One of Park’s youngest athletes made a name for herself last week.

Eighth-grade cross country runner Cameron Anderson had the Wolfpack’s top finish at the Section 3AA championship meet. Anderson finished first for Park girls with a time of 15:47, coming in 26th place overall, helping the Wolfpack place 10th out of 15 teams.

There weren’t many surprises in the Section 4AAAAA quarterfinal as the second-seeded Woodbury Royals steamrolled rival Park, the seventh seed in the seven-team section, 44-7 on Tuesday, Oct. 25, under the lights of Woodbury’s Royals Stadium.

Up 21-7 at the half, Woodbury scored 20 points in the third quarter to put the game on ice and advance to the semifinal. The Royals (6-3) will now play host to third-seeded Eagan, which beat six seed Minneapolis South 50-0 in the playoff opener, on Saturday, Oct. 29, at 7 p.m. The Wildcats were 5-4 on the year.

In the win over Park, Woodbury took advantage of the big play.

With a 21-7 lead starting the second half, Woodbury junior quarterback Sawyer Moon hit senior receiver Ryan Fritze with a 68 yard catch-and-run down to the Wolfpack’s 6-yard line. Three plays later, Woodbury junior running back Quaran Al-Hameed punched in his third of four touchdowns in the game from the 2-yard line to put Woodbury up 28-7 with 9:09 left in the third quarter, dashing any hopes Park had of an upset.

In the first half, the Royals blocked two punts and turned them into touchdowns to go ahead 14-0. Then, after recovering a Park fumble, Woodbury went up 21-0 with 10:36 remaining in the first half.

Park (0-9) showed life in the middle of the second quarter, however.

On the heels of a Woodbury fumble, recovered by Park’s Jordan Reeves on the Wolfpack’s own 39 yard line, Park junior running back Dylan Smallidge broke off a 44-yard touchdown run, turning the corner and sprinting down the left sideline.

After the Wolfpack forced a Woodbury three-and-out, the Wolfpack drove down to the Royals’ 34-yard line. However, Woodbury defensive back Andrew Norlander picked off a Kyle Fritz pass to end the threat and the two teams went into the locker rooms with a 21-7 game.

In the second half, though, it was all Woodbury, which put in its reserves midway through the fourth quarter after building a 44-7 lead, capped by a 48-yard field goal by Royals’ kicker Trevor Lo.

Al-Hameed had 12 carries for 124 yards and four touchdowns and Moon completed 11 passes for 235 yards and two touchdowns and ran for 42 yards to lead the Royals in the game. Also, senior tight end Jordan Voit caught five passes, including two touchdowns.

Despite the loss, Park junior running back Dylan Smallidge was a beast for the Wolfpack, running 21 times for 137 yards and a touchdown in the game.

Park’s season ends with a 20-game losing streak. The Wolfpack’s last win was Friday, Oct. 9, 2009, 27-25 over East Ridge. The Wolfpack is now 3-34 since the start of 2008 season.

Park must now say good-bye to 18 seniors, including Fritz, who was second in the Suburban East Conference in passing yards, D’Monte Farley, who was third in the SEC in receiving yards and a key player in the Wolfpack’s defensive backfield, and team captain and defensive tackle LaVonte Hardie.

Visiting White Bear Lake beat Park 48-7 on Friday, Sept. 23, scoring three touchdowns on its first five offensive plays, taking a 21-0 lead less than four minutes into the Wolfpack’s homecoming game at Park High School.

After receiving the opening kickoff in the Suburban East Conference contest, White Bear Lake (3-1; 3-1 SEC) scored on the very first play of the game as Bears senior quarterback Eric Gebeke ran 78 yards for a touchdown to make it 7-0. Then, after a Wolfpack three-and-out, White Bear Lake senior Ridge Sackman ran 68 yards for a touchdown on the Bears’ second play of its second possession. Following a fumble by Park, White Bear Lake made it a 21-0 game as White Bear Lake junior Nick Truen ran for a 35-yard score on the Bears’ second play of its third drive.

Park (0-4; 0-4 SEC) got off the mat, however, compiling a 10-play, four minute touchdown drive capped by a 5-yard touchdown run by junior running back Dylan Smallidge to make the score 21-7 with 3:43 left in the first quarter. But, that’s as close as the Wolfpack would get. It took the Bears only four more plays and 22 seconds to get into the end zone again, this time on an 18-yard run by senior running back Joe Nasvik, making it 28-7. After a pair of interceptions by White Bear Lake on Park’s next two possessions, Truen scored his second touchdown of the game with 2:55 left in the half, making it a 35-7 game – and the rout was on.

In all, White Bear Lake totaled 515 yards of total offense, including an astounding 447 yards rushing. Sackman led the way with 120 yards rushing on eight carries, followed by Tyler Hubman, who had nine rushes for 92 yards and Gebeke, who had two carries for 86 yards.

Park had 220 yards of offense, 135 in the air and 85 on the ground. Smallidge led the way for the Wolfpack with 67 yards and a touchdown on 20 carries along with three catches for 36 yards. Senior quarterback Kyle Fritz was 15-for-28 passing for 135 yards. His leading receiver was junior Irving Gutierrez, who caught six balls for 41 yards.

It doesn’t get any easier for the Wolfpack next week. Park travels to St. Paul to take on Cretin-Derham Hall on Friday, Sept. 30. The Raiders are undefeated and ranked third in Class AAAAA.

[By: Patrick Johnson, Sports Editor, South Washington County Bulletin]

Park senior D'Monte Farley and the Wolfpack fell 48-7 to White Bear Lake on Friday, Sept. 23. Read the article: Unwelcome homecoming: Bears maul Wolfpack 48-7

Jerome Detviler (Coach/Class of ‘68): “JD” participated in football and track and field while at Park High School, but is probably best known for his efforts as a long-time coach in soccer, Nordic skiing, and track and field. While his teams were very successful, his ability to bring a love for the sport to his athletes made him a great coach.
William Hare (Class of ‘61): Bill earned ten varsity letters at Park in football, basketball, and baseball. He was a standout baseball player at Hamline University and is inducted in their hall of Fame. Hare was a successful baseball coach (winning four state championships) and athletic director at Greenway Coleraine High School.
Norm Larsen (Coach/Athletic Director): Mr. Larsen was the head football coach at Park for ten years and led the 1959 team to an undefeated 9-0 season. After his coaching career, Norm continued to serve as Park’s athletic director until his retirement in 1977. Larsen was instrumental in establishing the “Citizens for Lights” committee which raised money for lights at the Oltman field and is still giving away scholarship money to District 833 students today.
Leslie (Bloedel) Mollner (Class of ‘89): Leslie was a three-year state meet participant in diving while at Park, and finished in 11th in the state her senior year. She also excelled at gymnastics, where she led her teams to two state meet appearances and was an individual state champion in the vault. Leslie twice earned All-American honors as a gymnast at Gustavus Adolphus, leading her team to four straight Division III national championships.
Tim Scanlan (Class of ‘79): Tim was a three sport stand-out all three years that he attended Park, participating in football, basketball, and track. He continued his athletic career at the U of M, as a high jumper freshman year and a member of the JV basketball team his sophomore year. Scanlan is currently the vice president of event production at ESPN, and in 2003 won an Emmy Award for Technical Achievement.

The Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony will be held Saturday, November 19, 2011 at 5:00p.m. at Mississippi Dunes on Grey Cloud Island. For ticket information, call Activities Director Phil Kuemmel at 651/768-5720. Once again, congratulations to this year’s inductees. We look forward to honoring them in November.

            In other coaching news, the Rams have hired the now former Giants defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo to become their new head coach. Spagnuolo’s defensive schemes helped the Giants defeat the Patriots and their highest scoring offense ever in the Super Bowl last year. Spagnuolo is at least taking over a team that had some wins last year, but the Rams were still a terrible 2-14 team.  However, they do have the third pick in the draft. The Rams have a great offense but just need to fix their defense, which was pretty horrible last year.

            The Jets have named former Ravens defensive coordinator Rex Ryan head coach. He is taking over a team that was within the grasp of making the playoffs this year, but choked at the end of the season last year, mostly in part to Brett Favre playing terribly. I feel bad for Ryan though, because now he has to deal with all this Favre drama… whether or not he is going to retire, whether he still has it in him, does he still have the skills to be an NFL quarterback, If I were Ryan, I wouldn’t want to deal with that, and I would just let Favre go away, or tell him to make up his mind already.

            The Packers have found their new defensive coordinator, Dom Capers. Capers was the Patriots special assistant secondary coach last year, but two years ago he was the Dolphins defensive coordinator. After hiring Capers, Head Coach Mike McCarthy said the Packers are changing their style of defense, going from a 4-3 defense, to a 3-4. Which means, instead of having four defensive lineman and three linebackers, they will now have three defensive lineman and four linebackers. That means that this offseason the Packers are going to have to get some different linebackers, and some different offensive lineman. Hopefully the Packers picked the right man for the job, because their defense was absolutely terrible last year and that was 90 percent of the reason why they were 6-10 last year.

            The Eagles have come out and said that Coach Andy Reid and QB Donovan McNabb are going to be Eagles next year, after months of speculation that McNabb was going to be traded and Reid was going to be fired. I have to ask though, why was their ever any speculation? McNabb is a borderline Hall of Famer and Reid has lead them to the playoffs a ton of times.  Neither of them deserve the bashing they are getting from Eagle’s fans… Hey… after getting benched this year, McNabb only lead the Eagles to the NFC Championship game. There are plenty of teams who would love to have McNabb on their team, and I think the Eagles are taking that for granted.

            Oh, am I forgetting something? Yes, that’s right!  The Cardinals and the Steelers are playing each other in the Super Bowl. Plenty of people expected that the Steelers could make it, but the Cardinals? No way. No one expected the Cardinals to go anywhere in the playoffs, after all they have never been to the Super Bowl and are one of the seven teams that have never won the Super Bowl. That’s why we love the NFL though right? You never know what is going to happen and you have to expect the unexpected.