alexandriacardinals

[From the Trumm files, the seniors:  Back, l-r – Alli Haar, Joie Warnes, Lauren Johnson; front, l-r: Brianna Ebert, Sam Trumm, Mo Eigen]

Column III, or physical dominance by the Cardinal girl basketballers. After the deer photos, it was off to the JHS gymnasium. It was senior night, the last game of the regular season, a game between two teams with 20-3 records – the Cards v. the Sartell Sabres. [Aside: The Cards apparently took a lot of Fergus in their previous game – the Otters subsequently lost to Hawley and last night beat St. Cloud Tech by one point on a shot at the last second.] Sartell won the first game – at their place, in OT, when again the Cards were plagued by foul trouble and Lauren Trumm fouled out in the 2nd half. This time the Cards came out with a vengeance.

The senior night pre-game video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdkCmFcxv7k

Then they broke up too soon for a group photo:

More from the Trumm files:

I think the game was decided on the opening tap. Sartell has a 6’5” center – and she can play. Sam got the jump on her. The Cards just ate them up defensively the whole game. I don’t think I’ve seen anything quite like it before. Sartell had 24 points with 3 ½ minutes left in the game – probably half of them on free throws. This is a 20-win team. The final score of 43-37 in no way indicates the difference between the teams – the Cards had an athletic edge at every position. Again, it seemed like a game the Cards should have had 80 points – but the basket continues to not be a friend when we shoot at it. The Cards dominated the boards against Fergus in the last game – the 1st time the tall Otters had been outrebounded all year. I haven’t seen the stats yet, but last night must have been similar to the Fergus game. I think Alli had 20 rebounds, and Sam was probably in double figures too. It was a night for our bigs. Lauren was in early foul trouble, as she was the first game against Sartell, and sat out a great deal. But we got good contributions from everybody on the defensive end. That’s where we have to win it from. The sections begin next Tuesday – we will be the 2nd seed and host a game. We are the best team in the section – now all we have to do is go out and prove it.

Video of the game’s beginning:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8d2tuuOU3g

[Coach’s pre-game stop-and-chat.]

[Ruthie once danced with young Mr. Nelson, a highlight of her life!]

Big crowd last night – we sat with the McCoys and the Rileys. There was no room in our row when new Super Fan Al Grundei, fresh off his state hockey tournament appearance, arrived. We hope he was able to sit with Super Fans Hoymes and Halvorsons. After the game, we all were invited for root beer floats and cookies with the team.  We were joined there by basketball Super Fans Marlene Lorsung and Vivian Mattson.  The coaches toasted the players; the players toasted each other:

The team recognized in the school hallways:

[* This May Take More Than One Column, Maybe Several]

[2nd period face-off in Ridder Arena.]

Column II, or the consolation game of the girls state hockey tournament. After the defeat at the hands and skates of the “Marvin Windows Team USA All-Stars,” the supervisor and I, absent a corps of revelers willing to join us at the St. Paul Hotel bar, headed to Mounds View for an overnight with Brother Cam’s family. As is now a common occurrence in the elderly who seldom visit the Big Cities anymore, we took several wrong turns along the way. We eventually made it, where we partied a bit with Karen, Cam, Katy and Michael – brownies by Katy and lemon and blueberry bread by Cam were delicious menu items. I was told that when we ventured to our sleeping quarters, I turned on the TV and fell asleep almost before I hit the bed.

In the morning, we headed down to the “U” where the Cards were playing Red Wing, a first night loser to Eveleth-Gilbert, 5-2. Robo stayed to scout the game and reported that while Red Wing was young and not very deep, they had some excellent players. He said they lost to Eveleth’s superior depth in the 3rd period, but it was a tie game until then. Through two periods, the Cards and Wingers seemed evenly matched. But the Cards had regressed to their late season propensity of giving up soft goals and were behind 3-0 going into the 3rd period. It didn’t help that in the totally unbiased opinion of Card fans, we weren’t getting a fair shake from the officials. At one time, we thought the Cards had scored as the goal light came on. Then, after a meeting of the minds, the refs decided that not only had the Cards not scored, they determined that even though play had stopped when the goal light came on, they moved the face-off outside the zone because a Card had accidentally knocked the goal post off its peg (again, after the goal light!). Around that same time, there were a couple of bad penalty calls – and some that weren’t called that should have been. In exasperation, Coach Mitch Loch used his one and only timeout then – more of a cooling off for him and the team, because he never addressed the team during the timeout. It was obvious the only purpose in calling it was to show the officials he wasn’t happy with the play calling.

[The line of Claire Illies, Becca Illies, and Shelby Iverson.]

[Robo and the Card fans.]

The Cards came out on a mission in the 3rd period, and Rachel Finley scored to pull the Cards within 2. Then we got loose on defense again and gave it back almost immediately. The Cards continued to pressure, and on a power play, Shelby Iverson drew the puck back to Claire Illlies two times in a row – the goalie caught and held onto the 1st shot, Claire’s second shot hit the 5-hole, and the Cards were behind by 2 again. Then Red Wing scored again! Though the Cards controlled the 3rd period, outshooting the Wingers 14-7, and 37-30, for the game, they lost 5-2. It was a good competitive game, and the Cards played hard to the end. With everyone back next year except for Claire, and with lots of talent in the pipeline, I suspect we will be favored to return to state again next year.

Highlight of the game (and I apologize for not mentioning it to her dad at the basketball game last night): I noted in the first game report that Claire was really sick and wasn’t sure if she could play. Before the Red Wing game, the team was sitting together in the stands – except for Claire, who was lying down and feeling really crumby (“really crumby” in medical parlance means “I wish I was home in bed.”). We don’t call her the world’s toughest 80-pounder for nothing. She played the whole game again – and in the 3rd period, with Red Wing on a power play, Claire controlled the puck with great stick handling for what seemed like a full minute with the entire Red Wing team chasing her around. It was an unbelievable display. Next year, we’ll have her little sister Becca play that role.

We raced back home to Alex – with the new gas prices, now a $60.00 roundtrip.  The Card basketball team had a game that night.  After we enjoyed a two-minute nap, we were getting ready to go when the supervisor shouted (I almost knocked over my glass of Geritol), “Where’s your camera??”  There were six deer in our yard – we haven’t seen deer in the yard for years.

[Deer don’t wear snowshoes – they would occasionally sink in walkng through drifts.]

THIS JUST IN: So. St. Paul beat Breck 1-0 to advance to the championship game in Class A. The Cards beat So. St. Paul, 3-2, in the season opener. We’re not that far away!

THIS JUST IN, II:  Warroad – 9, Eveleth-Gilbert – 0.  Really makes my point, huh?  There were Eveleth-Gilbert fans around us the first night – they thought they could beat Warroad.  We just laughed.  Alex did better against Warroad – and we likely could have been the 4th seed, or the true No. 1 in “Class A.”  Alex, Red Wing, Hutchinson, and Eveleth are all pretty similar – New Ulm is still a ways back.  The other three “Class A” teams in the tournament all recruit – So. St. Paul, Breck, and Warroad.  Move ’em up.

From the Echo, photos from the section finals v. Fergus:

[* This May Take More Than One Column, Maybe Several – my feeble attempt at twittering, or is it tweeting?]

Where do we begin? We have several games and assorted other fun and legal things to cover. (And I have to note, the staff photographer hit the internet with almost 600 photos from the last four basketball games the night before . . .) I have been chastised by our legions of readers for not “publishing” anything since the senior shovelers.  The supervisor and I were preparing for our THIRD trip of the week – this one even involved an overnight, which, of course, requires packing. It was Wednesday morning, and we were heading down to the Big Cities for the girls state hockey tournament. Such is the magnitude of this event that I even went to a car wash before we left – something we haven’t been able to do since November and I’d forgotten the color of the car! I even took out the floor mats and washed out three months of winter debris.

The temperature was in the mid-20’s as went entered the southbound lanes on I-94. The pavement was clear and dry. But as we continued apace, we kept noticing the car’s outdoor thermometer was creeping up (this was a far cry from the 26 below zero temps the day we made this trip in 2008). It soon became evident the carwash was for naught. By the time we reached the outskirts of the metropolis, the roads were wet and slushy from  melting snow and the car’s original cinnamon color had once again turned to the color of ashy dried mud.

We reached the Xcel Energy Center parking garage in plenty of time for our 3:00 dining appoinment with whomever else was going to show up at Cossetta’s on W. 7th Street, one block from the arena. We browsed the displayed goodies in admiration – pledging to return at the completion of the hockey game to acquire a loaf of peasant bread and some Fontinella cheese, delicacies not always available in our fair city. The Illies, Drown, and Kopischke hockey families – with several offspring in tow – appeared shortly after we arrived. That’s when we got our first piece of bad news. Sara Illies reported that her daughter, Claire, the team’s leading scorer, was really sick and may not play. We were then joined by Alex alums, Greg Johnson, class of ’65 (mine), and Al Grundei, class of ’67, who was also going to the game. We had a nice leisurely lunch of things dazzling to the taste buds (yes, these trips are always about eating), and then departed for the “X.” As we were heading out, we ran into the Herd hockey famly, who had to report their daughter, Shanee’, was not feeling too good either. Things were looking bleaker.

[Buying our game tickets at the X.]

[Pre-game nosh @ Cossetta’s with alums Greg Johnson, Al Grundie, and this reporter.]

But the above is not to establish an alibi. By the bad luck of the draw, we had been selected to play the No. 1 seed, the “Marvin Windows Team USA All-Stars.” Even a totally healthy Cardinal team would have been overmatched. The “All-Stars” won, 7-0. Claire and Shanee’ and the team played as well as they could. The highlight of the game was that Sam Ellingson, a senior who seldom gets ice time, got a chance to play in a state tournament game as it was winding down (though a Cardinal fan did note that the “All-Stars” still had their top line in at the time). I subsequently wrote the following letter to the Minneapolis StarTribune, which won’t be published of course:

Returning once again to “The Fairness Doctrine.” No, not that one – the one that determines the class system for the Minnesota State High School League.

I just returned from the girls state hockey tournament. Warroad plays in class A. They are a college team. They are not made up of players from the Warroad school system. In fact, we call them the Marvin Windows Team USA All-Stars – most hockey followers think they are the best team in the state regardless of class. They are very good – but they are playing against small town teams playing with their own kids. So are teams such as So. St. Paul, Blake and Breck, who opt to play in class A. I have no problem with teams who choose to go the recruiting route – although I do feel for the players in those places who then don’t get a chance to play. But they should be required to play in class 2A. Recruiting for players takes student population out of the equation in determining class.

Of the first six games in the girls class A hockey tournament, only two were competitive: the games between Eveleth-Gilbert and Red Wing, and between Red Wing and Alexandria. These schools play with their own kids – and they were the most fun games to watch. Isn’t that the idea of state tournaments – competitive balance?

Well, if you have a high horse, you have to ride it once in a while.

[Game 1 @ the X, we were joined by Grundei and Robo.]

The pre-game intros video:

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

And finally, because it is in my contract, the announcement and subsequent cancellation of Skilly & Duff’s performance tonight.  Mikko was also afflicted by whatever is going around, as were Super Fans, Dusty and Joy Johnson, who were unable to attend the games.

Like a well oiled machine, the supervisor & I, honed by many performances this season, brought the dreaded 50-yard long driveway to its knees in we believe less than an hour and a half this morning.

The 243rd blizzard of the season arrived late to Vacationland USA. No snow all day yesterday (though it had been predicted) – but the wind did HOWL. Some time after dark, we peaked out a shroud encrusted window and noticed the little white darlings were beginning to fall from the sky. By this morning, it appeared the predicted 8” had fully arrived. It’s garbage day – we had to figure a way to get the stuff to the end of the driveway by 7:30, the usual pick up time. We waited for daylight so we could see what we were up against. TV was highlighting the nearly 20” of snow smothering the Twin Cities’ western suburbs. Our slab was bare on the north side, but had about a two-foot drift covering the rest of it.

The supervisor and I grabbed our three shovels (we specialize, depending on conditions) and plowed our way out the front door. Once the porch was clear, the supervisor headed down the driveway, shoveling a shovel-wide path. Now we could tell that the driveway had a uniform snow depth of 8-10″ for its entire length.  She got about ¾ of a way down when she decided she would take a shoveling break to haul the garbage down. She made it. When we got to the road, no sign of any tire tracks, so no newspaper. Just as well, the deliverer would have got stuck. The snow plow had not been through yet, and the road was covered by a foot of undulating snow.

[Pardon me. Phone calls. First Dangerous Dan, our next door neighbor. He has fled to Southern California for many years – except this one. He just wanted to tell us he has never seen anything like this winter – as he’s waiting patiently to be plowed out, yet again. Then Brother Cam, in Mounds View. He was on his way to a parts store. For the second time this winter, he broke the shear pin on his snow blower – never happened in the previous hundred years he’s owned the thing.]

Shortly after we finished, the snow plow came through (of course). The supervisor raced out to save the garbage cans. She did – and the snow plow driver cleared the pile he had just made at the end of the driveway for her. While she was out there, the garbage man arrived – @ 8:15, only 45 minutes late. Not bad. He said he had to skip around on his route to only go down the roads that had been plowed. So, the super was able to bring the cans back in.

Still snowing and windy at now 1:30 pm. Sounds like a good time for a nap. (I suppose I should mention another snow “event” is forecast for this Sunday, and again for the middle of next week. Super Fans Bob and Vivian Annen, possibly in anticipation of such, e-mailed today that they have signed up for three months next winter at the condo where they’re staying now in Sarasota. They like it there!)

The current event is over.  The road side deck had at least a foot of snow on it when I went out to shovel it at 5:00.  On the lakeside, wind and snow created some interesting drifts – kind of like living next to the ocean:

The aftermath:

From the Echo: