I first started at the Bemidji (Minn.) Pioneer as an intern in the summer of 1996. That would begin six years as a news reporter, sports reporter and copy editor for a small, six-day-per-week daily newspaper in northern Minnesota. I wrote a large range of stories from multiple beats, to features to sports, my favorite being the coverage of the Red Lake Reservation High School basketball team named the Warriors. Here is a collection of my stories from my time at the Pioneer.
March 13, 1999
By Devlyn Brooks
CROOKSTON, Minn. -- The Red Lake High School boys basketball team rolled to another win here Friday night, 78-50 over Stephen-Argyle. And, as usual, the win came before a packed house of Red Lake Reservation fans.
Fans who started lining up hours before game time.
It's 5:14 p.m Friday, and a long night is about to begin.
University officials will unlock the doors to the University of Minnesota-Crookston's Lysaker Gymnasium in about a minute, and the thousands of Red Lake, Stephen-Argyle, Win-E-Mac and Red Lake Falls high school basketball fans -- although truthfully it's mostly Red Lake fans -- will come crowding in.
The sight, according to some veteran UMC tournament staff, must look like one which government officials saw when they opened the Oklahoma Territory for free homesteading.
But that underestimates what the scene looks like.
There are two main entrances to UMC's gymnasium, meaning that there were also two incredibly long lines snaking out for hundreds of yards from each of those sets of doors for hours Friday. The occasion was the Section 8A final and third place contests, in which Red Lake was to play Stephen-Argyle for the section championship, and Win-E-Mac was scheduled to meet Red Lake Falls for third place.
Fans started linin up hours -- some for more than four hours, according to UMC security officer Dale Martinson -- prior to the early game to ensure that they would get a seat in the auditorium that officially seats 3,500.
"I came a little bit early just so that I could find a parking spot," he says as he keeps a watchful eye over the gym's two lobbies. "I found a little bit of a corner."
The fans standing in the cold were aware that at Thursday night's section semifinals, the gymnasium was packed almost to capacity, and they wanted a seat.
On Thursday, no breaks were visible in the gym's bleachers as every available surface supported a body. And that was only the beginning. Fans were seated in metal folding chairs on the ends of the court, sitting three and four deep on the floor on the north side of the gym, and of course, at least two people deep any where there was standing room.
However, the situation shouldn't surprise anyone familiar with Red Lake Warriors basketball. After all, this is a team that routinely sells out its own basketball gymnasium on any given regular season night in early December. These Red Lake fans have filled not only UMC's Lysaker Gymnasium, but the Bemidji State University Gymnasium, Concordia of Moorhead's gym and even had an estimated 10,000 fans at a state semifinal game the team played two years ago in St. Paul's Civic Center.
That fan support, however, while impressive, is troublesome for those trying to accommodate it. Just ask UMC officials.
This will be the fourth straight year the Red Lake Warriors will have made it to the section tournament held at UMC, and it will be the fourth straight year the crowd has grown with their success.
During Thursday night's semifinal pitting Red Lake and Win-E-Mac, UMC Sports Information Coordinator Stephanie Reck said there was an estimated 3,200 people seated in the Lysaker gym, and it was expected to be an even larger crowd for Friday's championship game. The numbers, Reck said, were unfathomable.
But that's just the point. Whereas many people see the upside to the Warrior fans' enthusiasm -- something positive which has united their community for three years -- it's much harder for other fans to understand the need for Red Lake fans to lineup at 1 p.m. for an 8 p.m. game.
In the process, it limits the opportunity for fans of another community to attend the basketball games.
One angry Red Lake Falls fan, who also happened to be a parent of a player in the 6 p.m. third place game of Win-E-Mac versus Red Lake Falls, called UMC's sports offices about 5 p.m. Friday complaining about the fact that she didn't think she was even going to get a seat -- because of the number of Red Lake fans -- to see her son play in his last high school game.
"There's a long line, but (we) are going to try to sell as many tickets as possible," Kari Odland, a UMC assistant athletic trainer, says over the phone to the parent. "A lot of people are frustrated. A lot of people have called. If it were my kid's last game, I'd make damn sure I'd be there too."
But while understanding the parent, there's little else Odland can offer -- certainly not a solution.
She finishes the conversation by telling the mother that she too regrets UMC's gym isn't bigger, and by explaining that as a university employee, it is against policy for her to purchase the parent a reserved ticket.
She is let off the phone with one last scolding.
"She's going to call (U.S. Rep.) Collin Peterson," she says to another UMC employee in the room, as she exasperatedly hangs up the phone. "What am I supposed to do about (the seating situation)?"
According to UMC Athletic Director Marv Bachmeier, the main problem is with section officials insisting that a third place game be hosted. The game is always held prior to the championship on the same evening, so fans who want to attend the championship game, but want good seats, go to the third place game as well, causing a situation like the one Friday at UMC.
Reck and Bachmeier agree that getting rid of the third place game is necessary for any facility that is going to host the section tournament.
In fact, according to Bachmeier, it is the only section in the state which continues to host the third place game, which is a decision made by the committee that operates the section.
"We just do what we're told," Reck said of hosting the third place game. "If (the fans) want to see it changed, they should take it to their region or sub-section representative. That's why they vote on these things."
However, that advice is of little consolation to those who feel they are left on the outside and not even looking in.
"I could understand the (third place) game if it were the state tournament," Bachmeier said. "But the teams that make it to the first round of state and lose don't even get to play again. They're out. If we didn't have the third place game, less people would show, and that's all we would need is 400 to 500 people not to show up, and we would be fine."
Bachmeier added, however, that no matter how difficult the situation is, he doesn't feel the blame should be heaped upon Red Lake's fans.
"It's a great atmosphere. We don't have a problem when Red Lake's teams are in the tournament," he said. "Red Lake just has a lot of fans, and I'm not going to tell those who have purchased a ticket that they can't sit in an available seat. It's first come, first serve."
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