alexandriacardinals

February 2

OK, Mr. Cub Reporter, you had your long winter vacation – it’s time to get back to work beginning with a girl – boy hockey doubleheader.

Girls v. Brainerd-Little Falls

[Our return home was a good news/bad news situation with the girls’ team.  The good news is McKenzie Revering is back!  You may recall Rev was ACL’ed in the first soccer game of the year, way back in August.  It looked like her entire senior year of athletics (she plays softball in the spring) would be lost.  It was nice to see good ole ’29’ back on the ice again. The bad news was our goalie Sarah Finley has missed some games due to injury – the hope is she’ll be healthy for sections.]

[It’s been a while.  Better show you the roster again.]

[And we’re off.  The Flying Warriors came into the game with only two losses the entire season.  I found it odd they are only ranked 13th in the state class AA rankings?  Anyway, I believe they are the runaway winners of the conference.]

[The 8’s have it – that’s our Megan Pesta.  Megan, Rev, and Ashten Oberg are the only skating seniors on our ridiculously young team.]

[You know Jerry West’s likeness is the logo for the NBA?  Well, I think this shot of McKenna Ellingson (24) could perform the same function for girls’ high school hockey, eh?]

[The bench . . . ]

[The bench, part II, with Ms. Finley standing in civvies and helmet in a cheer/coach mode.]

[Calley Richardson (19) joins McKenna on an assault.]

[But the puck goes behind the net.]

[The puck went that-a-way!]

[I Facebooked this.  The aesthetics of a goalie (the Flying Warriors sophomore Olivia King), a puck, and what otherwise appears to be an empty rink.]

[Two rather early goals by the other guys.]

[Rev obviously is not 100 per cent yet.  She didn’t pull regular shifts or force anything that would have required explosive movement.  If she was challenged with the puck, she passed off rather than try to carry through traffic.]

[Frosh Mayson Toft (14) appreciates having the “old vet” around to show her the ropes.]

[It’s a non-contact sport except when there’s . . . contact.  Alexis Heckert (20) is only a sophomore but like McKenna this is her 3rd year as a regular shifter.]

[Calley is joined in the fray by sophomore Olivia Kopp (40).]

[A really tough sport to be a ref.  Marki Oberg (10) may only be an 8th-grader but she flies around with great abandon.]

[Calley again.]

[And again.]

[Calley finds a good spot to stand waiting for a puck as Kristin Trosvig (15) mucks for control.]

[Then McKenna arrives to aid in the mucking.]

[The same trio in the heart of the action.]

[GOOOAAAAALLLLLL!]

[Ms Ellingson!]

[Here is one of strangest set of stats you’ll ever see on a scoreboard.]

[You had to feel for goalie Madisson Gay.  She’s a senior but this was likely only her 2nd or 3rd start with the varsity.  And goals allowed reflect total team defense – Brainerd-Little Falls only had two losses for a reason – they have great finishers.  After the period, I’m sure Coach Arola is trying to buck up her confidence.  And to Madi’s credit, she had a terrific game against Wayzata two days later.]

[The Cards came out scrapping in the 3rd . . . ]

[And Ms Pesta got a goal.]

[Judging by the Flying Warriors defense, the puck must have gone airborne.]

[Despite the SOG, they weren’t lucky to win.  They’re good.]

[And the post game handshakes . . . ]

Boys v. Brainerd

[Then the boys game began . . . and the race was on.]

[Our Cards came in with a 13 – 5 record, a good season so far.]

[Here Ben Doherty (7) scored a shorthanded goal early in the 1st period to tie the game at one.  You’d think I could at least get him in the picture?]

[Later Derek Dropik (8) would score to tie the game at two.]

[Yes, we were lucky to be tied at period’s end.  The Warriors showed themselves to be a bigger, faster team, and it began to show more and more as the game went on.]

[The future Cardinals game . . . ]

[Hope there’ll be some 6-foot pluses in the group?]

[One of the few Cardinal forays into Warrior territory.]

[I believe Brainerd was the pre-season conference favorite, and they showed it this night.]

[Micah Christenson (22) on an Alex rush here.]

[After 5 periods of hockey, we old bucks decided to call it a night after two.  The 3rd period was much the same – Brainerd was a 6 – 2 winner.  Fortunately, they are a class AA team so we won’t have to face them in sections.]

February 4

Girls v. Wayzata

[It was going to be interesting to see how the team would respond after the Brainerd-Little Falls loss two nights before.  And this was the last regular season game of the year – against the biggest high school in the state!]

[This was such a big game that KXRA deigned to broadcast it . . . on a weekend.]

[Just getting to the arena was tough.  The Fairgrounds was featuring all-day snowmobile races and the entire state of Minnesota was here.  Nevertheless, here’s Ms Ellingson on a charge.]

[Not only is Wayzata the biggest school, and thus class AA of course, but they play in the toughest conference in the state with all the other biggest schools – the metro area’s Lake Conference.]

[Stop that!]

[For the most part, I thought we skated with them pretty well.]

[Junior defense Taylor Breitkreutz (24) with a backhand attempt.  I haven’t seen as many games as usual this year, but I’m developing a real appreciation of her game.]

[Our young team is represented here by sophomore Alexis Heckert (20) and 8th-grader Anna Doherty (7).]

[They had a couple of flurries that piled up the SOG’s.  Madi was having a great game in goal.]

[Sophomore Ellingson (24) and freshman Toft (14) out under the watch of Captain Rev (29).]

[And junior Kristin Trosvig (15) circles in the from the left.]

[McKenna shoots one into the zone.]

[Senior Megan Pesta (8) and junior Josie Minnerath (6)]

[Oh, and Ms Heckert was in there too.]

[Junior Tahlia Olson (27)]

.[The goalie covers as junior Calley Richardson (19) swoops in.]

[Ms Ellingson exchanges pleasantries with a Trojan in front of the net.]

[And here comes the puck out the other side.  I should point out that among their many good players, their star is Natalie Heising (10), senior captain.  She was a member of the U.S. Women’s National Under-18 Team and participated in two International Ice Hockey Federation Under-18 Women’s World Championships (gold- 2016, 2017).  We did a good job of containing her rushes the entire game.]

[We scored with that combination – Calley from McKenna to tie the score at one in the 2nd period.]

[Yay!]

[And Calley’s in again with Rev on the point.]

[We’re hanging in there!]

[Trosvig and Ellingson . . . ]

[And Breitkreutz crashes from the point.]

[Ohhh, so close.]

[Kristin crosses the blue line with speed.]

[There’s a crash in aisle 3!]

[Two Trojans are down . . . where are our Cards?]

[8th-grader Marki Oberg (10) was all over the ice – when you’re an 8th-grader you only know full speed ahead!]

[McKenna trying to escape from the boards . . . ]

[And here she comes with Calley again.]

[Ms Oberg]

[Calley for a backhand stuff?  Not quite.]

[Down one goal, a time out to rest and set up the final minute.]

[Good, fun-paced game to watch.  The Cards ended the regular season with 3 home losses, but all to good class AA teams.  Our final record was 12-12-1.  We only had 10 home games, and if you judge by strength of schedule we should be well-prepared to enter tournament time.]

[And to complete the afternoon scheduling, it was off to the winery for the musical stylings of Charlie Roth and Paul Drinkwine!

Half the game is mental; the other half is being mental.  ~  Jim McKenny

January 12

Discerning people may wonder why Day 1 of the trip was January 10 while Day 2 was January 12?  Well, there’s this thing called the International Date Line that magically makes days disappear.  We left Minnesota on Tuesday, the 10th, and after a 4-hour plane ride to LA, then a 14-hour plane ride from LA to Sydney, we arrived in Australia on Thursday, the 12th?  We were promised we would get that Wednesday back when we went home.  FYI, Sydney is 17 hours ahead of Minneapolis.

[You can’t tell the players without a scorecard.  Although this photo wasn’t taken until the next day, here is our team.  You may recognize them as members of our France river cruise a couple of years ago:  Bert Gross, Bill Gross, Kathy Gross, Anne Gross, Sharon Coldren, Rita Simon, Ruth Obert, Tom Obert.  Kathy and Bert are from Charleston, WV; Anne and Bill are from Annandale, VA; Sharon is from St. John, VI; Rita is from Nashville, IN; and Ruthie and I are from Vacationland, USA. So there are a brother set and two sister sets – Kathy and I are alone in our own DNA.  There are a couple of well-known landmarks behind us – the Sydney Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge (the “old coat hanger”).

Sydney

[So, Day 2 (3?), The Biddies arrive in Australia . . . ready to take on any shopping opportunities the continent has to offer.]

[Our airport shuttle into Sydney dropped Reetz at the Intercontinental where she shared a room with Sharon.  The Super and I then went on to something in our price range – the No-Tell Motel – a couple blocks away.]

[Sharon then joined us for the two block walk to the waterfront at Circular Quay while we waited for the arrival of the Gross families.]

[Things are always happening at the waterfront.  This is not our cruise ship, but it’s where we would board ours in a couple of days.]

[And whom amongst us doesn’t like Goodys?]

[These ferries come and go non-stop.]

[Realizing these attractive models were available, I decided to shoot a Foster Grant ad.]

[Circular Quay in Sydney Cove . . . our home away from home.]

[An American tourist was spotted looking for photo ops . . . ]

[This must have been one of his photo ops.]

[See all those folks on top of the old coat hanger?  Well, they’re all nuts!  Groups go up and over the top of the bridge all day long . . . in lieu of  nap? Anyway, you can find these goings on on YouTube – it’s scary enough just watching let alone doing.]

[Just thinking of going over the top of the bridge got me seeing yellow.]

[At least it was a great day for photographs . . . ]

[But I wouldn’t take a wombat out in this heat!  Every day in Sydney was hotter than the normal body temperature!]

[The Foster Grant models provide foreground perspective for the Opera House.]

[We were told (nay, warned) we would take hundreds of photos of the Opera House from all angles and in all light conditions.  And I succumbed.]

[See, told ya.  The models didn’t seem to mind.]

[2016 was the 200th year of the Royal Botanic Gardens through which we were about to take a train ride.]

[Said train.]

[While we waited train departure, I hiked up the thousands of stairs on the Opera House side of the Garden for more photos.]

[Remember, it was HOT.]

[Bert and Kathy, as they are wont to do, went to an opera at the Opera House later that night (or was it the next night).  They are big opera fans.]

[Sharon snaps the train passenger Biddies.]

[I was just looking for shade.  In our rush to explore, I left my hat back in the hotel.  And I paid for that over the next two weeks.  Bad burn on the dome with lots of shedding.  The Super kept rubbing vitamin cream on my pate . . . I don’t really know why?]

[Boats, with sails.]

[This tree has all the appearances of a Moreton Bay Fig.  They are massive.]

[As you know, Australia was founded (well, for Europeans) as a penal colony. Here’s the first penal.]

[This was something . . . ]

[‘Tis a lovely day to be in Australia.]

[When discovered in August 1994, the Wollemi pine was hailed as the “botanical find of the century,” like “finding a small dinosaur still alive on earth.” It was found by New South Wales National Parks and Wildlife Service ranger David Noble during a weekend bushwalk into a remote 500-600 meter deep narrow sandstone canyon in the rugged and densely forested Wollemi National Park only 200 kilometers (125 miles) northwest of downtown Sydney, Australia. Thus this strange tree from the “ancient” past, a new genus, was formally named Wollemia nobilis.  (Wollemia nobilis: A Living Fossil and Evolutionary Enigma by Andrew A. Snelling, Ph.D.)]

[Pink-colored plant matter.]

[I believe there is a Norfolk Island Pine in there somewhere.  They are ubiquitous throughout Australia and New Zealand.]

[Dunno?  A large, clumpy tree?]

[The city]

[The cove]

[Sydney Tower is the second tallest observation tower in the Southern Hemisphere after Auckland’s Sky Tower.  Sydneyites will remind you, however, their main observation deck is almost 164 ft higher than Auckland’s.]

[Looking across Farm Cove.]

[Another big tree.]

[Looking across Farm Cove to Mrs. Macquaries Point.  We will go there another day.]

[Our lunch venue.]

[Our lunch venue, looking the other way.]

[Our selfie venue.]

[Hi!  My head will soon peel like a ripe avocado.]

[I think capturing the bird in flight was an accident.]

[A one-legged Silver Gull stopped by for a lunch visit.  When I asked if it was tough just having one leg, he/she replied, “No worries, mate.”]

[Nothing but the best bubbly for our Intercontinental ladies!]

[A two-legged Silver Gull.]

[Not from our room?]

[Perhaps the most Australian of all fish varieties, Barramundi gets its name from the Aboriginal language meaning “large-scaled river fish.” It’s served in restaurants across the country.  Best pan-fried or seared skin-side first (rarely battered or deep fried), it’s often dished up as a fish steak with a herbed oil.  We all had it several times during the trip.  On the other hand, this may be something totally different – some times stuff all looks the same when it’s all gussied up.]

If the highest aim of a captain were to preserve his ship, he would keep it in port forever.  ~ Thomas Aquinas

January 10

Lest you’ve been wondering where we’ve been . . .

[Preparations the day of departure.]

[Cruised down Broadway, Christmas lights still up.  They’re usually down by now but cold, windy weather likely unhastened their removal.]

[Rita flew in from Indianapolis to join us for our flight to Los Angeles.  Here The Biddies demonstrate their manual dexterity on their respective entertainment screens.]

[Coming into LA, not exactly California sunshine as noted on the video.]

[Our wings to Sydney, Australia.  This would be my first trip south of the Equator – the Super had previously been to the Republic of the Congo (then Zaire) on business.  You will notice on a globe that the Northern Hemisphere has much greater land mass than the Southern Hemisphere.  Makes one wonder why the Earth doesn’t tip over?  It’s that age old question:  What weighs more, a pound of water or a pound of sand?]

[The Biddies stick their passports in the appropriate equipment prior to leaving the country.  We would do this many more times during the course of the trip.  Made us feel like telling the authorities where they could stick it!  But we were soon off on the totally enjoyable 14-hour flight to the Lands Down Under (the enjoyable part is fake news!)]

FYI.  We were incommunicado for most of the trip.  If you want internet access on an ocean liner, you have to take out a 2nd mortgage.  We had at least 4 days totally at sea – so no visits then with the folks back home.  Whenever we had a shore excursion day, everyone on the boat rushed out for wifi access.  We tried to do do some Facebook postings and check e-mail then but never had a lot of time to do so.

A cruise ship is a floating town of lazy people.  ~  Garrison Keillor

Up Next:  Will now vary for some time between winter sports and the cruise.  And taxes! Don’t forget taxes!

January 6

The game after the big win against Fergus Falls, which gave us a leg up in conference and section standings.  This was going to be a tough game, particularly against a team as talented, if unpredictable, as the Sauk Rapids Storm.  I thought the best game we played last year was against the Storm in the section semi-finals.  All of which would . . . 

[The opening tip – gives you an idea of the hops of our 6’1″ Robert Anderson (3) jumping against their very talented 6’7″ junior center, Cody Landwehr (24).]

[I think the Storm eventually came up with it.]

[Here Mr. Anderson is arriving in the offensive zone.  The Amazing Mr. Ripley is shooting the official photos in the background.]

[This is what’s fun in “developing” the photos.  I had no idea Mark was perfectly positioned with his camera between Robert and the Storm’s long range bomber, junior Anthony Massman (25).  The Storm’s roster is almost entirely juniors, so of course they’ll be a team to beat next year (if not still this year).]

[Trey Hoepner (1) and Jake Drew (33) on the Cards’ full court press.  The Storm is a little tougher to do this against because they have a height advantage at almost every position.]

[Coming off a great game against Fergus, Spencer Hockert (15) kept it going in this game.]

[Looking for Jake inside, the Storm’s length made it very difficult.  With Landwehr at 6’7″ and Deng Deang (15), a lanky 6’5″, there’s not many interior passing lanes.]

[Landwehr looks aghast at Jake.  Probably because Jake just came up with another offensive rebound.  At 6’4″, Jake is a rebounding machine.  I would go to games just to watch him rebound.]

[“The Boys” in the corner are back!  The team’s gotta love their support.  However, I have to point out I haven’t seen them at the girls’ games?]

[The cheerleaders entertained with their competition routine at halftime.]

[Oh, and here’s the halftime scoreboard.  My concerns were borne out.  We played hard, but maybe like the Marshall game, we just couldn’t throw the ball in the ocean.  We must has missed a half dozen puppies.  They got their hands on a lot of balls, meaning we had too many turnovers.  Spencer had over half our points, but one player can’t do it all.]

[Though Jake is shooting a freebie here, we didn’t come out flying in the second half and soon found ourselves down by 13 or 14 (who remembers?).  We seemed at an athletic disadvantage.]

[Working overtime on defense usually produces positive results . . . that and a long ‘3’ by Spencer seemed to get our motors running.]

[Justin Balcomb (43), junior, gave us a big lift coming off the bench again.  At 6’8″, he gives us a defining defensive presence underneath – and he’s been known to hit key ‘3’s’.]

[Where’d Robert go?]

[Deang was a game-long pain.  He’s too tall to be guarded by a little guy, too quick to be guarded by a big guy.  Plus, he can shoot.  He finished with 28 points.]

[They were better at making free throws down the stretch – free throw shooting matters.]

[Thought it strange here that Jaran Roste’s (31) first free throw was not close (he made the 2nd).  Then later from the field as we’re making a comeback he made a couple of long ‘3’s’.]

[Spencer a more than solid 27 points again.  He made a long 3 at the end of our comeback that gave us the lead at 50 – 49.  Then the Storm went off on a mini-run again.]

[Our defensive pressure ultimately yields the desired turnovers.]

[Justin guards the paint. The paint would play a key role in the game’s outcome.]

[Keaton Kvale (23), 6’4″ senior, gave us some quality big man minutes in the game.]

[Jake likely on the heels of an offensive rebound.]

[Jaran on the defensive point.]

[It’s getting late, the game is close, the fans and benches are standing.]

[Spencer was solid at the line.  Cameron Rice (21), 5’10” junior, was getting some quality playing time here.]

[Spencer launches a long 3.  The Storm’s number 20 tries the “BOO!” defense.]

[Robert and Trey keeping an eye on Deang.]

[It’s gotta be pressure, pressure, pressure . . . ]

[Robert comes for the double team . . . ]

[“The Boys” are cheering – we must have just scored.]

[The atmosphere is electric.  We just don’t have the battery capacity to store it!]

[Regarding the “paint.”  On back-to-back plays our defenders established position in the paint (early enough that you could see the collision coming) and were called for blocking fouls by times.  The boos rained down from the stands.  The Storm made all 4 of those free throws which set up the final play of the game.  With the game tied with 12 seconds left, the Cards allowed the Storm into the front court without challenge.  Once in the front court, Deang drove into the lane and hit a runner for the winning bucket.  The final score was 67 – 65.  But basically we lost the game in the first half and were always battling from behind.  Got to get back on it again against Rocori next week.]

If you make every game a life and death proposition, you’re going to have problems. For one thing, you’ll be dead a lot.  ~  Dean Smith

Up Next:  We’re outa here – heading for the Land Down Under!