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.
Jan. 21, 1999
By Devlyn Brooks
Disappointed is probably the polite way to describe how BSU women's basketball coach Doreen Zierer felt about her team's 69-58 loss to Minnesota-Morris Wednesday.
But incensed is probably the correct way to describe how she felt.
The Beavers, who only shot 29 percent and only scored 22 points in the first half, were not only outscored, they were outhustled and outplayed.
"We were lazy and selfish," Zierer said in a post-game interview. "I think that is the worst game of basketball I've ever seen a Bemidji State women's basketball team play."
The Beavers suffered at every position on the floor Wednesday, but really struggled to fins a floor leader since starting point guard Jen Ohme has been out with a broken knee cap.
Guard after guard threw the ball away, made bad passes and generally didn't lead the team.
However, the other positions weren't there to play either.
"If (Jen Ohme) was the difference between us being a 9-7 team and being ranked ninth in the region and what happened tonight," Zierer said, "then we have some over-priced players. And they should just give their scholarships back."
The Beavers came out slow in the first half, scoring only 22 points and never once holding a lead.
But they did hold Cougars' star Anna Townsend to only eight points in the half, or it could have been uglier ... like it was in the second.
Townsend exploded for 23 more points in the second, tearing up the Beavers' inside players.
The only BSU bright spot came during a seven-minute stretch in the second when the Beavers did manage to make the game interesting by cutting Morris' lead to one four different times.
But they played so poorly the rest of the game, the Cougars' damage had already been done.
"I knew form coaching in this league that Bemidji is tough to play in Bemidji," Cougars coach Carol Thelen said. "But to be honest, it came a little easier than I thought it would."
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