As we begin our second week of increased isolation and potential spreading of the corona virus which causes COVID – 19, a serious respiratory illness, we are “locked down” into the unknown. Certainly, the situation locally is not yet as bleak as it is in New York and other places with more dense populations. But it’s likely to get worse before it gets better.
The figures coming from Italy are tragic. The number of confirmed cases in Minnesota continues to increase. Businesses and schools remain closed. Church services are being held online. It’s a different world right now.
As I mentioned last week, the state high school basketball tournament was called off due to concerns over the oncoming pandemic. How fortunate we have been in the past to have been part of big-time events.
Last Saturday — March 21 — was the 50th anniversary of one of the most memorable games in the history of the famed one-class boys’ state tournament. It was also the 39th anniversary of a huge event which positively impacted the small towns of Heron Lake and Okabena.
On March 21, 1970, the Sherburn Raiders — with the starting five of seniors Jeff McCarron, Tom Mulso and John Tirevold, along with sophomores Paul Krohn and Pete Eiden — defeated the favored South St. Paul Packers in the last-ever one-class state championship game by a final score of 78-62.
Mulso, who had scored 29 points in Sherburn’s opening-round victory over Melrose, tallied 39 points — mostly from long-range (18 seasons before the three-pointer became a reality) — in the title clash, giving him a tournament-leading total of 83 for the three games. McCarron scored 37 points and claimed 24 rebounds for the Raiders in their 71-60 semifinal victory over Marshall. Mulso must have had 15 in that game. Both Mulso and McCarron were 6-5 and both later played college basketball for Augustana in Sioux Falls.
Sherburn finished undefeated (26-0) and gave southwest Minnesota its fourth one-class state title in an 11-year span as Edgerton (1960), Marshall (1963) and Luverne (1964) had given the area three titles in five years. Earlier Mountain Lake (1939) and later Saint James (1972, playoff victory in the two-class system) upped the total of southwestern Minnesota overall boys’ basketball state champions to six.
Exactly 11 years later, on March 21, 1981, the Heron Lake-Okabena Scarlet Knights capped an undefeated season with a 62-46 win over Moose Lake in the Class A girls’ basketball state championship game. The Knights with a starting five of seniors Amy Christians, Chris Ferguson and Lori Sontag, along with juniors Pat Burns and Lynette Rients, had defeated previously unbeaten Austin Pacelli (52-42) in a semifinal classic the previous night, sparked by an incredible 23-point performance by Burns.
In the championship game, four HL-O players — Christians (20), Ferguson (15), Burns (11) and Rients (10) — scored in double figures as the Knights took control in the third quarter and won convincingly, putting the finishing touches on a perfect 26-0 season.
Two school years later, HL-O was back on the state-tournament stage — this time in volleyball, winning two of three matches and bringing home the third-place trophy. Seniors Kaye Andersh, Daun Henning, Paula Lesch and Jen Mathias, teamed with juniors Shelley Lesch and Cindy Rasche in the starting six for the Knights, who completed a stellar season with a 20-5 record.
Later, Storden-Jeffers (1989) and Fulda (2006 and 2007) brought the total of area Class A girls’ s basketball state champions to four. The Chiefs were runners-up in both 1988 and 1990, playing in three straight title clashes.
Fulda, which had also played in back-to-back state girls’ basketball tournaments in 2002 (fourth) and 2003 (third), was led in those two championship seasons by Nicole Gunderman, Brittany Goedtke, Kaitlyn Kramer, Laura Kramer, Sarah Raddle, Chelsey Speckmeier and Sam Raddle.
HL-O — known in those years as the Southwest Star Concept (SSC) Quasars — played three games in the 2008 state tournament and Adrian, led by Sam Lynn and Karli Meyer, won the 2009 Section 3A championship and had Dragon fans excited about their state-tournament trip.
Slayton’ 1950 boys, with Earl Halverson and Jed Dommeyer, along with Floyd “Butch” Johnson forming one of the area’s tallest front lines (6-2, 6-3, 6-7), were a dominant force throughout an excellent season, capped by a District 8 championship. Trevor Winter played a big role on Slayton’s great teams of 1991 and 1992. The Wildcats won a Sub-Section 10 championship in ’92 with a dramatic 64-62 victory over Southwest Minnesota Christian in one of more memorable tournament games ever played in Worthington’s big gym.
Fulda’s District 8 championship teams (boys) of 1945 and 1975 were big-time, as were Slayton’s titles in 1948 and 1955 (along with ’50). Adrian’s 1985 championship (52-51 over SW Christian) was a highlight for the Dragons. Okabena’s 1977 triumph over Butterfield-Odin (61-51) for the District 7 championship and HL-O’s 54-50 victory over Jackson for the title in 1985 were memorable games.
Our area had plenty of past basketball teams with success, including the state-tournament third-place finishes by the 1975 Fulda boys and the 1977 Heron Lake girls — long before the incredible dominance by the Ellsworth boys (six state-tournament trips — 2003, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 — including back-to-back state championships in 2007 and 2008). The Panthers were runners-up three times (’03, ’06, ’09) and claimed third place in 2010.
Will there be a high school spring sports season? We will likely know by next week.
