Aaron (assistant men's basketball coach), Randi (head women's basketball coach), Nate (assistant women's basketball coach), Chris (English professor) and Adam (student and former basketball player of Aaron) all met at the University of Minnesota Morris where we are currently employed (and at which Adam is a 5th year senior). We have all played intramurals on campus with each other. Lori is Aaron's sister and Amy is a high school and college friend of Randi and Nate. On the Thursday before the tournament at the Mpls. Airport was the 1st time that all seven of us had been together.
Randi and Aaron found the t-shirts at a store called Steve & Barry's in Brainard, MN. The shirts all ready had Mullet Removal Team printed on them. Once we saw them, we thought they would be perfect for the tournament…plus they were only $7.88 per shirt! We had the numbers printed on after we bought them.
Morris, Minnesota. Little town on the prairie.
Morris is a tremendous place to live. There are a little more than 5,000 people here (+2,000 when UMM is in session), so the town itself has a familiar feel--lots of friendly faces and people you know at nearly every turn.
The school enhances that familiarity by providing plenty of events that are open to the public. Many of the attendees at campus events (speakers, games, movies, concerts, etc) have no direct affiliation with UMM, but live close enough to take advantage of the things college life provides. The town shows strong support for the school and vice versa.
We have no sponsor. That is part of the reason it was tough for us to find enough people to play. Most people thought it was too spendy. And in Morris, there are not a lot of businesses that are willing to cough up big chunks of money.
We had only played in the campus intramural league, and had such an enjoyable time, we were excited to find out about the national tournament.
However (you might find this funny) to prepare for the tournament (3 times) we competed against the football coaching staff and other coaches at lunch time. They were able to beat us a number of times, which made us a little uncomfortable about our prospects of winning the NDL tournament.
Chris was our biggest winner - I think he ended up winning about $200 at blackjack. The tourney check and trophy was the big win for all of us. We're currently sharing time with the trophy--just like the Stanley Cup. Presently it sits in Chris's office on campus.
YES!!! We have been playing almost everything together for the last few years. Last year we played Intramural Co-Ed Dodgeball, Co-Ed Softball, and Co-Ed Basketball together. We ended up winning the Co-Ed Basketball league and finished in the top 4 in the other two sports. This fall so far, we have competed in an Intramural Co-Ed 3 on 3 basketball tournament - We are currently undefeated in our Intramural Co-Ed flag football league and are going to play for the Co-Ed Intramural softball championship on Thursday. The fall IM dodgeball league has not started yet, but when it does we will play. Co-ed IM basketball will be played this winter and in the spring we plan on playing in the Co-ed IM kickball league. WE LOVE TO PLAY…ANYTHING!!!
We just love to compete. And on top of that, we love trying new and adventurous things. Dodgeball in Las Vegas was exactly that, so we just had to play. I think we had forgotten how much fun it was, the intensity of the play. The first time we played intramurals, we were surprised at how fatigued we were afterwards, not to mention exhilarated.
We practiced 3 times for 45 minutes before Las Vegas. And have played once since then for about 10 minutes so a local TV station could do a news story on the team.
Randi played college basketball at the University of Iowa. She was an All-Big Ten performer her senior year. Randi had the opportunity to play in the WNBA and overseas, both of which she respectfully declined. She is now in her first year as a Head Women's Basketball Coach here at the University of Minnesota Morris. Aaron was a three-time NAIA All-American in basketball for Mayville State University.
Chris is 36-years old, and far too old to be playing dodgeball. Adam was an all-conference (UMAC) player in basketball.It would probably be our first game in Las Vegas. We played a team from NYC that eliminated us in maybe 13 seconds. It was humbling. I think they had five players left at game's end. Fortunately we regrouped.
Since our return to Morris, we have been celebrities. It has been more than we could have imagined. That's what happens in a small town where everybody knows you…and if they didn't before, they do now. Why? We have been on the front page of the Sun Tribune, the local newspaper with a big write up. We have been interviewed by the Public Relations lady on campus here at UMM, so we have been all over the UMM web site. The U of Minnesota (Twin Cities campus) called Randi and Chris and they wrote a story and put it on their web site. The local television station has made a trip to Morris to do a story on us and our trip to Las Vegas. We were in the Star Tribune today with a little blurb on our dodgeball success. It is virtually IMPOSSIBLE for us to go anywhere in Morris without someone congratulating us on our accomplishment. Even at church last Sunday, Randi and I were pointed out by the pastor and given a big hand from the congregation for the dodgeball victory out in Las Vegas!
