Hello-
Just between small group practices here- had two setters in the gym for the last practice, Natalie Thomas and Nichelle Grage- they were sucking wind pretty bad by the time we got done! We usually have our small group practices set up to go one hour. The workouts are often more intense practices because they are shorter then team practices and we are working on skills specific to their positions... I didn't count, but I would bet that Nichelle and Natalie set close to 1000 balls in the hour we were in there!
Also- found this information about the history of UMM in the UMM Retirees Association Newsletter. I think it is very interesting to know where we've been and what UMM used to look like. Enjoy!!
Coach B
The early years from the WCSA alumni web site: http://www.morris.umn.edu/alumni/WCSA/history/
Founding: “An intense effort was made to establish a University of Minnesota agricultural high school on the Morris campus in the early 1900s. Local legislator Lewis C. Spooner rallied the community, legislature, governor and the University of Minnesota regents in support of the new school. E. C. Higbie was hired as the first superintendent and on October 3, 1910, the West Central School of Agriculture and Experiment Station opened to 103 students.” The WCSA was one of four residential agricultural schools established in MN, served 15 counties, was one of the longest running in the U.S., and operated through 1963, serving over 7000 students. The other MN schools were in St. Paul, Grand Rapids, and Crookston. Waseca, a fifth school, opened in 1953.
Six month program: “The WCSA’s mission was to educate west central Minnesota youth on contemporary agriculture and homemaking methods and provide core academic instruction. Students accepted were at least 14 years of age and eighth grade graduates. Students enrolled in a three-year course of study that ran from early October after the fall harvest until late March before spring planting. Students continued projects at home during the summer, and visiting instructors monitored progress. Summer projects allowed students to share new agriculture practices with their parents. Typical classes included animal husbandry, cooking, sewing, carpentry, as well as English, math, and music. Short courses were offered for students who could only attend for brief periods.”
From the Gemini report: http://www.morris.umn.edu/preservation/WCSA_NRform.pdf/. Section and page numbers are noted in brackets.
Numbers of students: Class size varied over the years from 103 to 455, dipping during World Wars 1 and ll and surging after each war [8:11].
Campus: The central square (mall) was developed between1911-1916. A master plan from 1911 involved three sets of twin buildings all facing the central square, forming a pleasant symmetry [7:2-3]. Several of these buildings were in place by 1920, though most were under different names. Spooner (the WCSA Boys’ Dormitory, 1912-13) and Camden (the Girls’ Dormitory, 1912) faced each other across the square. Imholte Hall (Agricultural Hall, 1910-11) and Blakely (Senior Hall, 1920) flanked Behmler (Dining Hall, Junior Girls’ Dormitory and Gymnasium, 1918). The oldest building, the Multi-Ethnic Resource Center (Agronomy, then Music, 1899), dates to the Indian School and sat across from the Home Economics building (since razed for Home Ec 2, now the Humanities building, 1954). Engineering (later Community Services and now the Welcome Center, 1915) was placed on the western side of a north-south road. The Cattle Barn built in 1914 is now the Saddle Club Barn; the Seed House (1929) is the Recycling Center, the Infirmary (1923-24) is the Education building. Junior Hall (1926) is now Pine Hall [7:36].
The early years: “The WCSA's six faculty held the titles of superintendent, accountant, preceptress of the girls' dormitory, and instructor in home economics, animal husbandry, and iron work. In reality their roles were much larger, as the 1916 WCSA yearbook explains: ‘Those were the days when the accountant taught mathematics, acted as librarian, sold the postage stamps, mopped the dining room floor, fed the chickens, and gathered the eggs’ (Moccasin 1916)…. When the School and Station opened in 1910, the campus and farm were in disarray and the staff was at first consumed with repairing and improving the facilities. The 1914 yearbook explains, ‘In those days [circa 1910-1912] there was no sidewalk between Morris and the school so they [students and staff] were obliged to trail through eighty rods of very adhesive Stevens County clay....The whole campus, therefore, was a sea of mud, not a very beautiful sight at that time surely’" [8:9, quoted in Olson 1972:9]. When the funds became available for building, faculty member Bridgford wrote, “a real transformation took place” [8:10].
Making a difference: “The School and Station in Morris was also founded at a time when… agriculture was becoming increasingly technical….”[8:5]. “Two years after its founding, The Farmer, a long-running agricultural journal published in St. Paul, credited the institution with significant improvements in local agriculture: ‘This whole section of the state shows the influence of this new school already. Two years ago there were but two silos in Stevens County, and but little attention paid to stock raising. Today there are about 50 silos in the county, 20 being sold by one dealer this past season. There are 25 pure-bred Holstein sires in the county and a few dams and several pure-bred Guernsey herds. A number of herds of good grade cows are started. Fifty-one students in the school from the home county are transforming the ideas of farm life in their home neighborhoods. Numbers of them have started the building of silos on the home farms. More systematic records of cost and production are instituted; better seed is introduced‘” [8:10]. The WCSA /Experiment Station was making a difference.
