On the Bench with Byron Higgin

Special Gathering

About 30 Minneotans gathered in a conference room at Springhill Suites in the Twin Cities.

The girls game was over for the day and the faithful fans gathered to listen to the Minneota boys play Russell-Tyler-Ruthton in the Section 3A Championship game.

A single radio was placed in the room and announcers kept the gathering in constant tune with what was happening on the court in Marshall.

As you can see in the photo at the top of this page — there were a lot of people at the game.

But they couldn’t have been more enthusiastic than the 30 or so gathered in that one room.

Each basket, each point, even each foul on RTR (which some say weren’t enough), brought a loud ovation from the crowd in that room.

When Minneota got a 14-point lead, the gang felt pretty good about things.

But the cheering grew less and less — and finally silent when RTR came roaring back and took the game by two points. In fact, the old saying, “It was so quiet you could hear a pin drop,” may have been true when the game finally ended.

I’m sure everyone in the room, myself included, wished they could have been at that game.

But we had to make choices, and we chose to attend the girls’ state basketball tournament.

There were some, like photographer Brian Jeremiason, who took photos of the girls game and rushed to Marshall in time to photograph that game.

He was back in the Twin Cities by that evening. Now that’s dedication! While we are all sorry the boys lost, it was a special moment gathered in that room.

Byron Higgin

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The Minneota Mascot
Address: 201 N. Jefferson
Minneota, MN 56264

Phone:(507) 872-6492