Coach nearly loses a toe before team gets to state tournament

Sauk Centre will play St. Croix Lutheran in Thursday night's quarterfinals of the Class 2A volleyball tournament at Xcel Energy Center.

For the Mainstreeters, let's hope there's not as much drama as there was leading up to last Saturday's section final.

saukherald.com photo

Tom Elliott of the St. Cloud Times starts his story this way: "Jim Klaphake is a farmer who just happens to coach the Sauk Centre volleyball team. He nearly lost a toe Friday in a farm accident and in the process almost missed the Mainstreeters' Section 6-2A championship match. His right pinky toe was nearly severed when it was caught in an auger while he was loading soybeans on his farm about 5 miles west of Sauk Centre off Highway 28."

A trip to the doctor turned into a trip to the hospital and turned into a discussion about what to do with the nearly severed toe.

Klaphake had one main concern: "To be honest, I told them I was leaving at 1 o'clock whether they cut it off or not," he told Elliott.

Surgery was performed and Klaphake got to the finals minutes before Sauk Centre defeated Dassel-Cokato to win its trip to state, where he hobbled around and thought that he was something of a distraction to his team.

Since then, it's been a routine of staying off the foot as much as possible to let it heal.

That'll be fine, he said, until match time at the X.

"I can't sit still," he said in the Times story. "I've got to be standing up."

You can read Elliott's full account here.