Advertisement

Tribune Notebook: LQPV baseball looking for a new home

joe brown, west central tribune, willmar, minn.
·4 min read

May 17—MADISON — The Lac qui Parle Valley baseball team is scrambling to find a new home for the end of the season.

Madison Memorial Field suffered extensive damage from winds topping 70 miles per hour on Thursday, May 12.

Three of the field's light poles fell down, with one crashing onto the batting cage. Another light pole is leaning and needs to be replaced. Both dugouts are in need of repair after the roofs were blown off.

Along with being host to LQPV high school varsity baseball, the field is also home to the Madison Mallards amateur baseball team.

LQPV head baseball coach Bart Hill is saddened by the damage but compared to others in the community, a ball field is a small problem.

"For a baseball guy it's sad, but it's not our home," Hill said.

"Nobody lives here. There's a house across the street (from the field) with the roof gone, and another family two blocks away, their house now looks like it has an open concept."

Left out of their usual home, the Eagles played home games Saturday in Rosen.

"Rosen offered their facilities to us," a thankful Hill said.

LQPV has three regular-season home games remaining: Benson on Friday, Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg on Saturday and Renville County West on Monday. Section playoffs begin Saturday, May 28.

Tony Smith, LQPV's activities director, said the team has a trio of options to play home games: the high school in Cerro Gordo Township, the Appleton Ball Park and back at Rosen. Smith said there is also talk of getting the lights removed in Madison and bringing games back to the field.

"As far as possibilities, it'll be game-to-game," Smith said.

"At this point, we'll practice either in Appleton or Lac qui Parle Valley. Then as far as games go, we got Lac qui Parle Valley, we got Appleton and we got Rosen. It'll depend on what the field conditions are and if it's raining or not. The other wild card is Madison.

Smith added, "While we have kind of an idea, nothing is set in stone."

To help fund repairs to the field, Hill said a GoFundMe page is in the works. According to Hill, there are also plans to reach out to the Willmar Stingers and Minnesota Twins for additional funding.

"We're putting out a state-wide plea for help," Hill said. "The more money we can raise, we can get it done right and get it done better than before."

The Willmar and Paynesville girls track and field teams qualified for the state True Team championship meet as wild card teams.

The Cardinal girls are headed to the Class AA True Team meet for the 12th straight time. They were the 2019 Class AA True Team champions. Willmar is one of four Class AA wild card teams along with Eden Valley-Watkins/Kimball, Fairmont and Belle Plaine. They will join the eight section champions: Byron; Mankato East; Simley; Blake; Rocori; Rockford; North Branch; and Detroit Lakes.

The Willmar girls will join the Cardinals' boys team at True Team. The Willmar boys will be looking to win their sixth straight True Team championship after winning the Section 6AA championship last week.

The Paynesville girls are a wild card team in Class A. Joining them as wild cards are: Lanesboro/Fillmore Central/Mabel-Canton; Canby/Minneota; and Lake City. The eight section champions in Class A are: Grand Meadow/LeRoy-Ostrander/Kingsland/Southland; Jackson County Central; Luverne; Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted; Minnewaska; Osakis; Pierz; and West Marshall Fusion.

The state True Team championships begin Friday with Class AAA. Class A and AA will compete Saturday, with A getting underway at 10 a.m. and AA at 3:45 p.m. Both days will take place at Stillwater High School.

A trio of former Willmar High School distance runners — Leah Hansen, Jessa Hanson and Nadir Yusuf — are outpacing the competition this spring.

Hansen, a junior at South Dakota State, won the Summit League championship in the 5,000 meter run Saturday in Tulsa, Oklahoma. She finished with a time of 17 minutes, 11.26 seconds. She also placed second in the 10,000 (26:15.71) on Thursday. Hansen has now won three conference championships after winning the 10,000 and 5,000 in 2021.

Hanson, a redshirt junior at Northern Arizona, helped the Lumberjacks win the Big Sky Conference championship Saturday in Pocatello, Idaho. Hanson finished in second place in the 5,000 at 16:41. She finished behind teammate Jesselyn Bries, who won at 16:37.

Yusuf, a senior at Minnesota State-Moorhead, took the medal podium twice at the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference championship in Aberdeen, South Dakota. He won the 10,000 with a time of 31:26.47 while placing second in the 5,000 at 14:49.98. The victory in the 10,000 was Yusuf's seventh NSIC track title.

Curt Weis scored a hole-in-one on Tuesday, May 10 at Olivia Golf Club.

Weis got the ace using a 7-iron on hole No. 5, a 142-yard par-3. It was Weis' first hole-in-one. Witnesses were Brett Benson, Jon Eiler and Darren Sagedahl.