Viking Coach

"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

These are the words of a poem that is attached to a plaque on Staten Island, home of the Statue of Liberty. . . The influx of ethnic groups into the community of Pelican Rapids makes me wonder if we shouldn't put a similar plaque on our Pelican Pete.

When I first moved to Pelican Rapids some 15 years ago, the town was seen in such a great light by the entire area. But now soooooooooo many people view Pelican Rapids in such a negative way. Nobody really wants to say it out right but there is no doubt in my mind that it is because of the perception people have of our ethnic diversity in our community and schools.

I read in the paper today that we have 180+ students in our district boundaries that are attending school in neighboring districts and less than 20 that are open enrolling into our school.

People can say what they want but in my mind the bad publicity that we get over the ethnic diversity in our schools has definitely played a role in the decision making process that families go through when deciding if they should enroll their kids to District #548 and even if Pelican Rapids would be the "right place" to live.

It is discouraging to hear the "rumors" that circulate in other communities about Pelican Rapids.

I hear these things from substitute and student teachers who come into our school expecting to see gangs, drugs and violence running rampant in the hallways. Instead, often to their surprise, they see kids being kids and are amazed at how everyone just goes about their business with very little regard for race, creed or color.

I also hear it from teachers at other schools who ask questions like. . . "How bad is it in Pelican Rapids?" You see it in the media. . . once a darling of a local television station Pelican Rapids has become a hot bed of what I feel is "sensationalized" reporting.

You may now be wondering. . . "what gives?". . . this is the blog you go to for sports related insight. . . Well, here it comes:

You can't imagine how proud I am of being a teacher and coach from Pelican Rapids, Minnesota. We are like that little train that continues to say. . . "I think I can, I think I can, I think I can", as we travel constantly up hill in our battle to show the world that life is pretty darn good in our community.

Our boys just advanced to the Section 8AA Championship game for the fourth time and the last five years! I just got home from the victory over the Breckenridge Cowboys in which junior Todd Johnson hit a game winning 3-pointer at the buzzer.

You would think a thriller like this would be much more emotional for me than the boys' semi-final victory over Hawley but that wasn't the case.

I've come to the conclusion that the reason why I had tears of pride in my eyes when our boys beat Hawley in our last game and just a satisfied grin on my face as our boys defeated Breckenridge tonight. . .comes down to the my perceived view of the status of the communities of Hawley and Pelican Rapids.

Hawley is the "darling" community of the area. . .it has a lot of great things going for it and "golden" seems to be an appropriate part of their school's nickname. (Hawley Golden Nuggets)

I mean no disrespect to the Hawley community as it seems to be a super community to belong to but when you are at the other end of the spectrum. . .in what seems to be the "community of problems", you tend to look at things in a "David vs. Goliath" way.

We don't get a lot of credit in our community for all the good things that happen, so when our sports teams, band, knowledge bowl, choir, etc...excel, well it is a time for even greater celebration in our community of believers.

So HooooooooooHAAAAAAH! Boys and thanks for giving us something to believe in.