extended sports coverage for the B-B-E community brought to you by the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper in Brooten, MN. (Address: P.O. Box 250, Brooten) http://www.bonanzavalleyvoice.com.
Tuesday, November 13, 2018
(VIDEO) Section 5A champions
This is re-posted from earlier...it was taken off for a limited time heading into the state tournament and was probably only viewable for about a day and a half. Now you can listen again to senior tri-captain Ally Gruber talk about her Jaguars and what it took to win the Section 5A title on November 3 against a powerhouse Pine River-Backus team. Part of this interview was published in the November 8 issue of the Bonanza Valley Voice.
I'm not sure about you, but I'm still in a post-state tournament hangover! It hasn't really sunk in yet that it's all behind us. One thing is for certain: it was crazy fun! Thanks for the memories, Jaguars!
As announced early last week, the B-B-E elementary school will host a Veterans Day program today, Monday, November 12 at 10 a.m. at the main gymnasium. It was moved from November 9 due to school closing - which was precipitated by the Jaguars volleyball team competing at the state tournament.
The B-B-E high school Veterans Day program is at 1 p.m. today.
*And updated at lunch time...in case you missed it, you can watch the elementary Veterans Day program at the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper website. Thank you to all the business sponsors who help keep our print and website coverage going each week! (Link shortened, click here: https://bit.ly/2RNFdPu.)
I want to give a quick shout-out to the Terrace Sportsmen's Club. The Terrace Sportsmen's Club will hold its fall Holiday Bingo at 7 p.m. on Saturday, November 17 at the Sportsmen's Club hall in Terrace. Prizes include cash and meat (turkeys or certificates) with proceeds to benefit area food shelves. Same family fun you've come to expect! Concessions by members of the Busy Beavers 4-H Club.
Also! The Sunburg Fire Department invites everyone to their fall ham/turkey bingo and gun raffle on Saturday, November 17 at 7 p.m. at the fire hall/community center. Get your raffle tickets ahead of time from any fire department member for just $10!
Finally, the Bonanza Valley TrailBlazers snowmobile club 20th annual banquet and raffle is coming on Friday, November 16, with social hour from 6 to 7 p.m., and dinner to follow at 7 p.m. The cash raffle grand prize is $10,000! ($100 per ticket, talk to any member to purchase) Smaller raffles for various items are happening all night for $1 to $5 for tickets. The Pub will be serving chicken and ribs.
Here's video from the end of game two against New Life Academy on Thursday. It was an anti-climactic win, but a win the Jaguars were glad to get. I didn't catch exactly how it ended, as the ball appeared to be tipped out of bounds by the Eagles. B-B-E won 25-20.
More coverage will follow later today - and a ton of coverage is forthcoming in the next issue of the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper! The Jaguars are our ROCK STARS! And they deserve every bit of praise we can give them.
*Here's a video taken on Friday night from a production of the U of M Gophers athletic department; this was played at Maturi Pavilion following the Gophers volleyball win over Indiana in Big 10 play before a sellout crowd.
I had the good fortune of being able to attend the match with my family. I have much to write about from that trip; you will only be able to read what I say in my newspaper, though, in the upcoming November 15 issue of the Bonanza Valley Voice.
*Mark your calendars!The B-B-E theater department will hold the fall musical "Big" this next weekend: November 16, 17, 18 are the show dates. The Friday and Saturday show times are 7 p.m., and on Sunday they will perform at 2 p.m.
And again, thank you to our business community for the support of our newspaper's sports department!
Have a great night, Jaguar Country! Signing off for a few hours of much-needed family time.
Another huge THANK YOU and shout-out to the Bonanza Valley State Bank of Brooten for being our feature, premier sponsor of B-B-E Jaguars sports coverage at the state volleyball tournament. We couldn't do this without the loyal, steady support of our local business community!
*Update: Ally Gruber was named to the Wells Fargo Class 1A All-tournament team.
Other exciting news: sophomore Karsee Kampsen finished the 2018 season with 1,010 set assists. She surpassed 2,000 set assists with her first set assist in game one of the Medford match on Friday. It gives me goosebumps knowing we have such a tremendously talented setter for two more years!
Also, in the Class 2A state championship match today in St. Paul, No. 4-seeded North Branch won 3-2 over favored and No. 3-seeded Marshall Area. The game five score? That score was 19-17. Unreal. I can't imagine the tension in the air late in that game five!! North Branch, champions of Section 7AA, went through the state tournament getting 3-2 wins in all three matches. They won in the semifinals over top-seeded Kasson-Mantorville 15-13 on Friday. On Thursday in the quarterfinals, they defeated No. 5-seeded Watertown-Mayer by a 15-8 score.
This season marks just the second time in school history (B-B-E era) that the Jaguars have gone as far as the state Final Four round. In 2008, the Jaguars won the opener over Martin County West. They lost a crushing heartbreaker 3-2 to heavily-favored Windom in the semifinals. In the third-place match, they lost 3-0 to Ada-Borup.
And the clock struck midnight for my University of Minnesota-Morris Cougars volleyball team. Seeded No. 3 in their five-team conference tournament, the Cougars pulled off three straight upset playoff wins - ALL of them larger in magnitude than the previous - all the way to the Round of 32 in the NCAA Division III tournament. They beat No. 2-seeded UW-Superior in the UMAC semis, then No. 1-seeded and (at least) six-time defending UMAC champion University of Northwestern (St. Paul) to advance to the school's first-ever volleyball national tournament. UM-Morris then stunned No. 8-ranked (nationally) and No. 1-seeded (region) Gustavus Adolphus in the opening round of the Central Region tournament by a 3-0 sweep.
In the Round of 32 against St. Ben's today, the Cougars won two fiercely-contested 25-23 sets to go up 2-0. They were soundly defeated in game three, fought for a closer game four and then were in a very competitive game five before midnight struck. Game five: St. Ben's 15, UMM 11. They finish the year 23-12 but graduate just one senior off the 20-person roster.
Finally, lost in the shuffle of the past 100-hour week I just went through was a shout out and congratulations to Ridgewater College and B-B-E 2018 graduate Morgan Gronli for their run to the NJCAA Region XIIIA tournament. The Warriors fell in the semifinals last weekend. They finished tied for second place in the seven-team MCAC Southern division standings at 8-4 with M-State Fergus Falls. Their final overall record was 13-13.
Welcome home for the Jaguars *Time changed to 5:30!
5:30 p.m.!
Spread the word! Mass emails, texts, social media, etc. Put it all to work!
5:30 p.m. tonight, at the B-B-E high school! We as a school and community will welcome back our beloved B-B-E Jaguars volleyball team with a special ceremony at that time.
And please attend!
Finally, in the afternoon now, and here's a video uploaded early this morning. It shows the start of the state semifinals on Friday.
Time to hit I-94 again and head home. Home sweet home, what a nice sound that is right now!
Lots of snow out there. Not a fan! Lots of vehicles spun out too on the way home, the last one I noticed was by The Roadside Tavern by Roscoe.
And once again, thank you to our many local business sponsors who have contributed to the financial muscle that helps power the Bonanza Valley Voice sports department!
It's Saturday morning and we're ready to rumble! Day III of the state volleyball tournament!
Those getting up early this morning went outside to frigid, 11-degree temperatures. Good grief! It was generally in that 11 to 13 degree range whether you were in the Cities or back home in Jaguar Country.
We had the good fortune of staying at a wonderful hotel on the outskirts of the Cities on Friday night after taking in the U of M Gophers vs. Indiana volleyball match last night at the Sports Pavilion.
Time to prepare for a final trip back to the X. After today's third-place match, I won't be back there until the state wrestling tournament next March.
SET ONE:
The teams traded tons of mistakes, and near the end the Jaguars had more miscues than Ada-Borup. Final score: Ada-Borup 25, B-B-E 22.
SET TWO:
We are getting underway in set two at 11:53.
*Update: the game is tied 9-9 with B-B-E calling a timeout. The Jaguars had a 9-5 lead.
At 12:10, Coach Weller called his final timeout. The Jaguars are trailing 19-16.
Game three final score: Ada-Borup 25, B-B-E 23. The Jaguars fought valiantly near the end but came up short.
SET THREE: this game will start at 12:23.
*Coach Weller called his first timeout. The Cougars have a 10-8 lead after trailing 7-4 not that long ago.
*Update: Coach Weller just called his final timeout, and the Jaguars are in aneed 18-13 hole.
Final score: Ada-Borup 25, B-B-E 16. ***Welcome home ceremony is tonight at 5:30 p.m. at the high school! Please spread the word and also attend!
##ConquerEveryDay
THANK YOU to the Belgrade Hardware store for helping sponsoring our sports coverage!
After a tremendous start and a 25-23 win in game one against Medford today, the B-B-E Jaguars volleyball team ran out of steam down the home stretch and fell in the next three games to drop into the loser's bracket of the Class 1A state tournament. The scores of the final three sets were 25-19, 25-21, 25-16 in the Class 1A state semifinal match.
I have a mountain of photos and also video of the post-match press conference with Coach Weller, Brittany Berge and Emily Knight. I highly doubt I'll get to any of that until I get back to the comforts and advantages of working from my home office or downtown office.
After the loss, I told a handful of players how proud I was of them and how it was still fun to see them in action out there, minus the moments where we were falling behind. They continued playing with energy, passion and determination right up to the Tigers earning match point. They hung tough, they hung together - the loss was a team loss. That is sports. You win as a team and you lose as a team.
THE JAGUARS WILL RISE AGAIN! THEY WILL BOUNCE BACK!!!
Up next for B-B-E: they will play Ada-Borup for third place at 11 a.m. on Saturday back on Court 1 at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul. It will be a rematch of the 2008 third-place match, which was won by the Cougars by a 3-0 set score. Ada-Borup lost 3-1 in their semifinal match today to Minneota (23-25, 25-16, 25-16, 25-14). The Cougars are 31-2 overall and won the Pine to Prairie Conference title with a perfect 9-0 mark.
Let's go, Jaguar fans! Come out and cheer them on one last time!
Ada-Borup has carried somewhat of a chip on their shoulders all season after getting to state last year and falling 3-2 in the consolation semifinals. Their game five score in the loss to Cook County was 15-13. They got to game five after winning game four 29-27. Earlier in that match, Ada-Borup won game one 28-26 before dropping sets two and three.
Also noteworthy: the Cougars out of Section 8A had to beat two favored teams in the 2017 Sub-Section 8A-West tournament before sweeping a very good Lake of the Woods team in the section finals. In the regular season, Ada-Borup finished in third place in their conference behind champion Fosston and runner-up Fertile-Beltrami. Ada-Borup beat Fertile-Beltrami 3-1 in the playoff opener played in Fertile; they later swept Fosston at Bagley high school in the sub-section finals.
Regular season scores against those two teams in 2017? Well, interestingly enough, Ada-Borup lost both of those matches by 3-0 scores while heading to a third-place Pine to Prairie Conference finish. Ada-Borup finished 21-12 overall in 2017 with an 0-2 mark at state.
Against Fosston in Fosston, Ada-Borup lost 25-18, 25-21, 25-12 on September 28, 2017. Then a week later in Fertile, Ada-Borup lost 25-23, 25-20, 25-21 to Fertile-Beltrami. Just two days after the loss in Fertile, Ada-Borup traveled to the Alexandria tournament where they went 1-3. In the final pool play match that day, Ada-Borup lost 2-1 to our B-B-E Jaguars. Game scores between Ada-Borup and B-B-E on October 7, 2017 were 13-25, 25-17, 15-9, as the Jaguars responded with gusto after getting lit up in game one.
*Note: Saturday's third-place match will be aired on Smooth Magic 107 FM of Glenwood.
Moving on to the title match are top-seeded Minneota (35-1) and unseeded Medford (29-5).
In the consolation semifinals of Class 1A, Mayer Lutheran responded to their stunning quarterfinal loss to Medford by taking out New Life Academy 25-13, 25-19, 25-17. Carlton ended the season of New York Mills in quick fashion by scores of 25-16, 25-13, 25-19 to advance to the consolation championship.
Mayer Lutheran and Carlton face one another at 9 a.m. on Court 2 at Xcel Energy Center to open up action on Saturday.
In Class 2A, top-seeded Kasson-Mantorville (31-3) was upset by fourth-seeded North Branch (28-4) in a 3-2 loss in the semis; K-M lost 15-13 in game five.
In other news...huge, huge upset in Division III college volleyball! My University of Minnesota-Morris Cougars shocked top-seeded and Gustavus Adolphus in a 3-0 sweep tonight in the opening round of the Central Region tournament. The Cougars (23-11) advance to the Round of 32 in the NCAAs to face St. Ben's on Saturday at 4 p.m. back in St. Peter. UMM's powerful game limited the attack by the Gusties to just a .127 hitting percentage. Gustavus had 22 attack errors on the night.
I predicted UMM would pull off the win. I just had that feeling. They have been getting better and better since their heartbreaking five-set loss to University of Northwestern on October 10. They now face a team who will have some revenge on their minds, as St. Ben's lost to UMM earlier this season. UMM was 8-8 in that earlier-season meeting on September 25 in St. Joseph, while the Blazers were 13-4. The Cougars won 25-17, 25-23, 21-25, 25-23 to inch above .500. They've lost just three matches since then.
St. Ben's looks to go deep in the NCAAs after losing in the opening round in 2017. Their last Sweet 16 appearance was in 2012.
Below, here's the post-match press conference in St. Peter tonight, courtesy of the Gustavus Adolphus athletics department, featuring UMM head volleyball coach Joe Sussenguth, junior setter Layne Herrmann and senior middle Rachel Mathias:
Other updates, posts, etc. won't happen until Saturday night.
Good morning, Jaguar Country! A short reel is coming before we head to the X.
Match time is 3 p.m. today at Xcel Energy Center! Read past posts to catch up if you missed anything.
Remember: Smooth Magic 107 FM of Glenwood has the call with exceptional, LOCAL coverage of our beloved Jaguars.
*AND A SHORT yet AWESOME REEL! (Hi-Def, new version added early Saturday morning)
*Made it! 14:35 and on the arena floor!! The preceding match between Minneota and Ada-Borup is right near the end of the third set. The Vikings are winning. **And now we're in the fourth set, Minneota up 5-0. Then their lead is 6-5. Who knows what's gonna happen here.
*I predict our match with Medford will start after 15:15.
Stay tuned!!
**Update: this match will start at 15:30!! B-B-E vs. Medford! State semifinals!!!
...we're gonna get rolling at 15:36 with first serve!!!
SET ONE:
B-B-E calls timeout...trailing 17-14. The Jaguars did have a 10-9 lead. **Final score: B-B-E 25, Medford 22.
SET TWO: the Jaguars started hot but are struggling now in a 9-5 deficit. Then a timeout is called by Coach Weller, with the Jaguars trailing 10-5. Too many errors right now.
*Update at 16:17...Coach Weller called his last timeout. The Jaguars are in a deep hole, 16-8.
Now the Jaguars are trailing 23-13. *Final: Medford 25, B-B-E 19.
SET THREE:
The Jaguars are trailing 16-15 in a pivotal set. Let's go!!
Final score: Medford 25, B-B-E 21. Now we dig deep!
SET FOUR:
Update at 17:13: Medford is ahead 15-13, and B-B-E has called a timeout.
*Update: the Jaguars fell 25-16 in game four as they suffered just their fifth loss of the season.
I am very proud of my Jaguars! Even though we lost, I can't say enough about how wonderful this team is. And they're not done!
Next: the third place match tomorrow at 11 a.m. They will face Ada-Borup.
I am heading to the U for Gophers volleyball vs. Indiana! It's also Senior Night for their program.
The Medford Tigers volleyball team is heading to the Class 1A state tournament Final Four round in their first-ever appearance at the big show.
Medford's enrollment (9-12) is 237, making them (overall) one of the biggest schools in Class 1A. Royalton has a figure of 238 for that same statistic.
B-B-E, meanwhile, has an enrollment (9-12) of 180.
For what it's worth, New Life Academy's enrollment figure for MSHSL purposes is 235 - also making them one of the largest Class 1A teams in Minnesota.
Back to the topic of Medford...if you have time to kill, here's a good way to do just that! I stumbled across this tonight and was thoroughly impressed! Too good not to share, from way back in October of 2010 in Medford, MN:
*The best part I think: at about 1:40, the Tiger does an incredible mid-court backflip! Marvelous! Whoever is the mascot there is someone truly loving life. MAJOR PROPS. MAD RESPECT.
Noteworthy: in reading I've done tonight in Medford, I ran across a story from September 2017 about their non-conference, five-set win over Pine Island. Pine Island led 13-12 in game five before the Tigers ended it with a 3-0 run. The article mentions six players who contributed heavily to the stat sheet. I cross that list with the 2018 roster, and four of them are on this year's team, including both setters. They lost last year's libero to graduation. As a whole, Medford is certainly battle-tested with a good crop of veteran players.
They know how to smile and enjoy life - but when it's game time - they mean BUSINESS!
*The B-B-E Jaguars volleyball team won their Class 1A state quarterfinal match this afternoon 25-12, 25-20, 25-15 against New Life Academy of Woodbury to move on!
The Jaguars (27-4) will play Medford at 3 p.m. on Friday in the Class 1A state semifinals! They had 46 kills in today's match compared to 23 by NLA.
**Added at 20:38! Help this blog post (and HD video) go viral! I put a lot of time into it.
**Added at 22:55! Here's the player introductions from Xcel Energy Center today:
Unseeded Medford won 3-2 over heavily-favored and No. 2-seeded Mayer Lutheran today 25-18, 14-25, 21-25, 25-15, 19-17. They will be a formidable opponent standing in the way to a berth in the championship match. A scouting report is being assembled later tonight. *Update: you can see what I'm putting together on Medford here https://bbejaguars.blogspot.com/2018/11/scouting-medford.html ...or just click at the header on this blog and it will refresh.
Oh, and a side bar: Mayer Lutheran has won the last two Class 1A state titles. This season has their 15th trip to state. Medford was a state tournament rookie until today.
Medford is 28-5 overall and champions out of Section 1A in southeastern Minnesota. They prevailed 19-17 in an incredible game five today to stay in the winner's bracket. Wow! The Tigers were rated No. 10 in the last QRF calculation. They will be tough as nails. I can't re-hash how that match went and do justice to the drama of what went down. Here's a good summary that I found tonight: http://krforadio.com/medford-volleyball-takes-down-defending-state-champs. An incredible set of stats that really jumped out at me: Mayer Lutheran had 17 ace blocks compared to just four by Medford.
OKAY, JAGUAR COUNTRY! Let's get a HUGE crowd to Xcel tomorrow! Our Jaguars have earned every last bit of support we can give them.
Time to head back.
*Stopped in Monticello. I was hoping to be close to home by now. Roads are bull $!#@! Snow, ice-covered. Video posting will be delayed by a mile. After 22:00 most likely. (Okay, time to take a breath and get back on I-94)
*21:53 - After pit stops in Monticello and Grand Depot-St. Cloud, I finally made it home. I have quite a bit on the to-do list, and I do have to get at least six hours of sleep to be fully up for the Friday that is to come!
*Video added! This huge video uploaded from my office while I was headed to St. Paul today. It's Hi-Def! Good stuff! (Above) ...and! a huge THANK YOU and tip of the hat to Fauskee Oil of Brooten for helping sponsor the Bonanza Valley Voice's sports coverage of the Jaguars at state. We can't do this without the terrific support of our B-B-E business community! You're all awesome!
Here's the latest work from the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper's sports department (lo-def):
Time to head to St. Paul!!!
*Update: here's what I was told will work to view the match online (from the MSHSL): http://prepspotlight.tv.
And as always during the playoffs, you can listen on the radio or on the Internet (TuneIn or at their website) with the superb, local coverage of Smooth Magic 107 FM of Glenwood. Thank you, Brady!
I hope to arrive early enough to get a new blog post set up that will have match updates. Stay tuned!! GO JAGUARS!!!!!
Below....I will post state quarterfinal updates as often as possible! The match will be started by 15:05 in my estimation, and perhaps as late as 15:10.
SET ONE:
We are ahead early!
Final: 25-12 Jaguars win! It was closer early on.
SET TWO:
With NLA calling an early timeout, the Jaguars have a 9-4 lead.
*NLA is on an 8-2 run. The score: BBE 17, NLA 15.
**The Jaguars won game two 25-20.
SET THREE:
The Jaguars are in a big hole early on. ***AND THE JAGUARS WIN BY SWEEP!! MOVING ON!!! More information will follow in a NEW blog post.
Here's the highlight reel of today's elementary pep fest for our state-bound B-B-E Jaguars volleyball team! It was a very moving and memorable ceremony that included Preschool to sixth grade students. With the right browser, it can play in Hi-Def (720p) resolution.
Time for a short break, then back at it later tonight!!
Here's footage from after the Pine River-Backus match, just before everyone headed home...click on the link to open up a YouTube player: https://youtu.be/R663ByFJRzc?t=24.
It will be between 19:30 and 20:00 tonight before I get a highlight reel posted from today's wonderful pep fests that were held at both school buildings. I also need to get a copy of the updated Bayer's Gas and Grocery logo posted as a thank you for helping sponsor coverage of the volleyball team's trip to state! Please share the link to this blog post and other posts on this sports blog as much as you are able to! **Just shy of 19:00 now, and iMovie is piecing together the photo and video clip collection. Stay tuned.
*Update: based on how fast iMovie is working right now with the pep fest highlight reel, it will be ready for posting by about 20:00 tonight! The reel video will be posted in a new blog post. Click on the "Belgrade-Brooten-Elrosa" header at the top to refresh the page and see the latest update.
The B-B-E school levy referendum failed by a very narrow margin last night. With all 21 precincts reported, 790 voted no compared to 736 who voted yes.
To put it into perspective, the school district has approximately 900 parents. If you look at it with this thing called "simple math" - you'll see that 900 is bigger than 790.
As you would expect, I have much, much more to say (and much to report on other races) - the bottom line is: parents and other stakeholders in the school district need to step up and take ownership. Take responsibility. This is OUR school district. We are not just magically guaranteed a school district that is B-B-E. It takes work to keep it going. A strong, passionate effort to keep us going into our next 30 years. I will work tirelessly to get information on the school out to the public. However, I need a return favor, and ask that people go out of their way to #1 - subscribe to the Bonanza Valley Voice and #2 - take time to read it each week.
Other election results:
In the city of Brooten: Senator Amy Klobuchar narrowly won 128 to 112. (She had a much larger margin in Belgrade) In the other U.S. Senate race, Republican Karin Housley won 133 to 102 over Tina Smith. Congressman Collin Peterson won 141 to 105. State Representative Paul Anderson won 158 to 87 over Padua-area farmer Ben Schirmers.
Governor-elect Tim Walz lost Brooten 136 to 100 to Jeff Johnson. Doug Wardlow cleaned up on Attorney General-elect Keith Ellison by a 139-to-82 vote margin.
For Stearns County Sheriff, sheriff-elect Steve Soyka won Brooten over Dave Bentrud by a 129-to-105 vote margin.
Time to switch gears to newspapers, and pep fests!
