Posted: 5/3/07
TIMEOUT
Another PHS player to Elk River
By Luther Dorr
Before this school year began a Princeton boys varsity hockey player, Ryan McElhone, transferred to Elk River to play with the Elks in the 2006-07 season. McElhone, expected to be the leading scorer for the Tigers last season, spent time on both the second and third lines in Elk River.
Now Sam Grove, a sophomore who played on the first line for Princeton this past season and scored 20-plus points, has transferred to Elk River and is, in fact, already attending classes there.
The departure of McElhone left a hole on a Princeton team that was inexperienced and the departure of Grove will do the same for next year's team.
Coach Todd Frederick was OK with the move by McElhone and was a participant in the decision. That's not the case with the Grove move.
"I can only hope that this was family-related [Grove's father lives in the Elk River district]," Frederick said in an interview Monday. "But if there were recruiting violations that took place, I can only hope the high school league will investigate Elk River hockey for this incident."
Until or if there is an investigation, Frederick said, he would refrain from further stating his opinion.
I was out of state when the deadline came for students to file their intentions to transfer to a school before a new law took effect but I'm told there were hundreds that filed.
Although Frederick was hesitant to talk about the latest situation, it was obvious he didn't like the way it came about.
In a hockey-related development, a freshman student from a charter school in Elk River, who plays in Princeton's youth hockey association, had sought to have Rivers Christian Academy form a cooperative sponsorship with Princeton for the next two school years.
Activities director Glenn Klaphake had given his blessing and the Princeton School Board was to act on the request at its April 24 meeting.
But it was discovered before the meeting that, contrary to prior information, the co-op would move Princeton to Class AA from Class A. The request was dropped.
Slow pitch softball hits a bit of a bump in Princeton
A few weeks ago there was a chance that there wouldn't be a men's slow pitch softball league in Princeton this year but that won't be the case.
It looked for awhile as though there would be only three men's teams but now there will be four, as of last week. And that league will begin in a couple weeks, according to Ed Kingsley who with his wife Jeannie has run the slow pitch leagues in Princeton for many years.
Some teams have disbanded and others are playing in other towns. A problem surfaced last year when there were only six teams in the men's league after there were 13 the year before. And there were only nine teams in the one-day Rum River Festival tournament in 2005 after 16 the year before.
Quite a few years ago Princeton had both a men's and women's league but now there are only four teams left in the men's league. And there were between 20 and 30 teams in the festival tournament on a yearly basis when Princeton was a softball hotbed.
The coed league became popular a few years ago and the number of teams there has remained constant. There are 12 coed teams in Princeton this season and that league began play last Sunday night with games on three fields.
The rest of the year of 1976
Princeton Implement unseated two-time defending champion Ziggy's in men's softball and Fran's Beauties beat Crystal Cabinet Works 22-8 for the women's title as Laurie Peterson had four hits and Barb Northway drove in four runs.
Byron Nolan won the men's senior golf title, edging Arnie Dahle.
The PHS football team suffered through a 2-7 season but beat Milaca 12-8 on second-half touchdowns from Dave Ruis and Steve Blaske. A long touchdown pass as time ran out was nullified by a penalty and the Tigers lost 10-8 to Elk River, and Braham scored with 44 seconds left to beat Princeton 7-6. Al Olson and Steve Peterson were all-conference.
It was revealed that North Branch, Pine City and Chisago Lakes were going to join the Rum River in 1977 and make it a 10-team conference.
Dave Wankel intercepted five passes in a JV football game.
The boys cross-country team won the conference title, Jim Bowden placing second and Steve Sanborn third.
The PHS volleyball team won the RRC title with a 9-1 record and won its last 12 matches of the regular season under coach Lynn Clark. The team finished 14-3 after losing to St. Francis, a team it had beaten, in playoffs. Roby Wilbrecht, Jane Comstock and Laurie Peterson were all-conference.
Curt Jenson scored 25 points and Tom Hoffman 17 in a season-opening basketball win over Braham.
Dick Bowden, a very innovative coach who was far ahead of his peers in the RRC, resigned as track and cross-country coach.
Here and there . . .
The 69 by PHS junior Brandon Hansen at Fox Hollow a couple weeks ago is thought to be the first sub-70 score in PHS golf history. Hansen, who went to a year of grade school in Princeton and transferred this year from South Carolina, shot a 73 Monday in the Purple Hawk Invitational at Cambridge and was co-medalist. The Princeton team, leading the M8 so far, was fourth of 21 schools at Purple Hawk. The team's only home meet is May 14 . . . While trying to find something to do on a rainy day during spring training, I figured out what the Twins' Joe Mauer, Michael Cuddyer, Justin Morneau and Torii Hunter averaged last season. They averaged 149 games, 93 runs scored, 34 doubles, 26 mores, 105 RBIs and hit .307. The next thing to do is figure out why that team has so much trouble scoring runs . . . The PHS baseball team, with a three-game winning streak intact, is hitting .256 as a team and averaging five runs a game, getting shut out once and scoring 15 in a game last week. Kris Macko leads with a .407 average, Phillip Klaphake is next at .385, Tyler Roehl is at .357 and Mitch Larsen at .290. Roehl has driven in 10 runs, Larsen 7 and Macko 5. Roehl has a .571 slugging percentage and Macko is at .519 . . . As we watched another Twins loss in the Metrodome last week, we came up with an early-season trivia question about the offensively-challenged Twins. Q: Which Twin has more homers than Mauer, Bartlett, Redmond, Castillo, Tyner, Punto, Rabe and Kubel combined? A: Luis Rodriguez, with 1.
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