New gym floor is nearing completion at the elementary school

The new gymnasium floor will be ready in time for the Tuesday, December 13 home game for the Jaguars boys basketball team against Sauk Centre.
On Friday, three of the four winter varsity sports teams at B-B-E open up the 2011-12 season. One event is at home, the B-B-E wrestling tournament at 2:30 at the high school. The varsity girls' basketball team is at Benson, while the boys' basketball team is at West Central Area.

Girls' basketball scores tonight around the area, plus an update for the Jaguars girls' team

Area girls' basketball results on Nov. 29 for many teams' season openers...
Eden Valley-Watkins 60, New London-Spicer 57
Foley 32, Becker 27
Wadena-Deer Creek 69, Pierz 59
Albany 70, Rocori 34
Holdingford 39, Long Prairie-Grey Eagle 37
Kimball Area 52, Milaca 25
Sauk Centre 44, St. Cloud Cathedral 27 (Streeters led 22-10 at halftime; Macy Weller led Sauk Centre with 16 points)

The season opener for the Jaguars girls' basketball team is this Friday night in Benson. There will be no FibroMinn tournament, however. I heard tonight that one of the four teams backed out. On Friday, the Jaguars will play Benson. My guess is, the third team that was still in the tournament will play Benson on Saturday night. I am not sure on when tip-off for the Jaguars vs. Braves game will be on Friday.

It's all "game on" for the Jaguars boys' basketball team. They're out at West Central Area in Barrett this weekend for a tournament on Friday and Saturday nights.

Stay tuned for more!

Action from the section semifinal football game at Lester Prairie

Late in the second quarter as halftime approached...

More volleyball action...about three weeks ago

Between games three and four against Nevis..

The Jaguars trailed 8-5 to begin this video clip, and then fell behind 9-5 before Taylor Braegelman earned a kill...

I've been updating this website sparingly over the last couple of weeks. Over this weekend I'll be adding some video clips and a few photos from the fall sports season at B-B-E.

In just a few days it'll be time to switch over to winter sports!

Varsity winter season openers coming up

Boys basketball: Friday, Dec. 2 at West Central Area

Girls basketball: Friday, Dec. 2 at Benson

Wrestling: Friday, Dec. 2 at home (tournament) at 2:30...In pre-season Guillotine rankings, Dillon Knutson is ranked #6 in the 182-pound division; he is the lone returning All-Conference wrestler for the Jaguars. As a team, the Jaguars could challenge for 2nd place in the Central Minnesota Conference, which would be pretty remarkable. More on the team will be posted later.

Dazzlers Danceline: Saturday, Dec. 10 at Albany

I normally don't take the extra time to promote junior high/JV activities...but this one deserves it. On Thursday, Dec. 1, B-B-E High School will host a 21-team Junior Varsity (junior high, basically) wrestling tournament. Action begins at 5:00.

Elrosa's Post Office will close

A couple weeks ago, Elrosa residents were notified that their Post Office will indeed close some time in the next few months.

The closure will save the U.S. Postal Service $33,661, according to documents released by the government.

More will follow on this issue over the next week, including in the Dec. 1 issue of the Sauk Centre Herald.

"CATS" outtakes...gotta love 'em

B-B-E Theater presents "CATS" ...and it's flawless!

The group hug after today's performance wrapped up...

...and two clips from the show...

Two more performances of "CATS" are this weekend

Don't miss out!

The next performance is at 7:30 on Saturday night at the B-B-E High School Theater/Auditorium. The final one begins at 2:00 on Sunday afternoon.

CATS is coming to B-B-E

From the CATS Facebook page, created by Lucy Lloyd of B-B-E...
Andrew Lloyd Webber's classic adaptation of T.S. Eliot's Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats hits the B-B-E High School stage this coming weekend.

Friday, November 18th at 7:30 pm
Saturday, November 19th at 7:30 pm
Sunday, November 20th at 2:00 pm

Starring 28 cats of all ages!
Co Directors/Choreographers: Julie Lloyd and Lucy Lloyd
Accompanist: Mary Savelkoul
Make-up designs by Collin Ireland
Costume Team led by Julie Ball with Michelle Gafkjen, Shelley Heinze, Holly Ruder, and Carol Sanders

Tickets are now on sale at the High School office or by stopping at the Central Minnesota Credit Union in Belgrade, MN. Tickets may also be purchased at the door.

LP/HT falls by one point in state quarterfinal football shoot out

A final score in the Class A state quarterfinals: Blooming Prairie 35, Lester Prairie/Holy Trinity 34.

Also, if you haven't heard, Sauk Centre edged Maple Lake in a five-game thriller last night in St. Paul. The Mainstreeters won game five 16-14! Crazy.

Click here to read more on that: http://saukherald.com/main.asp?SectionID=12&SubSectionID=48&ArticleID=13489

Nevis rallies from 2-0 hole to begin the semifinals today against Minneota to win in five

Game scores were 18-25, 13-25, 25-14, 28-26, 15-13. Riley Hanson and Megan Norby each piled up 24 kills in the win. Only two other Nevis players recorded ace attacks, and they totaled only three kills.

What an incredible effort by the unseeded Tigers. Minneota was the #3 seed.

Nevis now faces heavily-favored Bethlehem Academy in the finals at 1:00 on Saturday afternoon.

Read more here: http://www.mnvolleyballhub.com/news_article/show/113367?referrer_id=354141

Veterans' Day program at the B-B-E High School today

The program begins at 10:25 a.m. this morning. Featured will be the VFW Post 1825 Color Guard, along with the three Voice of Democracy winners and performances by the B-B-E Band and Choir.

Crazy...look what Nevis did to #2-seeded Mayer Lutheran

One of the state quarterfinal results show Nevis winning 19-25, 27-25, 25-19, 25-18 over the #2-seeded Mayer Lutheran Crusaders.

Nevis takes a 24-9-1 record into the Class 1A semifinals tomorrow against #3 seed Minneota.

Junior Brittany Roelike was named to the Minnesota Volleyball All-State Honorable Mention team. The list was released on Wednesday.

Cherish the memories...

(Below) Members of the Jaguar volleyball team go wild with excitement after Becca Gruber's attack went down for a kill to hand game three against Nevis to B-B-E 25-21 and give them a 2-1 lead in games in the section final.
This photo was also added to the Sauk Centre Herald Facebook page...to find their Facebook page click here and add us as a friend!

http://www.facebook.com/saukherald

Game one action vs. Nevis

The B-B-E fans were amazing....as good as I've ever seen them

The B-B-E student section reacts to a play in the middle of game five against Nevis, as the Jaguars were giving all they had to stay within striking range of Nevis. They trailed 7-5 at this point...

State volleyball update

Nevis gets the Section 4A champion, Mayer Lutheran, in the opening round of the state tournament. Mayer Lutheran is the #2 seed.

Maple Lake (26-5) faces #3-seeded Stewartville (24-6) at 7:00. (Imagine that, they face Stewartville, just like the Jaguars did in their first trip to state in 2005.)

Click below read about the Sauk Centre Mainstreeters and their Class AA schedule:

http://saukherald.com/main.asp?SectionID=8&SubSectionID=358&ArticleID=13468

**Click here for a brief article at the Sauk Centre Herald website to see more on the section volleyball loss to Nevis: http://saukherald.com/main.asp?SectionID=8&SubSectionID=358&ArticleID=13469&TM=75290.68

Did you know? No volleyball team in Minnesota, in any class, has won more matches since the beginning of the 2005 season than the B-B-E Jaguars. They are 166-24 overall in that span of seven seasons. Ada-Borup is not far off, though, taking a 30-1 record into state this year and sitting at 165-7 overall since 2005.

Below, a kill by senior middle hitter Kim Kollman is featured in this clip from game one vs. Nevis...

Noteworthy...

A couple weeks ago, as the B-B-E Jaguars football and volleyball teams were heading into postseason action, a number of B-B-E fans would often quiz me on what I felt the chances were of either team making it to state.

I said they both had a good shot at state.

I was right.

Both lost out of the playoffs by the smallest of margins. In both cases, the team that beat them advanced to the state tournament. I really thought both football and volleyball could beat LP/HT and Nevis. Both teams put their hearts and souls into their playoff games. No one could have asked for a more terrific performance from both the football and volleyball teams. They played their hearts out and lost games that will be remembered for years to come.

Taking a great team into the playoffs and losing short of the state tournament is bloody hell! I've seen our football program in the depths of misery. In the 2004 season opener, I drove out to Ortonville from Montevideo, where I was living at the time, and watched the Jaguars get blanked 32-0 to the Trojans. Ortonville went on to finish 4-5 while picking up three more wins. They weren't that great of a team. But there's no reason they shouldn't blanked us! And turning to volleyball, which has been on the other spectrum of the success meter at B-B-E...I've now witnessed all 9 section final matches, including all 5 losses in that span dating back to 2002.

While it is terribly painful to me that both teams will not be in the state tournament this year, I can safely say that we could not have asked for any more than what we got out of our B-B-E Jaguars.

Once again, they made me proud to be their sports reporter.

Jaguars lose game five in a ferocious battle 15-12

The Jaguars huddle up with Coach Weller immediately following without a doubt the most painful volleyball playoff loss in school history...

That's all she wrote. They had an outstanding season...I can't say enough about the improvement of this team from the opening serve of the season opener against Morris Area/Chokio-Alberta in late August.

As far as playoff losses go in volleyball, this surpassed the 1994 sub-section final loss to Sauk Centre at St. Ben's University. I vividly recall that match, in which the Jaguars lost game five 15-4 to an outstanding Mainstreeters team that ended up winning two Region 5A matches and advancing to the state tournament. Current junior on the team, Tia Halvorson, was born during that season. Her mother, Carrie Halvorson, was the head coach. (And a darn good one too.)

In every season where the Jaguars made it deep into the volleyball playoffs, only the 1994 and 2011 squads battled into five-game matches. During all the other deep playoff runs that ended short of the state tournament, the Jaguars lost out either in a sweep or in four games.

Here's the expanded list relating to the last paragraph: 1997 (3-0 loss to state-ranked Delano); 2000 (3-0 loss to state-ranked Sauk Centre); 2002 (3-1 loss to MACCRAY); 2003 (3-0 loss to state-ranked Albany); 2004 (3-1 loss to MACCRAY); 2006 (3-1 loss to Montevideo); 2009 (3-0 loss to Nevis).

**Update at 22:23...Area playoff volleyball results:
Section 6AA: Sauk Centre 3, Annandale 0
Section 5AA: Maple Lake 3, Fridley 1 (way to go Coach Kiebel and the Irish!)
Section 6A: Ada-Borup 3, Wheaton/Herman-Norcross 0
Section 3AA: Marshall 3, Jackson County Central 0
Section 3A: Minneota 3, Tracy-Milroy-Balaton 0
Section 2A: BOLD 3, United South Central 0

I have to give a shout out to the fine staff of Pierz Healy school, as they worked a few loopholes to get me connected to their outstanding wireless internet. Thanks a bunch! Your school and staff display endless class every time I make the trip to Pierz.

OH BOY that was incredible - Jaguars win game two 25-17

Mariah Rach serving tonight...she ended up going 13-for-13 behind the service line with one ace serve.Overall the Jaguars missed only four serves for the night in all five games while piling up seven aces. (Nevis missed four serves just in the final game five.)

The Jaguars were in control in game two all the way. They led early 3-0 on a block by Becca Gruber and an ace serve from Taylor Braegelman. Soon thereafter they held an 11-5 lead. Brittany Roelike's kill into a block made it 15-8 advantage B-B-E. On the next volley, the Tigers had a hitting error to make it 16-8, and Coach Hanson called a timeout.

(Herald video)...the Jaguars take game two 25-17, shown is the final few points of that game...


Game three is beginning at 19:47.

(Herald video clip)**The Jaguars ended up taking game three by a 25-21 score...


A group hug right after winning game three...

Game five is beginning at 20:30. Yeah, it's evened up at two games apiece. Crazy.

I probably won't get an update again until after 10:00 tonight.

Let's hope for a W!!!

Jaguars are in a battle in game one

Seven minutes into game one, the Jaguars trail 13-9 and took a timeout.

Minutes later, they trail 17-10. Too many errors.

It's section championship volleyball time!

Sub-Section Champions! (Herald video clip, showing the end of the Sebeka match and post-match celebration)

This will be marked private on Saturday afternoon...

**Don't forget** ...if you can't get within radio range on 107.1 FM of Glenwood, you can tune in on the internet at Smooth Magic 107's website: http://www.kmgk1071.com The match begins at 7:00 tonight. My advice: if you are able to listen on the radio, do that. The internet bandwidth for the radio station maxes out at between 40 and 50 listeners at any one time. It's possible if you try pulling it up on the internet after 7:00 that you won't get it to load up. I'd tune in early before the 7:00 start time and make sure you can hear the action. A large contingent of B-B-E fans around the country make use of Smooth Magic's internet coverage. It's pretty awesome if you ask me!

Below, D-Mac interviews Brittany Roelike, one of three Jaguars who were on the radio following the Sebeka win on Thursday night...

Area football playoff update

Final score from the Fargo Dome: Pierz 28, Sauk Centre 0
Section 4AA final: Maple Lake 24, Norwood-Young America 21 (2nd straight state trip for the Irish football team; they take a 7-4 record into state)
Section 5A final: Dawson-Boyd 22, Minneota/Lincoln HI 6
Section 6A final: Mahnomen 28, Browerville 7
Section 6AAA final: #7-seed Annandale 21, #1-seed Zimmerman 7!!!

**HALFTIME score at the University of Minnesota-Morris: Paynesville Area 30, BOLD 22. **FINAL: Paynesville Area 36, BOLD 30. (Great job Bulldogs!)

Section 5AAA: Providence Academy 15, Rockford 14 (a real heartbreaker for the Rockets, who weren't talking "state" coming into the season but made a great run in the playoffs)

**Incredible: Lester Prairie/Holy Trinity 22, Kimball Area 14 OT - FINAL. The Cubs led 14-6 at halftime, with the Bulldogs scoring eight points in the second half to force overtime. Their game-tying touchdown was scored on a 10-yard field after they recovered a bad snap on a Kimball punt deep on the Cubs' side of the field.

Action from the game two win vs. Sebeka, plus the B-B-E Pep Band

Jaguar volleyball wins another sub-section title! Up next: NEVIS! For the 4th year in a row no less

The Jaguars who were on the floor for match point celebrate the 25-18 win in game three tonight at Pierz Healy...
The Jaguars volleyball team defeated Sebeka 25-22, 25-22, 25-18 to win the Sub-Section 5A-West championship for the fifth year in a row.

Overall, the Jaguars have won eight sub-section championships in a row.

The Jaguars trailed in the early stages of the first two games before pulling away at the end of both. In game three, they jumped ahead 3-0 and 4-1 early, then fought past a 4-4 tie and jumped ahead 21-15 and 23-16 before winning 25-18.

Click here to read a bigger recap of tonight's match at the Sauk Centre Herald website:
http://saukherald.com/main.asp?SectionID=8&SubSectionID=358&ArticleID=13466

Up next: the Section 5A championship against Nevis at 7:00 on Saturday night back at Pierz Healy. Nevis won 3-0 over Rush City in the 5A-East title match earlier tonight at Pierz.

Nevis is the 9th-ranked team in Class A with a 22-9-1 overall record. They won the Northland Conference with a 6-0 league record.

**Added on Friday morning...a clip from late in game three...and below, a clip from between games one and two...



An unrelated note: I learned tonight that the photo I have further below from the Tuesday night Upsala match showing two scouts in the corner of the bleachers does not show anyone from Sebeka. I was just guessing there. Who knows where they are from, perhaps Nevis or perhaps college scouts!?!?

More following on Friday morning!

GO JAGS!

Volleyball playoff action vs. Upsala last night

An excited bunch of Jaguars take the court prior to the start of game one vs. Upsala last night...Only two of these seven players are seniors.


The Jaguars win game two...


Did you know? This is the first year since 2007 that the Jaguars volleyball team won't face Bertha-Hewitt in the sub-section finals. This year's sub-section title match is Thursday night this week at 7:00 at Pierz Healy school.

Sebeka holds a 21-7-3 overall record. They have been Park Region Champions in 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2011. This year they went 6-0 in the conference to edge second-place Henning (5-1, 24-5) for the title.

Sebeka's losses have been to Wadena-Deer Creek, Mayer Lutheran, Fosson, Mount-Westonka, Nevis, Henning and Bertha-Hewitt. They also tied Bertha-Hewitt in a pool play match at the Upsala tournament and Kingsland and Buffalo Lake-Hector-Stewart in pool play matches at the Bethel Showcase Tournament.

Senior Jessica Lillquist surpassed the 1,000 set assist mark as a junior, when she was voted as team MVP following the season. They lost in the sub-section semifinals to Bertha-Hewitt for the second straight year.

In 2010, the Trojans finished 20-8-5 overall and lost no seniors to graduation. Their hopes were set sky-high coming into this season.

Look what I found on Youtube!...Sebeka in action against W-DC early in September this year.


If you can't make it to Pierz tomorrow night, you can listen to all the action on Smooth Magic 107 FM of Glenwood. Or tune in online at http://www.kmgk1071.com. On Tuesday night during the Upsala match, I heard that they had over 30 listeners tune in to the coverage of the Jaguars via the internet.

Thanks, D-Mac, for the coverage!

Jaguars are Sub-Section Final bound!!!!! (For the 10th time in a row no less)

Taylor Braegelman high-fives Kim Kollman after she knocked down a kill in game one to give the Jaguars a 19-14 lead on their way to a 25-15 win...The B-B-E Jaguars volleyball team won in three sets tonight 25-15, 25-15, 25-19 over Upsala to advance to the sub-section finals. Upsala finishes 29-3 overall; the Jaguars are now 24-7 and have won every sub-section title since 2004!

In game one, a kill by Brittany Roelike gave the Jaguars their first lead of the night at 2-1. Another kill by Roelike tied it at 3-3, and her third kill of the night gave the Jaguars a 6-4 lead and the Jaguars never trailed in the set. Two straight kills by Miriah DeKok and a Cardinals hitting error pushed the Jaguars in front 13-9 to force Upsala into a timeout. The Jaguars were in the midst of a 6-0 run that included three more kills by Roelike to go up 16-9. Upsala would use two straight kills on two occasions to make it 18-14, but Taylor Braegelman knocked down a kill for a 19-14 lead to start a 7-1 run that would end the match. Down the stretch run, Megan Weller caught fire in the middle with three kills to go with two by Becca Gruber, handing the Jaguars a convincing 25-15 win.

The Jaguars would never trail in game two, as they used a tip kill by Roelike to go up 1-0 and two other Roelike kills for leads of 3-1 and 7-3. DeKok's kill put the Jaguars up 8-3, a kill by Braegelman made it 11-4, and a kill by Gruber put the Jaguars on top 15-9.

Up next: the Sub-Section 5A-West finals on Thursday night this week at 8:00 at Pierz Healy against Sebeka, who defeated upstart Bertha-Hewitt in four games tonight in Sebeka. On Wednesday, scouting information on Sebeka will be posted.

Section 5A, sub-section final four results:
Rush City 3, East Central 0
Nevis 3, Onamia 0

I was wondering if there were any scouts there...and lo and behold, I noticed these two in the corner of one of my crowd photos...my initial guess is they're from Sebeka according to their jacket colors...Sebeka's colors are purple and gold.


(Sauk Herald video clips) Below, the Jaguars win game two tonight by a 25-15 margin...

...and below, the opening 90 seconds of tonight's match in game one...the Jaguars took a couple shots from Upsala before getting their defense moving and taking control...


Watch the clips while you can! By late Wednesday morning they'll be locked down.

Sauk Centre won game five against Albany 15-12 after leading 7-2 and 10-5. They won game four 26-24! Melrose Area lost a tough one to Little Falls 3-2 with an 18-16 loss in game five.

Area volleyball playoff results on Nov. 1:
Wheaton/Herman-Norcross (25-4) defeated #1-seeded and 12th-ranked Hancock, a team that was 27-1-1 coming into the match, in the Sub-Section 6A-South semifinals. W/H-N had lost to Hancock 3-2 in two matches in Pheasant Conference action.
Minneota 3, Central Minnesota Christian 0
Maple Lake 3, Rockford 0
MACCRAY 3, Canby 0 (a mild upset in 3A-North)
Ada-Borup 3, Barnesville 0
Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop 3, Benson 0
Annandale 3, Dassel-Cokato 2 (#4 seed beats #1 seed)
Marshall Area 3, Yellow Medicine East 0

GO JAGS!!!!