The winter sports season is coming to an end. Soon it will be time for springtime weather postponents of softball and baseball games . . .
February 24
[The penultimate boys basketball game v. Little Falls . . . ]
[I’m displaying a few shots from the JV game . . . ]
[As we look forward to who will be playing . . . ]
[In next year’s varsity games . . . ]
[The JV won as noted below . . . ]
[The varsity also won 73 – 63, made odd by the fact that a Flyers player made 8 3-pointers and the team combined made several more . . . ]
[Looking for future Cardinal height, the “tall” player on the left is a 6’4″ 8th grader and the “tall” player on the right is a 6’7″ sophomore. Both likely to grow some more?]
[He is a teacher, a coach, a PA announcer, and former candidate for the Minnesota senate . . . ]
[This should be his next campaign featured photo . . . ]
February 25
[A day of rest, as the Super enjoys another beautiful sunny day with a good read . . . ]
February 27
[The section final, the fourth straight year between the Cards and the Crusaders . . . ]
[I don’t do distance driving at night anymore, but a true hockey fan from Ashby said he’d pick me up. He’s the same age as I am . . . ]
[Why yes, these are your Cardinals warming up in the MAC in St. Cloud in road jerseys that are new this year . . . ]
[And the Cards brought a good fan base with them . . . ]
[The captains meet at center ice to discuss the loss of the Press Bar and Parlor in downtown St. Cloud . . . ]
[The Crusaders appeared to be Mellow Yellow, but they may be the best team in the state . . . ]
[The Cardinals brought their own musical support . . . ]
[Though they got stuck in a far corner . . . ]
[Card fan base is ready for action . . . ]
[Well-behaved for a hockey group . . . ]
[Cards practice the wheel route before the opening face-off . . . ]
[Our band played the Anthem . . . ]
[The Cards are looking spiffy . . . ]
[And we’re off . . . ]
[The Crusaders showed their wares . . . ]
[Within a minute getting their first goal . . . ]
[A shortly thereafter another goal. It was clear from the beginning that the Crusaders are a superior team, and they ended with an 8 – 1 victory. We stayed until the end of the second period, mostly to watch the speed and skills of our opposition. It was a good year for the Cards, but as Coach Resch said after the game, St. Paul Cathedral is a Class 2A equivalent team and should be competing at that level . . . ]
[Coming home late in the evening, I took my first trip down Broadway since the devastating fire . . . ]
February 28
[The final regular season game against the Sauk Rapids-Rice Storm and senior night . . . ]
[Again, a few clips from the JV game to assess next year’s possibilities . . . ]
[Featured here is Will Heydt (32), because we were sitting with his grandparents. If, as rumored, the Cardinal football team features a two-back backfield next fall, Will is likely to be paired with incumbent Nolan Morical . . . ]
[No. 3 is Grayson Grove, a 6’4″ 8th-grader, and brother of Ella, star of the girls’ team . . . ]
[Ball, exiting stage left . . . ]
[Grayson heads upcourt . . . ]
[And here, mostly “covered” by No. 2, a/k/a The Mane, as I enviously dubbed him . . . ]
[Both the JV and B teams . . . ]
[Came away with roughly 10-point wins . . . ]
[For the varsity game, the seniors are first introduced . . . ]
[With the girls team in the front row in the background . . . ]
[Pre-game discussion likely about the lovely weather we’ve been having . . . ]
[The Boy Tenor took up on residence on the far side . . . ]
[Though we tried to wave him over, he subsequently fell victim to the students down front standing on their seats the whole game and moved higher up . . . ]
[The girls team was prepping for their next game two days hence . . . ]
[And having a good time doing such . . . ]
[OK, they have the next game . . . ]
[Boys saddle up . . . ]
[All for one and one for all . . . ]
[And we’re off. Absent a true center, 6’3″ Ethan jumps for us . . . ]
[And the taller Storm center got it. He would score his 1,000th point in this game with a brief celebratory stoppage of action . . . ]
[Colton Roderick (35), our key and tallest player all year . . . ]
[Although an excellent foul shooter, I believe he missed 1 of 2 here . . . ]
[Then Kristen Hoskins (21), who made this game his show . . . ]
[He who coulda been. Treyton Thompson would have been the Cards 6’11” junior center this year . . . ]
[But he went to a prep school to polish his skills . . . ]
[He was home here (obviously) and joined the halftime crowd attempting to make a halfcourt shot . . . ]
[At least he has already committed to the Gophers . . . ]
[Still needs to eat a lot of pizza, as he remains very much on the slender side . . . ]
[The other half of the girls team one bench over . . . ]
[None of them tried the halftime halfcourt shot?]
[Meanwhile, back at the game with the school brass in the background, Colton makes a more toward the basket . . . ]
[And likely scored or got fouled . . . ]
[The other athletes on the floor . . . ]
[Performed some scary stuff . . . ]
[Erik Hedstrom (22), who had been quiet, picked up his game at the end . . . ]
[And Kristen finished strong . . . ]
[We won, and then earned the No. 3-seed for the sections . . . ]
Better an “oops” than a “what if.” ~ Hunter Thompson
Up Next: Girls basketball sections
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