I Was Thinking... We’ve Come a Long Way (Part 2)

Last week I began to look at the changes that have occurred in the athletics at both Byron and Kasson-Mantorville over the years. Previously, I discussed the changes in both football and track and field. Today I’ll continue the comparison by looking at other sports.
Today both K-M and Byron have manicured baseball fields with bleachers, fences, dug outs, and electronic scoreboards. Until 1968, Byron didn’t have a home baseball field. For practice they had a backstop and a practice area that included part of a gravel road. They played some of their games in Mantorville on the top of the hill behind the old school. Of course, in those days, there weren’t any fields at all for softball.
Until 1968, football, basketball, baseball and track and field were the only sports. Byron started wrestling in 1968. The first coaches had to teach the sport to many young athletes that had only been exposed to “professional wrestling.”
Many of the boys were disappointed they weren’t going to be competing in a roped off ring and would not be learning how to do flying drop kicks, body slams or the sleeper hold. No one in those early days envisioned state championship titles like the ones the KoMets have won, or that wrestling would also eventually include girls’ teams.
It wasn’t until the early 1970s that girl’s athletics were available. While there had been some women’s sports as early as the 1920s and early 1930s, they were discontinued because it was felt it was not good for young women. In the 1960s some schools started intramural girls’ sports, sometimes identified as the GAA (Girl’s Athletic Association).
When Title IX was passed on the Federal level, it helped girls’ sports grow. It wasn’t an instant success and there was some resentment from boys who had to now share some practice facilities and were now no longer the only game in town. But skills and competitiveness of women sports quickly developed. This is evidenced by the Kasson-Mantorville state championships in softball.
Today, girls’ athletics draw as large a crowd as do many of the boys’ sports. In the 2024 Hall of Fame class, both schools honored outstanding female athletes all of whom ended up playing at the college level.
Kristin Scott, a 2017 K-M graduate, played four years of basketball at Iowa State. Another KoMet athlete, Katie Robinson, played six years of hockey with the Wildcats before being on the Minnesota Gopher hockey team for another four years. Julie (Storlie) Monson was a three-sport athlete at Byron and played five years of volleyball at MN State University at Mankato. After her athletic career at Byron, Laura (Huntoon) Threinen lettered four years in volleyball at UW- Stout.
From the three or four sports that were standard for many years, the sports offerings have expanded greatly. Today both schools offer an array of sports for both boys and girls. In addition to the long-established sports, the schools have added softball, soccer, volleyball, gymnastics, dance team and cross country. Recently students can join a bowling team, a fishing team or be on the trap shooting team. Boys’ volleyball is also coming soon.
Hopefully both the Byron and K-M athletes of today have an appreciation of both the offerings and the facilities that both schools have provided for them. Athletes from former days look in amazement at how things have changed.
 
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