We wrap up the LQPV boys baseball teams season with Coach Bart Hill and also the LQPV girls golf season with coach Stender…STATE CHAMPIONS!
RAYMO’S RAMBLINGS -STATE GOLF & STATE CHAMPS
We all figured it was going to be close. The LQPV girls golf team, along with Fillmore Central, BOLD, and Park Christian all were within a few strokes of each other finishing up the final nine holes of the state golf tournament. Who was going to come out on top and win a state championship? The nerves, the anxiety the pressure was at an all-time high. It was too much to take at times. In the end, the Eagles from LQPV won by one stroke!
What I experienced a couple weeks ago at Pebble Creek golf course in Becker covering the state golf meet was amazing. Two full days of high school golf competition with the best high school golfers in the state. The boys and girls were under pressure to perform at their best. Parents, grandparents, brothers and sisters, uncles and aunts, cousins, and friends were all following their favorite golfer down the fairways.
You couldn’t have asked for better weather for the state golf meet; low humidity, temps in the low 80’s with a light breeze. I love being at Pebble Creek covering the state golf meet. I, along with everyone else, put in some long days at Pebble Creek and it was all so much fun. The Minnesota High School League and Pebble Creek golf course do a great job running and hosting the state meet.
We have some amazing young golfers in our area. A week before the state tournament, I interviewed all of the kids who would golf at the state meet. I interviewed Nolan Boerboom of Minneota, Abi Morris and Jake Wagner of Canby. Mikayla Rasset of Ortonville, Tyler Lund of Dawson-Boyd and the LQPV boys’ and girls’ teams. All these kids are wonderful, kind and respectful.
I enjoyed getting to know each and every one of them. I think Jake Wagner of Canby said it best. Jake is just a freshman and it is his first time at state. Jake said “I’m just happy to be here at state.” I believe him, every time I saw Jake he had a big smile on his face. Nolan is one of the nicest kids, every time I visit with him, he always has such a positive outlook on things. Tyler Lund from D-B had some really funny quotes and was a great interview, Tyler placed 7th at state. Abi Morris, a senior, was wrapping up her golf career. I loved her quote while interviewing her; “I have had a wonderful high school golf career and my golfing is not over, I can use the game of golf for the rest of my life, that’s why I love the game.”
Mikayla Rasset of Ortonville is only a sophomore, she plays golf like an experienced senior. What impressed me about Mikayla was her calm and peaceful demeanor. She was very easy to visit with and she had a large contingent of family and friends cheering her on at Pebble Creek.
The LQPV boys’ team finished in fifth place, which was disappointing for them after finishing state runner up last year. I reminded a few of them, that they did the best they could and remember they don’t have a senior on the team. Still fifth place is pretty good for such a young team.
I was standing next to Coach Kipp Stender of the LQPV girls team when he was told by another coach that his team was state champs by one stroke. I confirmed this to Kipp since I read on the MSHSL website that the LQPV team had 714 strokes and Fillmore Central had 715 strokes. What a feeling that was for him and the girls! Tears of joy began to flow and many LQPV fans smiled at the happy news. State Champions!
Rachel Halvorson was also a state champ individually finishing in first place. So a double reason to celebrate! Rachel, her sister Sarah, along with sisters Abby and Bella Stender, Chloe Ludvigson and Ellie Jacobs worked so hard all season long for that goal of winning a state championship. And they did just that!
APPLETON LIBRARY SHOW WITH CINDY 6-19-18
Cindy Hendrickx tells us what is happening at the Appleton Public Library
RAYMO’S RAMBLINGS – DAD
It is Father’s Day today and as always I think of my dad on this day! I was only thirty-five when he died. My dad died when he was sixty-five, relatively young yet. I’m sixty years old now and to think in five years I will be the age my dad was when he died. It has been twenty-five years since he left us. I was present when he had his heart attack at his desk at work. It was the worst day of my life. The images of that day are still engrained into my mind clearly. I don’t know why this is, but when I think of my dad I think of that day he died and left us. When I think of him I should be thinking immediately about what a terrific father he was, but instead my mind takes me to that terrible day, Oct 12th 1993.
So today I choose to think about the dad that loved and cared deeply for his family and friends. His name was Carrell. He provided for his family. Dad started a business with his two brothers in law in 1960. He was very proud of the success of the foundry that they built together. We produced manhole covers that you see in the streets that are all over the country. I worked in the family business for some thirty years. I saw my dad every day at work. So our relationship was close. We spent a lot of time together.
My earliest memory of my dad is kind of weird. I maybe was 4 or 5 years old. My dad was a smoker and he would lay in his bed smoking and I would lay next to him watching the red glow of his cigarette in the darkness. Liking the smell of the cigarette and waiting for the red glow of the cigarette to appear when he took a puff. I told you it was weird! That was in the early 1960’s when it seemed like everyone smoked. I never have had the desire to smoke cigarettes and I’m thankful for that.
My favorite memory of my dad was the day we were at the cabin on Big Stone Lake in Ortonville. Dad was driving the boat and I was learning to water ski. I was in my early twenties. To make a long story short, I fell in the middle of the lake and could not get back up. After trying and trying I gave up. Meanwhile the ski rope got tangled in the propeller and we had a big mess. I was exhausted and here I was floating in the lake. Dad thought he would slide off the back of the boat to help me get the rope untangled from the propeller. I don’t know what he was thinking, but when he slid off the back of the boat he disappeared under water and never came back up to the surface. He wasn’t wearing a life jacket. I desperately tried to reach for him under water and finally grabbed his arm pulling him to the surface. He almost drowned.
Now both of us big guys are in the water, and we have no ladder to get back into the boat! We are stranded in the water, in the middle of the lake! My brother Greg saw we were in trouble and took an inner tube and swam out to us. He was able to pull himself into the boat. We got the ski rope untangled and my brother towed dad and me behind the boat to the shore. We were like beached wales, completely exhausted! While lying on the beach we had mom, my wife Roxie and my grandmother hovering over us yelling at the top of their lungs at both of us for being so stupid! Dad and I laughed so hard we couldn’t breathe, we would look at each other laying on the beach and laugh harder.
That is my funniest and best memory I have of my dad. We told that story so many times over the years and each time crying with laughter. I have many good memories of my dad. I loved him very much. He was a great father to all of us. I rarely saw him get angry, he was always kind to everyone, wanting to help anybody that had a need. Happy Father’s Day dad! Love you!