Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Sports Memories by Tom Jones

15 years

• Crossroads Church was leading the Brotherhood Dartball League with a 30-9 record. Mansfield Lutheran was a close second at 28-11.
• Albert Lea Tiger senior goaltender Ben Waalkens was the 2008 recipient of the Hobey Baker Character Award that was given out by the Minnesota Wild.
• Alden-Conger’s Matt Bremseth announced he would attend University of Wisconsin-Stout to play football.
• The Minnesota Twins opened their season with a 3-2 win over the Los Angeles Angels at the Metrodome. Livan Hernandez pitched seven innings to get the win.

20 years

• After averaging 23.5 points per game for the Albert Lea Tigers, Ben Woodside was named the Albert Lea Tribune Boys’ Basketball Player of the Year.
• In the 11-12 age group, Albert Lea’s Jackie Elwood won the 25-yard backstroke, 50-yard backstroke and 50-yard butterfly for the Albert Lea Family Y Tigersharks swimming team at the Minnesota State YMCA swimming meet.
• After finishing the season 19-12, Coach Dan Monson’s Minnesota Gophers men’s basketball team was set to play Georgetown in the semi-finals of the National Invitational Tournament at New York’s Madison Square Garden.
• The Minnesota Twins announced that their average ticket price was increasing by 22% with the average ticket costing $14.40.
• After bowling for over 65 years, Darwin Haroldson of Albert Lea rolled his first 300 game at the Holiday Lanes in Albert Lea.

50 years

• Master Engineering of Anoka defeated Albert Lea’s Endres Rangers hockey team 5-0 in the first round of the Minnesota State Senior B tournament in Faribault. Goalie Tim Tideman stopped 39 of the 44 shots he faced in the loss.
• The Minnesota State High School League was looking at adding state tournaments for girls in tennis, cross country, volleyball, swimming, golf, basketball, gymnastics, skiing, curling and track.
• Albert Lea’s Jim Lunde was preparing to wrestle in Europe in the summer as part of a cultural exchange wrestling group.
• Coach Jerry Kapher’s Albert Lea High School track team was set to open their season at the St. Olaf Invitational. The squad featured 18 seniors, 31 juniors and 35 sophomores. Doug Peterson and Bruce Senske were co-captains of the team.
• Bill Klucas, an assistant boys’ basketball coach at the University of Minnesota, was announced to be the featured speaker at the Albert Lea Cagers Booster Club season ending banquet.
• After coaching for eight years and compiling a record of 76-76, Albert Lea boys’ basketball coach Dick Nielsen announced his retirement from coaching.

Alumni update

Dylan Carlson and Spencer Clark, both 2021 graduates of Albert Lea High School recently completed the season as members of the Steele County Blades junior hockey team that plays in the United States Premiere Hockey League Tier III. Carlson appeared in 36 games and Clark 28 for the Blades, who are based in Owatonna.