| Volume 9, No. 1 | St. Cloud, Minnesota | Thursday, August 4, 2005 |
| Gagliardi Speaks at Annual Banquet | 2005 Tournament Features Strong Field | |
| Longtime St. John's football coach, John
Gagliardi, the winningest college football coach ever,
offered some advice to the 320 young athletes gathered at
the annual American Legion Division I Banquet at the
Holiday Inn. "You can choose any thought you want in your head, so you might as well choose to win." He said that the two prerequisites to winning were first having the gumption to take the field, and risk the chance of losing. Secondly, he said a good team will rally from adversity. Gagliardi said his championship teams at St. John's had one other advantage, "We had the most powerful weapon possible -- we had ignorance. We didn't know we were supposed to lose." Gagliardi has coached his team to 26 conference titles and four national championships, the most recent in the 2003 season when he broke the all-time victory record. The banquet, held the day before the annual Division I tourney, also featured several awards given out by the American Legion Baseball program.
Tri-City named Post of the Year for its long-term contributions to American Legion Baseball. L to R: Darwin Berg, American Legion Baseball Sate Director; Jeff Larsen, Manager of Tri-City Red; George Bodlovick, 4th District Baseball Director. |
Tri-City was chosen Post of the Year, and
Charlie Godbout of West St. Paul was named Coach of the
Year. Godbout said, "I always knew how to win a
tournament, you had to have a good catcher and a good
wife. Well, through the years, I've had several good
catchers, but only one good wife." Godbout urged the Legion players to give something back to the game, and a good way to do that was to coach. Dave Goltz, the former Minnesota Twins pitcher who grew up in Minnesota and lives in Rothsay, was named Graduate of the Year. The award is given to a person who has played Legion baseball and has contributed to the game over the years. Goltz told the players, "In order to be a great player, you must play with persistance, with heart. You must play because you love the game." Goltz said that somebody in the room would someday be a Graduate of the Year. Emmett Keenan emceed the banquet, and it was attended by past state Commander of the American Legion, Marland Ronning and his wife, Chris.
Darwin Berg presents Charlie Godbout, currently the Manager and Coach of the Oakdale American Legion club, with the Coach of the Year award for his extensive career contributions to Legion Baseball. |
The 2005 edition of the Minnesota
Division I American Legion Baseball Tournament kicks off
today in St. Cloud at four fields. Sixteen teams came through 10 district tournaments to advance to St. Cloud. The winner and runner-up of this tournament will advance to national regionals. The 16 finalists are: Eden Prairie, Duluth Lakeview, Apple Valley, Tri-City Red (New Brighton), East Grand Forks, Rochester A's, Hopkins, Holy Angels (Richfield), Coon Rapids, Brainerd, New Ulm Gold, Woodbury Blue, Alexandria, Fergus Falls, Bloomington Blue, and Waite Park (host). Games will be played at Putz and Faber Fields in St. Cloud -- and at Sartell and Cold Spring. The final statewide poll of the American Legion Division I teams found 14 of the teams in the tournament ranked in the top 20. Only Holy Angels and host Waite Park were not ranked. The top 10 in the state included: 1. Eden Prairie 2. Woodbury Blue 3. Rochester A's 4. Apple Valley 5. Tri-City Red 6. Coon Rapids 7. West St. Paul 8. Lakeville 9. East Grand Forks 10. Brainerd Others in the top 20 were Hopkins (11), Alexandria (12), Bloomington Blue (13), Duluth Lakeview (14), New Ulm Gold (15), and Fergus Falls (18). The double elimination tournament will conclude Sunday at Putz Field. Each team will play two games today.
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Additional Issues:
| The Gazette, Friday, August 5, 2005 |
| The Gazette, Saturday, August 6, 2005 |
| The Gazette, Sunday, August 7, 2005 |
| 2005 State Tournament Homepage |
Last updated: 8/04/05
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