alexandriacardinals

[The Salty Dogs took the “stage” at the winery on Saturday as the opening act for . . .}

[The Alexandria Area High School Carolers!  🙂  ]

“Joy to the World”:

[They are just terrific as usual!]

[The Salty Dogs then returned to the “stage,” following their opening act, the Carolers!]

And this is Tom’s solo shot, singing through illness, in “You Got It”:

“The Weight”:

Later that evening . . . it was on to the AAAA Theatre for “White Christmas”!

[I told Rachel Barduson, who nailed the role of Martha Watson, that I wanted this photo so I could say I knew her before she went on to star on Broadway.  She said, “We are on Broadway.”  “Good point!”  🙂  ]

The evidence indicates that woman is, on the whole, biological superior to man.  ~  Ashley Montagu

Up next:  Some sort of major holiday?

p.s.  Oh, it’s just me again.  I forgot to share cast photos from Rachel’s and the Echo’s Facebook pages, and Bill Engebretson’s photo from his position as drummer in the “White Christmas” orchestra.

[The tribute to retiring Cardinal broadcaster Dave Harris continued at the girls’ basketball game against undefeated Sartell on Friday night.]

[Alexandria high school, yes, yes, yes . . .]

[Well-known Cardinal grandparents.]

[And this time we’ll feature warm-ups with Macy, who, as you can see, wears number 11, which as all students of School District 206 know falls directly between numbers 10 and 12 and is a prime number.]

[Anyone seen my contact lens?]

[Kohler and braintrust supported in the background by the center for the last state tournament team, her parents, and her grandmother.  They vibes were good!]

[It’s mine, get away!]

[Waiting, waiting, waiting . . .]

[Kendall]

[Kendall looking for another opportunity to shoot free throws . . . or to see if she can run through that wall?]

[Macy faced double teams all game.  Nevertheless, through most of the first half the feeling one got watching the game was that the Cards were up by more than 20.  We seemed much more athletic, scored on a lot of breaks and steals, and yet at the half it was a one point game.  When the Sabres were able to get off shots, they made them, including a parcel of 3’s.  I think the Cards may have made only one 3 the whole game?]

[Always nice to see a Cardinal shot nestle through the net.]

[Macy blocked or stole several passes simply by great timing on her leaps when she anticipated the pass.]

[Kendall and Brooke at the line.  The team is generally good at this, but . . . I think in the 2nd half, the Sabres surprised me, and maybe the Cards(?), with their defensive abilities.  Of course, the Cards are no slouch there either.  The offenses ground to a halt in the second half, everybody got tired, and shooting percentages suffered.  The Cards only made 1 of their last 7 free throw attempts, making the game way too close for fan comfort!]

[And then Kendall (far right) took a hard fall with about 4 minutes left in the game and didn’t play again.  I’ve been told that happily she is OK.]

[Emma Ziegler (on the baseline) made her return after rolling her ankle before the second game of the season.]

[Kiyana Miller (21) played a good energetic game, but like her teammates couldn’t ice the game with this last minute free throw attempt.  The situation is tough for anyone, let alone a sophomore a few games into her varsity career.]

[Any win is a good win!  Up next, we face highly rated section rival Albany at home next Tuesday.]

Boycott shampoo! Demand the REAL poo!  ~  Steven Wright

Up next:  Music!

[On Thursday night, our undefeated Cardinals (5-0-1) were hosting the undefeated Sartell Sabres (7-0) for initial control of the Central Lakes Conference.]

[Ryan Marciniak (20), Zach Johnson (17), and Mack Strong (16) took to the ice first for the Cardinals . . .]

[And we were off and flying . . . here with Eli Heckert (27) and Jack Steffl (2), and a far background player to be named later (gotta be Alex Wosopka (8)).]

[Wosepka chases the puck at the door step.]

[And now Alec is carrying it out of our zone.]

[Flying by my luxury box seats . . . the guy has wheels!]

[Cammeran Brown (21) looking to be fed in front from . . . Alec?]

[GOOOAAAALLLLL!  Cards are on the board early by Steffl.]

[A “Strong” attack (OK, that was too easy).]

[Parker Revering (3) on ‘D.’]

[Strong again.]

[Marciniak forechecking.]

[Wosepka with his signature move – just blazing down the right side boards.]

[And then Ryan scores!  And somewhere in between I missed the goal by Alec?]

[Cards are in again with Brown on the doorstep.]

[After further flurries by the Cards, the period ended.  I would guess probably the Cards’ best period of the year.]

[But the Sabres were 7-0 for a reason.  In the 2nd period, they put the Cards back on our heels, and for the first half of the period the Cards could only clear the zone by icing.  The Sabres were aggressively forechecking and about halfway through closed the margin to 3 – 1.]

[The Cards started finding their legs again and Christian Canavati (11) delivers a slap shot.]

[And since the puck appears to be in the net, has to be Mack Strong’s goal to up the lead to 4 – 1.]

[The period ended 4 – 1, then the puck shoot, then . . .

[The end of the game.  The Cards added two more goals in the 3rd, with Alec and Ryan each getting their 2nd goals of the game.  Well done, Cards!]

The Cards continued their undefeated season with a 3 – 2 win at nemesis St. Cloud Cathedral last night.  🙂

Hard work pays off in the future. Laziness pays off now.  ~  Steven Wright

Up next:  Girls’ roundball.

Dave is retiring at the end of this year after 48 years of broadcasting Cardinal sports on KXRA.  Now that’s true love – driving home from Bemidji after a hockey game in mid-January, getting home after midnight, and getting up early in the morning to file your report with the radio station.  Uffda!  There’s only one thing that could keep you going through all of that – plenty of Cokes!

On Wednesday, the community feted Dave on all those long years of service with a tribute at the high school.  And when you fete someone, you have to serve cake!

And you have to have honoree stuff . . .

Paul Dyke is the caricaturist.  Paul is the son of Dick Dyke, past general manager for the Park Region Echo.  Dick hired Dave to be the sports columnist for the newspaper some time back in the last century.  Paul is also a close personal friend of all members of the Obert family because . . . well, we all grew up together in Victoria Heights.

Then Dave and Evie “hosted” a receiving line that lasted past the agenda schedule of events (or is that redundant?) . . .

And then the speakers . . .

[Dave Hartmann, Cardinal athletic director]

[Bob Cunniff, Dave’s broadcast partner]

[Brett Paradis, owner of KXRA]

[Joe Korkowski, emcee and producer of the video at the end of this post]

[The honoree . . . for goodness sake’s, the guy is known all over the state and is the envy of many communities.  Name any other radio station that broadcasts high school volleyball games.  Go ahead, I dare you!  😉  ]

So as we say good-bye, with Mark Ripley (“The Competition”) and Dave’s cokes . . .

I have to report that Dave was always a useful resource in the production of this blog.  Many a time I would go to a game . . . and then the next morning listen to Dave’s broadcast archived on the Voice of Alexandria to make sure I got things right.  Why else do you think I’d be up before 4:00 am most days?

The Voice of Alexandria’s terrific video (thanks, Joe):

And we have to end with a bone of contention . . .

Dave claims he had nothing to do with this, but we have a number of witnesses to the contrary.  Back in the days before electricity and social media, we had no way of knowing the results of high school games the morning after unless we’d been at the game – I mean the Echo is only published twice a week.  We were mall walkers back then – the prelude to the Fat Boys Walking Club at the Y – and Dave and Evie would do the same after Dave’s morning radio report.  So we’d always descend on him en masse to find out the scores.  At the time, he knew we were totally smitten with the girls’ hockey team, so he said, “I suppose you want to know how your little darlings did last night?”  Well, the name stuck . . . and the team presented us with the above framed photo that year.  The next year the team won state, as we predicted at the start of the season.

Thanks again, Dave, you can now be a proud member of the Super Fans!