Softball sections already being set
It seems like spring has not even come yet but there is already a local subsection for area softball.
Osakis earned the No. 2 seed in the Section 5A West subsection. They will face off against the winner of No. 7 Kimball and No. 10 Eden Valley-Watkins. The game will be played on Friday, May 16.
It is almost disheartening to see that tournament time is already upon all these teams around the state. The weather this spring has taken so many games off the schedules. Teams are forced to play four or five games a week just to try and get in some action.
A prep sports writer for the StarTribune wrote a column a few weeks back that suggested that the Minnesota State High School League move the spring seasons into the summer to help prevent things like this from happening because of the unpredictability of Minnesota springs. It is an interesting idea. I had never really thought of it before but it makes some sense. It seems to be the only thing that could be done to make sure that spring sport athletes get to take full advantage of their sport like fall and winter athletes.
Posted by: Eric Morken on 5/08/2008 at 2:52 PM | Comments (0) | Permalink
Osakis pulls off upset of No. 3 Royalton
The Osakis baseball team is proving that they are legitimate contenders in the Prairie Conference this season after their win over No. 3 ranked Royalton yesterday.
Trevor Laine gave the Silverstreaks five good innings yesterday, and Matt Laven and Devin Waldvogel each threw pretty well to make sure the Royals would not come back in the game. Osakis led 5-0 after a four-run fourth inning. Things got interesting in the final innings but the Silverstreaks held on for a 7-5 win.
Both Laven and Waldvogel are weapons on the mound for the Silverstreaks, not only because they throw well, but because they both are left handed. Both struggled throwing strikes a little bit yesterday, but they have been solid for the team so far this season.
The pitching has been a huge plus for the Silverstreaks as of late. They gave up 23 runs in the first two games of the season but have rebounded nicely. In the last three games, all wins, Osakis' pitchers have given up only five runs.
The Silverstreaks are 3-0 now in the Prairie Conference and the win over a very good Royalton team should give the team a big boost of confidence.
Posted by: Eric Morken on 5/02/2008 at 9:44 AM | Comments (0) | Permalink
Diekman to play in Australia games this summer
Alexandria senior Gordy Diekman was selected to the USA International SSI Golf Team, which will play in the Down Under International Games this summer in Australia. The opportunity for athletes in the United States to compete in the tournament in Australia started with football in 1989. Since then, the Down Under Bowl has grown to include tournaments in cheering, cross country, track and field, basketball, swimming, volleyball, wrestling and golf.
The games provide athletes from other countries the opportunity to compete head to head in their sport. International Sports Specialists, Inc., the organization that hosts the games, says that their goal is to "provide athletes who excel in their sport the opportunity to experience the culture, beauty and grandeur of the land Down Under all within the framework of spirited and intense competition in many different sports."
Every athlete must be nominated by a coach from his or her state or be on a pre or post-season honors list in order to participate in the program. Diekman was originally nominated by former Alexandria football coach Denny Kalpin to play on the U.S. football team this summer. Kalpin said when the league called Diekman, he informed them that he would rather play on the golf team this summer.
Diekman, who is the No. 1 golfer for the Cardinals this season, will take part in the games from July 11-22 this summer. Every athlete is responsible for paying his or her own way over there. To help alleviate some of the cost, a spaghetti feed will be held on Saturday, May 10 at the Alexandria Elks Lodge from 4-8 p.m. Everyone is invited to attend and for every $2 donated, a donation ticket will be put into a drawing for a trip for two to Australia.
Posted by: Eric Morken on 4/25/2008 at 12:51 PM | Comments (0) | Permalink
Alexandria, Minnewaska have great state title hopes again
Both the Alexandria and Minnewaska girls' golf teams will enter this season with a huge amount of expectations. The Lakers are trying to make it back-to-back-to-back state titles after demolishing everyone in their way the last two season. The Cardinals, on the other hand, are trying to get over the hump after a second-place finish at state last season.
What Minnewaska has been able to do the last two season has been pretty amazing. They won the Class A state title last year by 47 strokes and they were led by a freshman and a sophomore in Courtney Boe and Emily Roering. Both tied for sixth place individually last year.
This season they return five of their top six players from last season in Chelsey Falk, Roering, Boe, Allie Ostrander and Sarah Roering. If they do not win state again it would be kind of shocking. It should also surprise no one if they win two or three more before their title run is over. They are off to a pretty good start this year with a 52-stroke victory in their first tournament of the spring.
As for the Cardinals, they too return a great team from last season that finished second at the state tournament. Maggie and Molly Leland will once again lead the way for Alexandria. Maggie should have all the confidence in the world after becoming the youngest player to ever win the Womens' Division of the Resorters Golf Tournament this past summer. She finished in first place in the Cardinals opening tournament this past Monday with a two-over par 38 through her first nine. A thunderstorm stopped the meet before they could finish 18.
The Cardinals have all six of their top golfers back from last year's team and a state tournament run would be quite an accomplishment for a school that has already won a girls' hockey title this year.
Posted by: Eric Morken on 4/23/2008 at 3:28 PM | Comments (0) | Permalink
Turkey season starts off right
The opening morning of the Minnesota spring turkey season could not have started any better for me this morning as Steve Devereaux, a friend of mine, and I headed north to Battle Lake to kick off the season. Last season was the first year Steve ever hunted turkeys, and I went along to call for him. After he got one last season and having such a great time, I decided to go call for him again this year.
Earlier in the week, we gained permission to hunt a beautiful piece of land near East Battle Lake. It had everything turkeys love - trees, water and open fields for them to feed in. We really lucked out on this by asking permission to hunt from a guy who was really passionate about hunting himself. He and his wife both got drawn to hunt this spring and their group had four tags in all that they were going to try to fill on his land, and he still let us be the first ones to hunt it. So we were extremely appreciative.
Steve and I went out with him last night to look at the land and we ended up bumping a flock of about 12 birds to the other side of the river. This morning we went back and never heard a thing. No tree yelps. No gobbling. The birds we bumped were no where to be seen.
We thought our day was done. Steve and I were heading back toward Alex so I could get into the offices here for the second half of the day when I saw a tom working his way west in a cut hay field. From there we pulled into the nearest farm site and asked permission and were granted. We knew our best opportunity was to reach a group of round bales that were near the top of a hill about a quarter mile from where we parked.
We hurried our way along a tree line toward the bales when we saw the tom heading our way. Lucky for us he had his head down and was feeding. We crouched low and tucked up against the edge of the field before belly crawling the final 50 yards to the bales.
When Steve got in position, I let out a couple yelps with my mouth call just to persuade him to keep coming. I then peaked my head around the bail to watch the show. He was about 35 yards out and coming right at us. After coming another 15 yards, the tom put his head down. When he threw it back up Steve made a great shot from 20 yards. One shot, one bird and another great story that Steve and I will always remember.
We hunted near St. Joseph last season and had a flock of turkeys come across an open field before Steve took his first turkey ever at about 15 yards. The spot and stalk we did today and calling them across the field are really different ways of going after turkeys, but I don't think one hunt was more memorable than the other. Both offer huge challenges against such a wary bird.
If you love to hunt but have never been turkey hunting my suggestion would be to give it a try. I remember thinking turkey hunting wouldn't be that fun a few years ago. I thought it would be too easy. Then I tried it and screwed up a few times and realized how much of a challenge it is. I would also suggest bringing a friend or loved one with to share the hunt with. Steve and I talked about last year's hunt for months after it happened, and I know we will do the same with this one. The camaraderie felt is something that's hard to explain, it has to be experienced.
Tomorrow night I am heading west to Wyoming to hunt Turkeys with three of my other friends for four days. Today was a great start to what promises to be another great spring turkey season.
Posted by: Eric Morken on 4/16/2008 at 12:48 PM | Comments (2) | Permalink