B-B-E suffers an unimaginable loss

9:15 am.

For the past half hour, I've been staring at my computer, watching the Sauk Centre Herald Facebook news feed, getting nothing accomplished. As is the rest of the Belgrade-Brooten-Elrosa community is doing right now, I am reeling. We have suffered an unimaginable loss.

Long-time head wrestling coach, junior high track and field coach and high school math teacher Rich Vos was killed in a bicycle-semi accident at approximately 5:00am today this morning south of Belgrade.

Vos, an incredibly good-natured, friendly and hard-working teacher, coach and father, began teaching at B-B-E in 1998. He was an assistant varsity wrestling coach until 2001, when he took over the Varsity Wrestling program from former head coach Chuck Marks, who was head coach for B-B-E from 1989 to 2001. (In 1988-89, Marks was co-head coach with Joe Traen.) Vos was very passionate about the B-B-E wrestling program. He worked tirelessly to build up the Youth Wrestling program and get parents involved as volunteers in the system. He was also instrumental in leading the school to converting unused classroom space into a badly-needed Wrestling Practice facility.

Vos's passing leaves a huge hole to fill in both the teaching and coaching staffs of Belgrade-Brooten-Elrosa. That pales in comparison to the loss his family is dealing with right now.

May the Angels watch over his family.

Coach Rich Vos, shaking hands with Tyler Tensen (current senior) after Tensen's state wrestling opener on March 2 at Xcel Energy Center.

From my recollection, this is the first staff-related death in the B-B-E area since November 1984, when then-Brooten Buccaneer head football coach and sixth grade teacher Tim Schaub was killed in a one-car accident following a Region 5A playoff seeding meeting. More recently, a former B-B-E school nurse, Sandy Lindahl, passed away due to cancer after she had retired from the school.

B-B-E has also dealt with the death of students and young (former) graduates, including Dustin Terhaar in 2010 and Trista Monson in 2006.

All after-school B-B-E events have been cancelled for today. The varsity football and volleyball teams will have practice, and Community Ed classes will still be held.

A report from the State Patrol is posted at the Sauk Centre Herald website: www.saukherald.com

**Update at 11:00am: The varsity volleyball match against Eden Valley-Watkins will be played at 5:00pm on Wednesday (tomorrow). There will be no JV or C-squad match.

Updates on this tragic event will follow as they are confirmed.