John's Journal: An Emotional Roller Coaster For MACCRAY Coach

Shaun Condon was emotional after the last game of the girls basketball season on Saturday at Williams Arena. He is the eighth-year head coach at MACCRAY High School, and the Wolverines had an absolutely splendid year.

They came to state seeded seventh in the eight-team Class A field, and wouldn’t you know it they hustled, shot and rebounded their way to the state championship game. The outcome was not what anyone from the MACCRAY communities of Maynard, Clara City and Raymond wanted … a 58-41 loss to fourth-seeded West Central Area.

Shaun’s postgame tears were complicated. Yes, of course, he was sad at the outcome. But there are losses on the scoreboard and there is sadness in the heart, and the coach knows all about both.

One week and one hour before Saturday’s noon tipoff, a funeral was held in Clara City for a fellow named Tom Condon. Everybody knew Tom, everybody adored Tom.

He graduated from Clara City High School in 1960 and built one heck of a life. He farmed and raised cattle. He served in the Army Reserves. Tom and his wife Peg raised five kids and, as Tom’s obituary read, “They taught them to be loving, supportive and respectful adults.”

Tom was 82 when he died at Clara City Assisted Living on Feb. 27; the next day the Wolverines defeated Central Minnesota Christian in the Section 3 playoffs. Then came a win over Hills-Beaver Creek for the section title and the trip to state.

Tom was Shaun’s grandfather.

“He was phenomenal, and I'm probably going to get emotional talking about him, but I never met anyone who didn't respect him, who didn't have a good thing to say about him,” Shaun, 32, said Saturday. “I said to the girls, ‘You know, my family's kind of been through some stuff here.’

“Everybody came to the section final and the state games, and it just brought joy in a time where that was kind of nice.”

Tom was unable to attend recent games in person but Shaun helped set up streaming for him to watch in the assisted living center.

The Condons are proud of their Irish heritage, and Tom had a strong collection of Irish apparel. Shaun wore some of his grandpa’s gear under his MACCRAY outerwear on the sidelines at the state tournament.

“He would have just absolutely loved being here,” Shaun said, smiling at the thought.

Tom was a farmer for sure, but he also was an entrepreneur. He took a business that his father, Walter, had started that involved selling livestock equipment, and along with his brother Paul turned Condon Circle Steel, later called Condon Inc., into a multi-faceted company. Condon Inc. sold and constructed grain equipment, grain bins, concrete grain elevators, and many other grain-related items across the United States. He did all this while farming with Walter, Paul, and son, Bob.

As if that wasn’t enough, Tom decided that he would build a food processing facility, International Grain & Milling, in his hometown that would employ local people and help the local economy. IGM started by making biodegradable packing materials and eventually evolved into making pretzels for companies like Gardetto’s for their snack mixes. He had a deep passion for his hometown and was determined to build IGM in Clara City. As he neared retirement, he sold the company, and the facility is still producing food items and employs local people today.

Shaun works in agriculture and related businesses, following Tom’s legacy.

“It's amazing,” he said of his grandpa’s accomplishments. “And it goes down to my dad and my brother and I. We farm and my brother (Matt) and I have an ag business with another partner, and it's just kind of who we are. That's we're called to do, I guess.”

Shaun, a 2010 MACCRAY graduate, played basketball in high school and at Southwest Minnesota State. In his senior year the Wolverines were unbeaten until losing to Ellsworth in the section title game; Ellsworth had won the previous three Class A state titles.

Shaun held the career scoring record for MACCRAY boys and girls basketball until Wolverines junior Brielle Janssen broke it this season. She had a game-high 28 points Saturday, making eight of 25 shots; that was a theme for the Wolverines, who shot 27 percent for the game (12 for 44).

After the game Saturday, Shaun spent some time with his team as well as his family. The last few days had been emotional and stressful, joyous and sad. Now was a time to reflect on the memories, raise a toast, tell good Irish stories and smile once more.

“It was a roller coaster, but you know when you have people around you that care about you and love you, it makes things a lot easier,” said Shaun. “And to me, my faith is really important, and it is to all of my family. God will never give you anything you can't handle.”

When Becca Holland took over as head girls basketball coach at West Central Area three years ago, the rookie coach faced a tough task in her inaugural game. Game One of Season One was against New London-Spicer and coach Mike Dreier, who for three decades has held the distinction of winning more games than any other girls basketball coach in Minnesota.

Here was Holland, all of 24 years old, from Morris Area High School and the University of Minnesota Morris, where she played college basketball and softball, taking a career record of zero wins and zero losses against Mike’s A Lot and A Little.

That was November 2022, and WCA was defeated 70-43.

The Knights finished 10-14 that year, and last season they were 17-11. The 2024-25 season was one to remember as they finished with a 27-6 record and the Class A state championship.

All they did at state was surprise everyone. They arrived in the Twin Cities with those six losses, matching Sacred Heart for the most in the 1A field. After beating fifth-seeded Cromwell Wright 61-54 in the quarterfinals, next up was (gulp) defending state champ and top-seeded Goodhue in the semifinals. A smart-aleck member of the media (me) asked this question: How the heck are you going to beat Goodhue?

Becca’s answer focused on being prepared, working hard and not being intimidated, no matter the opponent. Final score: WCA 58, Goodhue 50.

As the final seconds counted down in Saturday’s championship-game win over MACCRAY, longtime local sports columnist Patrick Reusse, seated next to me at Williams Arena, asked, “Is this an upset?” I said something like, “No. 4 beat No. 7, so I guess not.”

After the biggest win in school history – and the first team state championship in school history – Becca said, “It's hard work, determination. These guys wanted it, and really that's what it came down to. We put in things, plays in place, we talked about what things they're going to do, and it's up to them to go do it.”

Oh, they did it real good. Jayden Styba (16), Macy Grosz (15) and Addison Staples (13) combined for 44 of the Knights’ 58 points and Jayden also had a game-high 10 rebounds along with four assists and three steals while playing with a battered right eye that was red as the result of a collision in the quarterfinals.

A banner, of course, will soon be hanging in the West Central gym, commemorating the school’s first team title.

“That banner is going to be on the wall forever,” Becca said. “They won't even know the effects of it until they're 40 or 50 years old and they have family members that come to the school, and they can be like, ‘I was on that team.’ ”

Marshall’s Dan Westby knows his way around state tournaments in two sports. His Tigers girls basketball team, which has played at state eight times since 2011, lost to Benilde-St. Margaret’s 73-57 in Saturday’s Class 3A championship game.

In volleyball, Marshall owns more state titles than any other school. The Tigers won championship No. 9 in 2023 and finished second to Alexandria last fall in Class 3A. No surprise: Westby, a 1978 graduate of Danube High School, is also the head volleyball coach at Marshall.

“I've coached two sports for 36 years, so according to my Danube math that's 72 seasons,” he said after Saturday’s game. “And there's not a better group than this.”

The only seniors on the Tigers basketball team are Paige Gillingham and Ali Pederson, so optimism will be high for the 2025-26 season.

--MSHSL staff member John Millea has been the leading voice of Minnesota high school activities for decades. Follow him on Bluesky at johnmilleamn and listen to "Preps Today with John Millea” wherever you get podcasts. Contact John at [email protected] or [email protected]