Posted: 2/8/07
TIMEOUT
Change on transfer rule needed
By Luther Dorr
If Ryan McElhone, the former Princeton hockey player now playing at Elk River, had switched schools next school year, he would have had to sit out a year unless his parents moved to the Elk River district.
That's an example of describing the change that the Minnesota State High School League's board of directors made last week regarding transfers of athletes from one school to another.
Athletes will now have to sit out a full year if they transfer to another school without changing residence. It's about time.
I know there are parents in Elk River, where many on the roster of the boys hockey team are from outside that district, who are angry because their sons aren't getting to play, even though they are from the Elk River district. And there have been many cases like that in the state.
Besides, high schools aren't - and shouldn't be - in the business of getting college scholarships for athletes. True, somebody might do better playing with a better team but, in most cases today with extensive scouting, the colleges will know who can play and who can't.
Private schools have had a leg up on public schools in as they recruit athletes, something Princeton boys hockey coach Todd Frederick and many other coaches feel strongly about. That should change.
Open enrollment was a good idea when it began about 20 years ago but it has been abused by athletes for years. Parents often have as much to do with it as the kids themselves.
Boys basketball team gets two plums for 2007-08 year
The PHS boys basketball team will be playing in two prestigious events in January 2008.
The first will come on Saturday, Jan. 5, when the Tigers will play at Target Center in the annual Timberwolves Gatorade Shootout.
The event annually brings together six teams from outside the state of Minnesota against six teams from Minnesota. Some of the top high school players in the nation are often part of the schedule.
Then Princeton will travel to Madison, Wis., later that month to play in the Border Battle that brings together high school teams from Minnesota and Wisconsin.
The event was held at Tartan High School this year and will be somewhere in Madison in 2008, although coach Eric Bjurman isn't sure of the site.
"We don't know yet who we will be playing in either one but it should be exciting for the kids," Bjurman said this week.
The year was 1968
When I began writing a sports column on Feb. 1, 1968, it was only a few weeks later that Princeton's Bob Backlund won the 175-pound state wrestling title (one class) in St. Cloud. He was 26-0 that year after going 25-1 the year before and finishing second. An oddity: He beat Pat Wiggin of Osseo for the title, 4-2, and beat Wiggin in the district final and region final, as well as during the regular season. Wiggin went on to be a fine athlete in the Ivy League.
It was announced that Sauk Rapids and Foley would join the Rum River Conference in 1969 and that the Rum, for the first time, was to have scheduling at the varsity, JV and ninth-grade levels.
PHS won or tied for the football, basketball, and baseball titles in the Rum River, each time beating Elk River in the final game for an outright win or a title tie, and also won the track title as Backlund won the shot, discus and 220 titles, a feat a little unusual for a tackle, although he played some fullback.
In the fall of 1968 the PHS football team had a tie and two wins in its first three games to run the Princeton unbeaten streak to 18. But a 27-7 loss to Cambridge ended that streak. Ron Stolski was the coach for that streak, perhaps the longest in PHS history.
Former PHS athlete Steve Lindell broke all the passing yardage, attempt and completion records at West Point (Army).
I interviewed new boys basketball coach Tom Stenson and asked if the Princeton team would try to run. His answer: "Does Texas have longhorns?"
Jim Rajala was leading the PHS basketball team at Christmas with an 18.8 average and Mark Jacobs was at 18.6.
The only winter sports were the boys sports of basketball, wrestling and gymnastics, with the gymnastics team sometimes performing at halftime of the basketball games.
Perseverance for Sanford
Four years ago Gordy Sanford was a senior at Princeton High School and had a good season in basketball, as well as making it to the state track meet in the high jump in his first year in that sport, and then placing fifth.
The next fall he went off to school at a community college with the idea of playing basketball. Things didn't work out and he didn't finish that year.
Last Saturday afternoon I was among the fans in the Anoka-Ramsey Community College gym in Coon Rapids and Sanford was the starting center for Minnesota West Community College (Worthington).
He played 32 minutes (all but 90 seconds of the second half), scored nine points on 4-of-6 shooting (including a three), grabbed seven rebounds, had a steal and blocked two shots. His team won 58-50 and he got a big basket late in the game. And he had a spectacular blocked shot late in the game.
I talked with him afterwards and the first thing he said was, "I got a 3.2 [GPA} last semester. You might as well do things right the second time around."
Here and there . . .
Milaca and Mora, against the wishes of many in the West Central Conference, were placed in that conference last week by the Minnesota State High School League. There are now 18 schools in that conference which stretches 180 miles from one end to the other . . . A good post player, even on a team that isn't very good, can make a big difference. That's shown by the fact that the Minnesota men's basketball team, before its two-game winning streak, was averaging 17 points fewer in games where Spencer Tollackson didn't play at all or played partial games because of injury or illness. Even more dramatic were the shooting percentages of Dan Coleman and Lawrence McKenzie when Tollackson was there, compared to when he wasn't. Those percentages differed by 15 to 20 points . . . For the second time this winter the girls traveling seventh-grade basketball team from the Princeton Youth Basketball Association has won a tournament. Last weekend it was in Inver Grove Heights and Princeton beat River City, Inver Grove Heights and Andover.
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