Wrestling, dance team updates (VIDEOS)

At Pequot Lakes today for the second and final day of the 38-team Jackhammer Invitational, the B-B-E Jaguars wrestling team finished in a tie for 10th place with Eagan with 97.5 team points. It was a remarkable finish while they had multiple open weights. Here's the weight divisions and who competed at each one for B-B-E: 107 Emmitt Skarre, 114 Noah Jensen, 121 Jude Thompson, 127 Noah DeRoo, 133 Jace Mueller, 139 Louie Tensen, 145 Dylan Koob, 160 Brett DeRoo, 172 Andrew Spanier, 215 Carson Gilbert. The Jaguars had open weights at 152, 189 and 285 pounds.

Brett DeRoo came out of the tournament as champion by winning the 160-pound bracket. In the championship, DeRoo won a thriller by a 2-1 ultra-tiebreaker decision against top-seeded Colbe Tappe of Staples-Motley. Fellow senior Carson Gilbert emerged as champion of the 215-pound bracket with a 5-0 record, with 4 of his 5 wins coming by fall. He won his semifinal match by a 17-1 tech fall (4:34).

Getting caught up on dance team news...
Last Saturday, December 14 at the Albany Invitational, the B-B-E/Paynesville Pirouettes dance team competed with three squads. In the JV Kick division, the Pirouettes took first place out of 7 teams, which is one of the best performances by a JV team that I can remember in the program's history.

The Pirouettes were at a dance competition today at Melrose Area high school. For an unprecedented third straight time, the JV Kick squad earned a first-place finish. They are really quite fabulous. The home competition that was supposed to be this past Thursday night will be rescheduled to January.

In other news...
The Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper website has a few Christmas-related videos/web articles posted: https://www.bonanzavalleyvoice.com.

Added on Sunday evening...I'm finally getting closer to being caught up on uploading winter sports photos to the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper's SmugMug galleries. Here's the direct link to find the winter sports albums: https://bonanzavalley.smugmug.com/B-B-E-Winter-Sports-24-25.

Here's a video from the last part of the Brooten Community Church's Sunday School Christmas program:


Speaking of church news...the directory listing in the December 19 issue had an error for Crow River Lutheran. Their Christmas Eve worship is at 3 p.m. and not 5 p.m. as was posted on page 3 of the newspaper.

Saturday brought me an afternoon of basketball games with the Class of 2031 and Class of 2032 girls' basketball teams in action in their first Highway 55 league games. The two squads played at Cold Spring at Rocori high school.

I've got a small surplus of girls' basketball video to post across the next week.

Here's a video from early in the 2nd half of the Holdingford game:


In College Basketball news...
B-B-E Class of 2024 graduate Brooklyn Fischer played 39 out of 40 minutes on Saturday, December 14 while pouring in 27 points for her St. Cloud Technical and Community College Cyclones against visiting Central Lakes College-Brainerd. The Cyclones lost, however, by a 57-52 score to fall to 4-6 overall heading into their Christmas break.

Jaguars lose twice on the basketball courts, wrestling faring well at the Jackhammer (VIDEO)

The B-B-E Jaguars boys' basketball team suffered a 71-70 loss at Eden Valley-Watkins tonight. A late 10-point lead with about 3 minutes to go did not hold up. The Eagles, who entered the game with a 1-5 record, scored the game-winning shot on a banked three-pointer.

The Jaguars (0-6) led 38-23 at halftime but gave up 48 points in the second half. Senior Josh Walstrom led the Jaguars with 20 points, 2 assists, 2 blocked shots, 5 rebounds and one steal. The team's defensive average is 71 points a game, and they are off to their toughest start to a season since 2006-2007. In that season, the Jaguars started 1-1 before losing 14 straight games.

In a home game against Holdingford, the B-B-E Jaguars girls' basketball team fell to 1-1 in the Central Minnesota Conference with a 57-51 loss. The halftime score was 23-23.

The game was neck-and-neck through the early minutes of the second half. Mya Worms scored in the paint to tie it at 32-32 with 10:32 remaining. Adley Hagen went 2-for-2 at the line to give the Jaguars a 34-32 lead, but the Huskers (6-2) proceeded to go on a 14-0 run and take control of the game. That stretch of the game during which the Jaguars were scoreless was one second shy of 4 minutes.

Adley Hagen's 19 points, 5 rebounds and 3 steals led the Jaguars, who fall to 4-5 overall.

The JV girls' basketball team defeated Holdingford 42-29, and the C-squad Jaguars lost a close one 33-28.

Here's a video featuring the starter introductions and more at the beginning of the varsity game:


I'll get caught up on wrestling news and add that here later tonight.

And in wrestling news...
At Pequot Lakes high school today, the B-B-E Jaguars wrestling team is competing in the Jackhammer Invitational, which features a total of 38 teams from across Minnesota. They are doing incredibly well and sit in a tie with Eagan for 9th place with 62 points after Day One. In first place is Staples-Motley with 151 points. In fourth place is Paynesville Area (84.5 points), while Minnewaska Area is in fifth place with 79 points.

At 160, Brett DeRoo won by fall (0:33) to get into the quarterfinals. In his quarterfinal match, DeRoo defeated LPGE/Browerville's Logan Thom by fall (0:44) to land a spot in the championship semifinals. At 215, Carson Gilbert picked up three straight wins by fall with times of 2:28, 1:37 and 5:43. The last pin was in the quarterfinals, so he joins DeRoo in the championship semifinals.

Area girls' basketball scores on December 20:
Foley 73, Paynesville Area 53
Walker-Hackensack-Akeley 64, Browerville 24
Ogilvie 66, Long Prairie-Grey Eagle 61
West Central Area 51, Morris Area/Chokio-Alberta 33
Renville County West 55, Tracy-Milroy-Balaton 48
Pine River-Backus 73, Verndale 25
Little Falls 67, Swanville 27
Montevideo 61, Yellow Medicine East 39

Central Minnesota Conference boys' basketball scores on December 20:
Paynesville Area 83, Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City 66
Holdingford 93, Maple Lake 50

Area boys' basketball scores on December 20:
New York Mills 69, Sebeka 61
PACT Charter 62, Brandon-Evansville 61
Montevideo 61, BOLD 39
Minnewaska Area 61, Melrose Area 45
Ashby 56, Battle Lake 44
Ada-Borup West 71, Hillcrest Lutheran Academy 59
Henning 60, Parkers Prairie 39
Albany 71, Rocori 42
Dawson-Boyd 84, Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg 46
West Central Area 62, Morris Area/Chokio-Alberta 59
Benson 69, Lac qui Parle Valley 66

'Joy to the World' at Grace Lutheran...and GAME NIGHT! (VIDEO)

If you haven't already, now is the time to start getting into the Christmas spirit!

In this week's Bonanza Valley Voice, you can read a feature story about the history of Grace Lutheran Church in Belgrade. The article includes the bulk of Pastor Lisa's sermon at Grace on December 8 when they dedicated a sanctuary remodel.

Here's the Grace Lutheran choir singing last Sunday as part of a special worship that included the Sunday School Christmas program:


AND! Don't forget the Bonanza Valley State Bank Christmas customer appreciation they have today from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. This was advertised on page 8 of this week's Voice.

Merry Christmas! Sports blogging resumes later this afternoon. I hope you can make it to the home girls' basketball game tonight. It would be terrific to see a packed house for the last home Jaguar athletic event of the 2024 calendar year.

Game updates from Belgrade to follow here...
In the JV game, the Jaguars won 42-29 againstHoldingford. 

In the varsity girls game, the Jaguars and Huskers are tied 23 to 23. At Eden Valley, the Jaguar boys are ahead 38-23 at halftime.

Customer appreciation in Padua! (Updates)

Today is the day to drive to Padua! If you haven't already...

The many fine patrons of the Padua Pub are invited to a Customer Appreciation Lunch/Supper meal on Wednesday, December 18 (TODAY) at the Pub. They will serve a complimentary lunch from noon to 8 p.m.

Now that I'm out from under the massive weight of a massive, 16-page newspaper that published earlier today, I'll circle back and fill out the previous sports blog post. Video is coming. Update: the previous blog post received additions and edits after 8 p.m. on Wednesday night.

Thursday, December 19 update...
B-B-E schools began weather announcements for the 2024-2025 school year with a two-hour late notice released last night. Earlier today, on Thursday, the school announced that they will be closed today with the exception of the daycare in Brooten. All evening activities are also cancelled, including the home dance competition. The dance comp will be rescheduled (hopefully)...stay tuned!

Also, the Bonanza Valley Voice website has been updated with three new web articles with video...click here to see that: https://www.bonanzavalleyvoice.com.

Time to shovel more snow!

A night of losses (Updates coming* VIDEO added)

It was a difficult night for our varsity teams.

At a home triangular with their first action on the home mats this season, the B-B-E Jaguars wrestling team suffered their second Central Minnesota Conference dual loss of the season when No. 3-ranked Holdingford won 45-23 in the first dual of the night. The Huskers then faced New London-Spicer in the second dual, and the Wildcats prevailed 32-29 after the NL-S heavyweight won a major decision. In the final dual, the Jaguars faced No. 10-ranked (Class 2A) NL-S, and they trailed 6-4 after the 114-pound match was complete after Noah Jensen won at 114 pounds. Final score: NL-S 51, B-B-E 23.

Next: the wrestling team travels north to Pequot Lakes for Friday/Saturday action at the Jackhammer Invitational this weekend. The first-round matches start at 1 p.m. on Friday.

Here's a video recorded early in the NL-S dual tonight:


The video begins with Noah Jensen battling at 114 pounds against NL-S's Jett Hoffman. Jensen won by fall (4:38) to tie the dual at a 6-6 score. The Jaguars quickly fell behind by a wide margin, however, with NL-S winning the next 6 weight divisions. In that stretch, NL-S won 3 by fall and another by forfeit (152).

At 160, Brett DeRoo won a 16-1 tech fall against Caleb Nelson. Andrew Spanier won by fall (1:39) against Grant Mccain at 172. The Wildcats took the 189-pound weight by forfeit. Carson Gilbert then won by fall late in the third period (5:43) against Garret Leenstra to cut the deficit to 45-23. The Wildcats won the 285-pound division by fall.

In basketball news...
In their Central Minnesota Conference opener, the B-B-E Jaguars boys' basketball team endured a 65-54 loss to Kimball Area on the home floor. They were competitive in the game right up to the end after the Cubs led 33-22 at halftime. The Jaguars shot an ice-cold 18 percent on field goals in the first half (6-of-32).

At Prinsburg, the B-B-E Jaguars girls' basketball team lost 74-53 to Central Minnesota Christian. The Bluejays led 38-22 at halftime. The Jaguars (4-4) host Holdingford (5-2) this Friday night.

Area girls' basketball scores on December 17:
Mayer Lutheran 86, Morris Area/Chokio-Alberta 26
Morris Area/Chokio-Alberta 49, Eden Valley-Watkins 35 (a Monday night score from the EV-W tournament)
Upsala 76, Ogilvie 58
Brandon-Evansville 45, Battle Lake 40
Walker-Hackensack-Akeley 67, Nevis 36
Sleepy Eye 54, Buffalo Lake-Hector-Stewart 31
Rocori 56, Eden Valley-Watkins 41
Hancock 57, St. Cloud Cathedral 48
Minnewaska Area 57, Paynesville Area 17
New London-Spicer 73, Watertown-Mayer 62
Holdingford 66, Pierz 17
West Central Area 64, Melrose Area 54
Kimball Area 63, Mora 39
Underwood 75, Parkers Prairie 40
Clinton-Graceville-Beardsley 74, Rothsay 69
Foley 82, Osakis 51
Swanville 66, Browerville 34
Braham 64, Moose Lake-Willow River 28
Dawson-Boyd 65, Benson 54
Lakeview 52, Montevideo 47
Legacy Christian 60, Maple Lake 42
Royalton 67, Pine River-Backus 39

High school concert replay is Wednesday

Smooth Magic 107 FM of Glenwood will replay the high school Christmas concert at 1 p.m. tomorrow, Wednesday, December 18.

Update on Tuesday night: the wrestling team lost 45-23 to Holdingford in their first dual of the home triangular.

High school band and choir Christmas concert is tonight (VIDEOS*)

Music students in grades 6-12 will hold their band and choir Christmas concert tonight (Monday) at 7 p.m. at Olson Auditorium. The middle school and senior high choir will perform first. The band concert is set to begin at about 7:45 p.m. starting with the 6th grade band. I am grateful and extremely appreciative that nothing gets in the way at B-B-E of our band or choir concerts! This is not the case at other schools, which is sad and pathetic. No athletic activities are scheduled for tonight - which is how it should be on music concert night!!!

You are welcome to tune in via the video player posted below. It should be "live" by 6:45 p.m. or about then.

LIVE video courtesy of B-B-E Broadcasting:


Further coverage to follow later tonight and also in the December 19 and 26 issues of the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper. We'll see what I come up with this week! As of now, we are set to publish a 16-page issue!

Here's a very, very rough video featuring the final song performed tonight...


I shot the video on my big Nikon camera, which was very difficult to hold steady. I have a mountain of content from tonight to go through and prepare for publishing this week and next week. The concert was outstanding! Our high school musicians and their teachers have much to be proud of!

Winter sports shows get underway, and weekend updates (VIDEOS)

I didn't get around to a second podcast recording on Friday night after the evening of college and high school sports had concluded. I'm re-posting the first winter sports show, which I recorded late Thursday night. Topics in that first winter sports show included comments on the girls' basketball game against K-M-S plus other notes on winter sports teams, including props given to boys' basketball head coach Austin Rambow.

Here's winter sports podcast No. 1 of the 2024-2025 season:


On Saturday, the 7th/8th grade girls' basketball teams hosted the Central Minnesota Conference tournament. At the high school, the Class of 2029 8th graders played their tournament, and the Class of 2030 7th graders hosted at the elementary. Updates from that to follow.

Here's video from the 4th quarter at Ridgewater College on Friday night:


More to come.

Here's a business announcement...Bonanza Valley State Bank has their Christmas/Holiday open house for their customers on Friday this week! Click here to read all about it at the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper: https://shorturl.at/mg7OJ.

B-B-E's grades 6-12 Christmas band and choir concert is at 7 p.m. on Monday night at Olson Auditorium. I'll post the live player in a new blog post.

Girls' hoops overwhelms Irish, Huskers fall to Royals (VIDEOS, UPDATES*)

Between games on Saturday in Belgrade, I added some updates to this blog post...at the bottom of the post, you can watch the college women's basketball game on Saturday in Worthington at a live YouTube player...

In their second Central Minnesota Conference game of the week, the B-B-E Jaguars girls' basketball team improved to above .500 with a dominating 63-23 win against visiting Maple Lake tonight. The halftime score was 36-11. They are now 4-3 overall heading into a non-conference road game next Tuesday in Prinsburg.

Freshman guard Macey Roering's career-high 26 points led the team, and the Jaguars shot 35 percent from the floor and 3-of-14 on the arc. At the charity stripe, the Jaguars made 14 of 18 free throw attempts.

Maple Lake falls to 1-5 overall and 0-2 in the CMC.

Here's a video from the second half in last night's K-M-S game:


I've got wrestling updates to post here from the Paynesville trianglar. Our wrestlers travel to West Central Area high school for a big dual meet tournament on Saturday.

Here's a video from Thursday night featuring the B-B-E Pep Band playing the National Anthem, which was followed by the starter introductions and tip-off:

In a big game between Royalton and three-time defending Central Minnesota Conference champion Holdingford, the Huskers and Royals played in a back-and-forth game at Holdingford. The Huskers held a double-digit lead only to see the Royals storm back and win convincingly by a 54-41 score. The Huskers are now 1-1 in the CMC and 4-2 overall. Before tonight, their last loss in the CMC was on January 18, 2022 in Paynesville by a 63-41 score. In that 2021-22 season, the Huskers ended up earning a CMC co-championship with Kimball Area at 11-3 each in the league.

In wrestling news...
At Paynesville to start the Central Minnesota Conference schedule tonight, the B-B-E Jaguars wrestling team lost to the host Bulldogs 52-15. I believe it's the first time in at least 10 seasons that our Jaguars have lost in a dual meet to the Bulldogs. In the other dual, the Jaguars blasted Kimball Area 57-18. Paynesville Area won 65-8 in their dual with the Cubs.

Against the Cubs, the Jaguars won the last three weights by forfeit (189, 215 and 285). Kimball Area also had open weights at 139 and 145.

Central MN Conference girls' basketball scores on December 13:
Kimball Area 55, Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City 47
Royalton 54, Holdingford 41

Area girls' basketball scores on December 13:
New London-Spicer 93, Rockford 37
Long Prairie-Grey Eagle 59, Ashby 43
Osakis 64, Morris Area/Chokio-Alberta 37
Verndale 54, Sebeka 14
Hancock 77, Battle Lake 39
BOLD 67, Montevideo 54
Crosby-Ironton 73, Braham 40
Sauk Centre 58, Minnewaska Area 48
Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg 84, Ortonville 15
Wheaton/Herman-Norcross 58, Parkers Prairie 54
Swanville 70, Melrose Area 58

Area boys' basketball scores on December 13:
Renville County West 65, Maple Lake 46
Belle Plaine 78, Eden Valley-Watkins 50
Minnewaska Area 91, Menagha 41
Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City 85, Alden-Conger/Glenville-Emmons 53
Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg 39, Litchfield 37
Benson 72, Long Prairie-Grey Eagle 35
Rothsay 57, Battle Lake 37
Rockford 73, New London-Spicer 56
West Central Area 80, Brandon-Evansville 55
Upsala 75, Browerville 64

In college athletics...
I actually stepped away from high school sports tonight and made a trip south to Ridgewater College, where my daughters and I and a couple extra 5th grade girls' basketball players watched Class of 2023 graduate Tiyana Schwinghammer and Class of 2024 graduate Grace Jackson in action. There are few things on earth that will fully pull me away from high school sports coverage, but college sports can do just that. On paper, the game had the makings of a total and complete mismatch: the Ridgewater Warriors were 0-8 coming into the night, while the Northland Technical and Community College Pioneers were 7-4 overall and ranked No. 2 in the latest NJCAA Division III national polls. That's not how the game played out, however, and Ridgewater played a terrific game in spite of having only 6 players compared to Northland's 12 players.

Final score: Northland 72, Ridgewater 51. Schwinghammer scored a career-high 28 points to go with 7 assists and 6 rebounds. It was a special sight to witness! Grace Jackson played 37 out of 40 total minutes and scored 5 points with 5 assists and 1 steal. 

On Saturday, the junior high girls' basketball teams host the Central Minnesota Conference tournament. The 8th grade Jaguars take a 9-2 record into the tournament to conclude their season. Also on Saturday, as mentioned before, the wrestlers travel to Barrett for the Grant County Duals. The B-B-E/Paynesville Pirouettes dance team travels to Albany for their second competition of the season.

This is great! You can watch Tiyana Schwinghammer's game in Worthington on Saturday at this web player:


Tip-off at Worthington is at 1 p.m. on Saturday. This game features the No. 2 and No. 4-ranked teams in NJCAA Division III: the Northland Pioneers (#2) and the MN West Worthington Bluejays (#4). The Bluejays are the defending Region 13B champions and also NJCAA Division III national champions. Update: Schwinghammer's Pioneers improved to 9-4 overall with their 6th straight win as they defeated the Bluejays 60-45.