Minnesota
Yuen: Why boys’ volleyball ‘feels like home’ for a new generation of Minnesota players
Boys’ volleyball is rising exponentially — with out the help of the Minnesota State Excessive College League.
To grasp its latest populist surge, you want to meet teenagers like Moua Tia Xiong, who began begging his highschool’s athletic director to begin a crew when he was only a freshman.
“The dialog was like just a little child nagging their very own mother or father,” recalled Moua, now a senior at Como Park Senior Excessive, with fun. “I feel he was irritated with me.”
Moua recruited gamers at lunch, taped posters to the partitions and repeatedly dropped into the workplace of Koua Yang, the athletic director, to present him progress reviews. Earlier than lengthy, Yang championed the hassle and paved the way in which for a brand new highschool membership crew.
Immediately, 1,400 boys in 55 groups throughout Minnesota play, a lot of them newcomers to highschool athletics. About 78% of the gamers had not performed a sport earlier than volleyball, in line with the Minnesota Boys Excessive College Volleyball League. Greater than half of the gamers establish as youngsters of shade, primarily from Hmong, Karen and different Asian American communities.
The highschool league’s Consultant Meeting had an opportunity to sanction the fast-rising sport this month and are available nearer to creating good on its acknowledged beliefs embracing variety and inclusion. The measure failed by a single vote.
The choice to sanction any highschool sport might be fraught, and little question the athletic administrators and directors who voted no needed to confront questions of cash, health club area and Title IX gender fairness. Assuming the proposal resurfaces subsequent spring, the representatives could have one other 12 months to ponder the deserves of giving these boys a seat on the desk.
They may study one thing from Yang, the Como Park athletic director, a Hmong American who emigrated right here when he was 4. His father was a soldier who assisted the CIA, rescuing downed U.S. pilots in Laos throughout the Secret Struggle. After his father’s dying, Yang was raised in St. Paul by his mother, who like many conventional Asian American immigrants prioritized teachers over athletics. However he dabbled in a bunch of sports activities, ultimately incomes a spot as an all-state wrestler and all-conference tennis participant whereas a scholar at Como Park.
By means of sports activities, Yang realized the values he lives by: Self-discipline. Loyalty. A way of stability. Neighborhood.
As a brand new athletic director at an outdated highschool, the place the overwhelming majority of scholars are youngsters of shade, he puzzled why a lot of them didn’t be a part of a crew. Some mentioned they began too late, others mentioned they simply did not join with conventional sports activities. However volleyball?
“Volleyball was the one factor the place we felt that we belonged,” Moua, 17, informed me. “We noticed our dad and mom play, our idols play.”
Moua and his household frequented the annual Hmong Worldwide Freedom Competition, often called J4, and remembers the joys of seeing gamers from all around the world who lacked in peak dominate the courts with their scrappiness and hops. His uncles performed aggressive volleyball. Moua participated on the swim crew however all the time gravitated again to the sport that’s linked to his tradition and neighborhood.
“I discover peace, I really feel at residence, I really feel like myself once I play volleyball,” mentioned Moua, who now co-captains his crew. “It is engraved into my blood.”
Organizational leaders, within the realm of highschool sports activities and past, have been wringing their palms about the right way to make their establishments extra inclusive in order that their commitments to variety and fairness really imply one thing.
Generally the reply is correct in entrance of us. When younger folks converse, we have to hear.
Volleyball, like soccer and badminton, is accessible to begin as a result of it is pretty simple to study and comparatively low-cost. At Como, the boys’ volleyball gamers do a number of fundraising and pay for their very own charges and uniforms.
“They need it that badly, and these are youngsters on free and lowered lunch,” Yang mentioned. “If you give youngsters alternative, they blossom.”
However one factor the children do not typically have is a voice on the desk. Consider the super-involved, aggressive soccer mother or dad who is just not solely cheering on their youngsters at each sport from their garden chair however doing the backbreaking work of advocacy, combating for sources that can decide the success of the game.
In some communities, dad and mom are exhibiting their help the one approach they know the way — by merely letting their youngsters be a part of an exercise. That is why Yang says it is as much as coaches and educators like him to maintain pushing for change.
“We’re accountable for these youngsters, we now have to then vouch for these youngsters, we now have to then help these youngsters, we now have to then present outcomes for these youngsters,” he mentioned, “as a result of dad and mom are entrusting their youngster with us.”
In Minnesota, boys’ volleyball, as a membership sport, is fueled by the sweat of volunteers. Twenty-seven different states have already sanctioned it. If it turns into an official sport, no district can be required so as to add it, however they could really feel the strain to supply this system and would then should discover a solution to fund busing, coaches and officers.
But it surely’s value declaring that boys volleyball has the potential to herald income. Residence video games at Como are sometimes filled with excited followers. Since Moua shall be graduating this spring, it’s too late to make the sport that’s engraved in his blood an official highschool sport for Moua’s profit, however he tries to make volleyball really feel like residence for his youthful teammates.
“I say to them, ‘Household on three,’ ” Moua mentioned. “I really feel like we’re all we have got.”
Minnesota
Bizarre Minnesota laws, including penalties for driving a filthy car, that will shock you
Each state has its own set of laws that seem quite strange, and Minnesota is not exempt.
Many bizarre laws that come out of states are fictional rumors that somehow spread with no evidence backing them. In Minnesota, this includes it being illegal to cross state lines with a duck on your head or parking an elephant on Main Street. Though, there are certain laws that are surprisingly true.
Among Minnesota’s strangest laws include not being allowed to drive with dirty tires and the inability to be charged with drunkenness.
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Below are more details about these strange laws and more that are on the books in the state of Minnesota.
- You cannot be charged with drunkenness
- It’s against the law to drive with sticky, dirty tires
- Mosquitoes are a public nuisance
- Think twice before hitchhiking
1. You cannot be charged with drunkenness
In Minnesota, public intoxication alone is not a crime.
This is according to Section 340A.902 of Minnesota law.
The law states that “no person may be charged with or convicted of the offense of drunkenness or public drunkenness.”
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That said, a person could still be convicted of other offenses, like if injuring another or damaging property occurs.
“Nothing herein prevents the prosecution and conviction of an intoxicated person for offenses other than drunkenness or public drunkenness nor does this section relieve a person from civil liability for an injury to persons or property caused by the person while intoxicated,” the written statute goes on to state.
Minnesota is not the only state which does not consider public intoxication a crime.
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Montana, Nevada and Wisconsin are other states that don’t criminalize drunkenness in public, according to FindLaw.com.
2. It’s against the law to drive with sticky, dirty tires
If you have dirty tires that are spreading filth in the road, be wary before driving down a road in Minnesota. More specifically, in Minnetonka, where driving with dirty tires could lead to legal trouble.
Under Section 845.010, “Public Nuisances Affecting Peace, Safety and General Welfare” in Minnetonka, Minnesota’s Code of Ordinances, drivers are not allowed to drive “a truck or other vehicle whose wheels or tires deposit mud, dirt, sticky substances, litter or other material on any street or highway.”
“A violation of this ordinance is subject to the penalties and provisions of Chapter XIII of the city code,” the law states.
BIZARRE MICHIGAN LAWS THAT WOULD PUZZLE JUST ABOUT ANYONE, INCLUDING CONSEQUENCES FOR SEDUCING UNMARRIED WOMEN
3. Mosquitoes are a public nuisance
Minnesota is home to lots of mosquitoes, so much so that there is actually a law written about the insects.
The law refers to areas where mosquitoes are in abundance.
Section 18G.14 in part states that “areas where mosquitoes incubate or hatch are declared to be public nuisances and may be abated under this section. Mosquito abatement may be undertaken under this section anywhere in the state by any governmental unit.”
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4. Think twice before hitchhiking
Think twice before trying to catch a ride by waiting on the side of the road in Minnesota.
State statute 169.22 describes the act of hitchhiking as unlawful.
“No person shall stand in a roadway for the purpose of soliciting a ride from the driver of any private vehicle,” the statute states.
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Another section of this statute applies to solicitation of business.
“No person shall stand on a roadway for the purpose of soliciting employment, business, or contributions from the occupant of any vehicle,” the statute states.
Minnesota
What six independent voters in Minnesota think about the presidential election
This time around, Vraa said he’s “probably ready” to vote for Harris. “Trump lies so much it’s crazy,” he said. “The cats and dogs pronouncement during the debate. It’s crazy. He bounces around on so many things. It would be OK if he just admitted he made a mistake, but then he doubles down..”
Bird, who works in finance, grew up in a conservative Minnesota household and has voted for Democrats, Republicans, Libertarians and independents. Bird voted for Libertarian Gary Johnson in 2016 and for Biden in 2020. “I really try to take it person by person, year over year,” he said.
Bird’s top issues this election include the burgeoning national debt — which now stands at more than $35 trillion. “They need to curb spending, both candidates should be talking about it,” he said. “Nobody cares about the deficit, and running the government in a way that makes sense.”
Bird is also concerned about the economy, but notes, “as a white-collar worker, in general the economy has been favorable to me.” And he supports abortion rights: “People should have the freedom to do what they want.”
Bird said he’s voting for Harris. “I don’t mind her, I think she’s a good person. She’s a standard Democrat.”
Freyholtz is a Vietnam veteran and retired teacher who runs a family farm in the northwestern Minnesota town of about 250 people.
Minnesota
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