Milroy public school: end of an era
In the mid-80s, a group of farm girls led by a future Hall of Fame coach made the world of girls’ high school basketball in Minnesota take notice
Editor’s Note: This is Part 2 of a series reflecting on Milroy’s public school, which is closing after this school year and consolodating with the Tracy Public School District.
BY SOPHIA GAUL
reporter
NOWADAYS, WHEN YOU THINK OF MILROY SPORTS, the Milroy Yankees probably come to mind. Appropriate since baseball and the town of Milroy are pretty much interchangeable.
But for almost all of the 1980s, the town of Milroy was synonymous with women’s basketball success. From 19831988, the high school team (first Milroy alone, then Tracy-Milroy) lost a total of nine games.
While many community members are bound to remember the culmination of the team’s success, the combined T-M team winning the Class A State Championship, that wasn’t the only moment that showcased Milroy’s basketball prowess. In 1985, Milroy alone was the runnerup in the Class A tournament with a team of only eight girls.
“We never had a B-squad team, we never had enough girls,” said Mary Jo Miller Hmielewski,
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Athletics bring people together. When we arrived back in the gym after winning the championship, people began to realize that playing together is what made the team amazing.
— JILL VROMAN, A MEMBER OF THE LAST GRADUATING CLASS OF MILROY HIGH SCHOOL IN 1989 a 1988 graduate of Milroy who was crowned Minnesota’s Miss Basketball in 1988 and went on to play basketball for Kansas State. “Making it to state in ‘85, that was such a big deal.”
ABOVE: THE ENTIRETY OF THE MILROY SPARTANS’ GIRLS’ BASKETBALL BENCH IN 1986 — Brenda Dolan, Jill Vroman and Cheryl Rosa. They are seated with manager Kris Cordon (left), and coaches Terry Culhane and the late Paul Soupir. RIGHT: With a family as large as Milroy’s Dolans, it was sometimes hard to keep track of who belongs to which family. Here, Richie Dolan holds a sign claiming both Kathy and Sandy Dolan as his sisters at the 1986 Minnesota State High School Girls’ Basketball Tournament. Marshall Independent file photos
“I was only in eighth grade.” said Jill Vroman, who started playing for the Milroy team in 1984. “But I remember how proud the town was of the team. People might have been even more proud of that second place than they were when we won the championship as Tracy-Milroy.”
Just nine years after the first Minnesota State High School League girls’ basketball tournament was held, the town of less than 300 people had made a name for itself in the sport. But it didn’t come without dedication. It took hundreds of hours in the gym for the girls to improve their game, and included some unconventional practice methods.
“Men from the community came in to practice because we didn’t even have enough people to scrimmage against,” Vroman laughed.
Being such a small team also allowed the players to form tight bonds, which most likely contributed to their later success after the consolidation with Tracy. The team’s first season together was 1986-87, and they were the state’s consolation champs. But that first season together came with growing pains.
“It was pretty intense at first,” Vroman said. “It was a big adjustment for all of us.”
She even remembered the intense atmosphere of the Milroy gym during the final Milroy vs. Tracy game in early 1986.
“So many people were packed into that gym,” she said. “We were rivals, so every time we played them it was a really fun game. The atmosphere of that last game, with all those extra emotions from the crowd, was very memorable.”
Although it took time, Hmielewski said that eventually the two teams began to find their groove.
“We went from not liking each other to being each other’s best friends,” said Hmielewski. “On the court, there was no, ‘I’m Milroy, you’re Tracy.’ We had to be a team to be successful.”
The success of the combined team helped usher in an important shift in the history of the Milroy School District. The same year the girls’ basketball team consolidated with Tracy, Milroy High School students started to be bused to Tracy for half of their school day. The small class sizes were becoming an issue for staffing and extracurricular opportunities, so for two years before the official closing of Milroy High School, students spent their mornings in Milroy and their afternoons in Tracy.
“There was certainly lots of hesitation to consolidate,” Vroman recalls. “I think the win (in 1988) helped with some of that.”
Vroman herself, who was 15 when the initial discussions about combining with Tracy were being held, even spoke out against the head of the school board … who happened to be her father.
“I remember being at the meetings, and during the open forums I basically told my father that I didn’t agree with what he was doing,” she said.
Looking back now, she can see that the consolidation was the best option for the education of the students. But she enjoyed the small class sizes and comfort that the Milroy school walls offered her. Vroman graduated in 1989 with 11 others as the last class of Milroy High School.
“When we came together to become T/M, we were something else,” Vroman said. “We had a new mascot, new uniforms. It was almost like a fresh start.”
After their consolation win in 1987, the team really began to solidify. Coaches Terry Culhane, Paul Soupir and Shorty Engel blended their coaching styles together and began to show the team that they were even better together than they had been apart. And that attitude began to spread to the Milroy community at large.
“Athletics bring people together,” Vroman said. “When we arrived back in the gym after winning the championship, people began to realize that playing together is what made the team amazing.”
Both Vroman and Miller remember the community’s celebratory reception for the team after winning the 1988 Class A Tournament. They had to play three undefeated teams to secure the title, and were down at halftime during the championship game.
“When we were in the locker room at halftime, it was quieter than quiet. There was a feeling that this couldn’t be a repeat of last year,” said Hmielewski.
But this time, the team had solidified. Relationships had been made, unbreakable bonds forged on and off the court. Tracy-Milroy managed to come back against Storden-Jeffers and win the title, 47-35.
“We were celebrities when we came home,” Hmielewski said. “It felt like everyone from both towns was packed into the gym that night. Everybody wanted to be a part of it.”
“It was like we were royalty,” Vroman added. “Both towns were so excited about our success.”
Both women still look fondly upon their time in Milroy after growing up on farms in the area. Vroman is now a family medicine physician in Marshall, and Hmielewski works at the University of South Dakota Sanford School of Medicine in Sioux Falls.
“I drive by (the school) and think of all the different memories I have from my time there,” Vroman said.
“That little old school has seen a lot,” summed up Hmielewski.
PICTURED IS THE 1986 MILROY girls’ basketball team. The Spartans’ journey toward a second straight state tournament appearance that year was derailed by the Rebels from Sanborn-Lamberton, who ended Milroy’s season with a 50-46. The Spartans’ 46 points were scored by just three players — Mary Jo Miller (28 points), Kathy Dolan (10) and Sandy Dolan (8). The loss was the Spartans’ first — and only one — of a 19-1 season.
TWO MILROY SPORTS ICONS — coach Terry Culhane and point guard Mary Jo (Miller) Hmielewski — discuss strategy during the 1985 state tournament. The pair helped put Milroy on the map with some dominant teams in the 1980s. Marshall Independent file photos
