 1977.  Tom also bought my Mom’s house.  See, it all connects eventually.

Meanwhile, back at the high school (oh yeah, I said that already).  Senior night for the girl roundballers took place on the same night we repaired to St. Cloud for the girls’ hockey section finals.  Fortunately, I knew the staff photographer was there to “cover” events at JHS.  Had he not, I would have been in a real dither!  [a dither, by the way, is a mythical place just on the leeward side of a cappella (see further references below).]  If I had been asked to choose, I would have said it was the moral equivalent of asking which child do I like best?  Well, that’s not valid since I don’t have children.  It would have been like asking which cat do I like best?  But we don’t have cats anymore.  I guess I just don’t have a good metaphor?  [a metaphor, incidentally, is also a mythical place, but in a totally different province from a dither and a cappella.]  Now aren’t you glad you have someone who will provide all this useless information free of charge?  Oh, we played Rocori.

[Cara, an honored senior]

[With Dani.]

[I suspect the staff photographer has more photos coming of all the honorees . . .]

[S-s-s-e-n, i-i-i-o-r, S-e-n-i-o-r-s, SENIORS!]

[Kohler gets ready to send another class out into the world.  One of the good things we’ve discovered as seniors is that we get discounts on a lot of stuff.]

[Next season’s power forward.]

[Emily]

[Whitney – looks like she’s gathering herself for a windmill dunk!]

[Whitney and Kalli practice establishing post position.]

[The requisite pre-game discussion about the Kardashians.]

[“Why, yes, we are all happy to be here!”]

[The incredibly cute version of the National Anthem.]

[“We’ve looked everywhere.  No sign of Kim?”]

[“Are you Kim?”]

[“We have flowers for you!”  (Having not been there, I have no idea what this was all about – but the Rocori player seems delighted!  🙂 ]

[The last time I play Rocori.]

[“Aaaayyyyyyyyy!”]

[The ref flinched.  “My Coke!”]

[The 1-3-1 takes position.]

[If Cara’s walking, the break wasn’t there.]

[Whitney pops a J.]

[Our three perimeter players are all 5’9″ – that’s like all being 6’3″ or 6’4″ in the boys’ game.  It makes a difference, particularly defensively.]

[Just keep making those free throws!]

[The result of a grant from the Education Foundation?  Its job is to deliver cold beverages to the Super Fans.]

[Set up for the wheel play?]

[Apres game festivities for the seniors.]

[Seniors Kendra, Missy, Lauren, Cara, and Whitney.]

Let the hugging begin:

[The tri-captains]

[Whom amongst us doesn’t like presents?]

[Hug]

[“Jess, next year you have to be me.”]

Yesterday was our first Central Lakes Concert Association concert since, well . . . the last one.  We were reminded of such because the weather in this winterless winter was similar to our last venture to the high school for a musical event.  As you may recall, the school Christmas concert was on December 18 and the supervisor, as noted in the photo below, was bedecked in summer attire.

For the concert yesterday, attendees were once again arriving in short-sleeve shirts – the temperature was in the mid-40’s under bright sunny skies on February 19.  We were there to see Voces 8, an a cappella (see previous reference above) group from the United Kingdom.  Though generally not a cappella fans, we enjoyed them very much.  🙂  [Please pardon my delay in writing this.  The supervisor has become a distraction as she attempts to make chicken soup to help alleviate her cold.  First, she discovered (to her amazement) she didn’t have chicken stock – so I advised to use beef stock instead (master chef that I am).  Then she opened a can of black beans to put in the soup only to discover the can contained sliced green beans!  Ha!  She showed me the can – sure enough, it said “black beans” with a picture.  Not her day so far.  😉  I should also note she is doing this in preparation for the forecasted largest snowfall of the season – up to 4 inches possible today!  All have been advised to make sure all pets are brought indoors, and several area squirrels were quite upset when Ruthie rounded them up to do just that!  (She just noticed that the old marshmallows she put on the deck to help those “rodents” survive the winter have finally disappeared after a couple of days.)

You must be from the South.  Being cold for a short period of time is not life-threatening.   ~ Bud Grant

Meanwhile, back at the gymnasium.  OK, not our gymnasium.  And this was actually the night before the hockey section finals.  But the competition was also Detroit Lakes – at their place.

You may recall DL beat us at our place in our the first game of the year.  I pointed out at the time there were extenuating circumstances – it was their 4th game (and we were breaking in three new starters), Cara missed the entire game with a sprained ankle, and LT fouled out with over 5 minutes left in the game when we were leading.  As in hockey, we have the athletic advantage over the Lakers – they, however, having a shooters advantage.  This game was very much like the 1st game.  We jumped out to an early lead by creating lots of turnovers, then DL spent the rest of the game slowly working their way back into it with superior shooting.  We had a 17 point lead at one point in the 2nd half – DL cut it to 5 before we closed it out with clutch free throw shooting down the stretch.  We may have to play them in the sections – we’ll have to work on holding, or building on, early leads if we continue to start fast against them.

The road game photos as usual are from the staff photographer:

[Rachel in the JV game.]

[Abby in the JV game.]

[The JV’s]

[“I heard the Super Fans were so pooped they didn’t even go out for date night!”]

[Amanda C and a Laker . . . dancing?]

[Whitney runs the gauntlet . . .]

[ . . . and meets another Laker – I guess both teams are allowed five.]

[Getting ready . . . “Aaaaayyyyyyy!”]

[“I got the one in red.”]

[LT and Whitney in block out positions.]

[Whitney and Kalli have inside position.]

[At the half, LT (43) already had 20 – that will be key as we head into the tournament.]

[“LT, can you get 20 more?”]

[“Nah, but the team can get 31 more and win the game!”]

[“Is that who I think it is in the stands?”]

[“Yes, it is!”  (Editor’s note:  I have no idea.)]

[Amanda C starts a drive.]

[Whitney]

[Cara feeding the wing.]

[Everybody was good from the line at the end.  And girl, isn’t that going to be important come tournament time?]

[Let’s wrap up this puppy!]

[Jess was player-of-the-game.  Listening to the re-broadcast, she made several good outlet passes on the break.]

[Coach Engebretson has a little “radio” fun with her.]

 

Dave and Jess say, “Next up on the blog, Senior Night for girls’ basketball.”