Star Tribune
“Clarkies” converge in downtown Minneapolis for Big Ten tournament
Sisters Eliona and Eliza Sofogah woke up Friday morning thinking they’d be headed to another day at their Plymouth elementary school. Instead, their mom told them, they were going into downtown Minneapolis to see Caitlin Clark and the Iowa Hawkeyes face Penn State in the NCAA’s Big Ten Conference Tournament.
“They were like, are you serious?” mom Leslie Sofogah said, as she waited with her 10- and 8-year-old daughters, her own mother — a Hawkeyes season ticket holder — and a growing group of fans lining up in the Minneapolis skyway in the hours ahead of the late afternoon game at Target Center.
Sofogah said she laid out two Clark No. 22 T-shirts on her daughter’s beds to let them know they were in for a surprise.
“It was shock,” Sofogah said. “We’ve been watching them all season on the TV, and it’s different to see them in person.”
Waiting fans set up lawn chairs in the skyway, playing cards and handing out friendship bracelets. Reagan Cross, 12, said he made 311 bracelets ahead of the tournament, stringing together thousands of yellow and black beads with basketball charms, spelling out “Iowa,” “Hawkeyes,” and the names of every player and coach on the team that his family loves.
Mom and dad, Jodi and Matt Cross, of Pella, Iowa, helped their son make the friendship bracelets over the past month, a trend based on a Taylor Swift lyric.
“We decided to do it for the tournament and just hand them out,” Reagan Cross said. “I was born a Hawkeye and I’ll always be a Hawkeye.”
Diehard Hawkeyes stress that they are fans of every player, not just NCAA all-time leading scorer Clark. But the star guard has created a phenomenon and following unlike any seen before in women’s college basketball hasn’t seen before. The Big Ten women’s tournament sold out for the first time ever. Clark’s name and jersey appeared on fans young and old.
For younger kids who look up to Clark, this is all they’ve ever known. But for generations of Hawkeyes and women’s basketball fans before them, they see Clark helping bring long overdue recognition to the team and the sport.
“It’s unbelievable watching her live and the whole team is just phenomenal,” said season ticket holder June Brady, who found her spot in the front of the general admission line at 5:50 a.m.
“Women’s basketball is being elevated,” Brady said.
Lori Fesitner, the grandmother of the Sofogah sisters, lives in southwest Iowa, and is a season ticket holder for Hawkeye’s women’s basketball. She says it’s cool to see her grandkids catch the Iowa bug. Eliona and Eliza said in unison that they were most excited to see Clark in person.
“It’s just amazing how she plays. Sometimes when I watch her I don’t even believe that it’s real,” Eliona said. “When she does stuff, like made the shot to become the number one scorer in the NCAA, it was so amazing she had scored all those points.”
Friday’s game just so happened to coincide with International Women’s Day. It was not lost on longtime Hawkeyes fan Amanda Mosley of Iowa City.
“It’s time. It’s been past time to do something that’s this big and this exciting for women,” said Mosley, who was sporting a custom jean jacket with I♀wa on the back. “I played college ball in a small school and didn’t really feel like anybody cared about it. And so to watch people show out like this… I’m glad that we can see it and be a part of it.”
About 50 Ukrainian refugees have signed up to donate blood on Saturday in Minneapolis as a way to give thanks to Americans for welcoming them to this country and for support in the face of Russia’s military invasion of Ukraine.
The donated blood will then be given to the Children’s Hospital of Minnesota.
The Ukrainian American Community Center, located at 301 NE Main St. in Minneapolis, has organized the event. The blood drive will run from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday, said Iryna Petrus, community outreach manager at the center.
“It’s a sign of gratitude to Americans for supporting Ukraine and saving children’s lives in Ukraine,” said Yosyf Sabir, speaking on behalf of the blood drive.
It’s also a way to say “thank you to the United States for welcoming us so warmly,” said Petrus. She said there will be a program at 10 a.m. Saturday when several leaders of the Ukrainian American Community Center will speak. She said the center is hopeful that Ukrainian groups in other parts of North America will do similar blood drives.
Those who are unable to give blood have been asked to donate cash, which will be used to purchase tourniquets that will sent to Ukraine to be used by persons who have been injured in the war. Every $50 raised will purchase one hemostatic tourniquet, the Ukrainian Center said in a news release.
If approved, that approach would drop the district’s fund balance to 6% of general fund expenditures. The current board policy is to maintain a fund balance of at least 10% of general fund expenditures.
Anoka-Hennepin’s current operating referendum brings in about $1,154 per student, but the state-allowed cap is about $2,200 per student. If increased to the cap amount, a referendum would bring in another $40 million, McIntyre said.
According to community feedback collected through surveys and community meetings over the last month, nearly 90% of respondents said they supported a referendum. Parents and families also expressed concern about growing class sizes as a result of cuts.
The two options have already been revised based on board members’ requests to reduce cuts that would mean fewer teachers at schools, McIntyre said.
At one point in the discussion, the district floated changes to middle and high school class schedules to save money, but that was removed after board member feedback. At the board’s meeting last month, several board members thanked district staff for transparency about potential cuts and responsiveness to board and community feedback.
“I would encourage people to keep asking questions,” Board Member Michelle Langenfeld said at the September board meeting, “because as we unfold more information, the opportunity becomes greater for us to make the most informed decision under these very, very difficult circumstances.”
On Monday morning, contract workers began snipping razor wire and removing it from fencing that was propped atop concrete barriers along the perimeter of the former Third Precinct police station, which was set ablaze during the uprising over George Floyd’s police killing.
Finally, the concrete barricades will come down, after 4.5 years. As private security guards looked on, contractors began removing the security measures put in place to secure the building at 3000 Minnehaha Av. after it became a focal point of protests.
For the past three years, Third Precinct police officers have been based out of a city building in downtown Minneapolis, with plans to eventually bring them back to a south Minneapolis Community Safety Center just down the street at 2633 Minnehaha Av.
What to do with the former police station – home to what has been called a “playground” for renegade cops – has been the subject of heated debate, with the Minneapolis City Council and Mayor Jacob Frey at odds.
While the city debated its future, some conservatives jumped at the chance to use the charred building as a backdrop to hold press conferences and news reports in which they blasted the city and its leaders. Most recently, vice presidential nominee JD Vance made a campaign stop in front of the building earlier this month to blast his opponent, Gov. Tim Walz, for his handling of the 2020 riots and portray Minneapolis as a city overrun with crime.
GOP vice presidential candidate Sen. JD Vance speaks outside the former Minneapolis Police 3rd Precinct building in Minneapolis on Oct. 14. (Leila Navidi)
After that, several council members expressed frustration at the city’s failure to clean up the site. Despite signs saying “cleanup efforts are underway,” concrete barriers, fencing and razor wire remained all summer.
Council Member Aurin Chowdhury said earlier this month that the blight makes people feel uncared for and gives opportunists a backdrop to manipulate the scene for political gain.
Council Member Linea Palmisano blamed some of her council colleagues for the delays, accusing some members of being “desperate for any objection” to Frey’s proposal. The council passed a resolution saying that the building should not be used for any law enforcement functions again. Palmisano called it disgraceful that the building remains, scarred and secured, over four years later.
