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.
Feb. 28, 1999
By Devlyn Brooks
The No. 1-seeded Laporte Wildcats didn't make their road to the Sub-Section 6A East championship an easy one, but they arrived with a 31-28 victory over spunky Northland-Remer Saturday night at BSU Gymnasium.
Early in the contest, both teams struggled with scoring, with the N-R Eagles managing only five points in the first period and giving the Wildcats a 8-5 edge after one.
In the second, the Wildcats reassembled their composure to post a 16-9 advantage in the quarter, mostly on the backs of juniors Melissa Bessler and Samantha Hyatt.
In the quarter, the Wildcats had a 10-2 scoring run lasting much of the period, which deflated any momentum the underdog Eagles had gained in the first.
But it was the Eagles' Tracie Knapp banging and bumping on the inside that kept Northland-Remer in the game in the third stanza.
She scored all seven of the Eagles' points, and Northland-Remer held Laporte to just three points in the period.
It was much of the same in the fourth, with Knapp owning her team's paint, and the Eagles playing stingy defense.
They again outscored Laporte, cutting the lead by three more points. But it all came too late as the Wildcats had garnered that 10-point lead in the second.
"I can't really explain why were not scoring. It's not us slowing up the offense; it's the other teams," Laporte coach Jeff Dudley said after the contest. "We just froze (in the second half) and we couldn't even make a layup. It's a good thing they can play defense."
The Wildcats, who entered the sub-section tourney as heavy favorites with only one loss marring their season, have really struggled in their first two games of the tournament.
They beat eighth-ranked Sebeka in the first round 30-26, and then consider the Northland-Remer game, 31-28.
In the regular season, it was common to see the Wildcats scoring 70 and 80 points, and devastating their opponents.
They will meet second-seeded Cass Lake-Bena at 7 p.m. on Tuesday at BSU Gymnasium.
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