Wildcats in the Prep Bowl

Early in the 2nd quarter the NLS Wildcats have a 20 to 13 lead. Adam Essler already has 132 yards of rushing. His father, Dan Essler, is the NLS head coach and a former stand out Brooten Buccaneers athlete.

Update: the Wildcats lost 48 to 44 to finish the year 10-3 overall.

Small Business Saturday!

Today is Small Business Saturday! I get just as excited about Small Business Saturday as some people do about Black Friday. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_Business_Saturday

What small businesses are you supporting today?

Dozens and dozens of the faces I see every day at B-B-E school events are small business owners in our community. They're providing jobs and donating money while contributing their part to supporting the fabric of our towns, rural areas, churches, schools and community groups. They're the ones who deserve our patronage first and foremost!

By the way, the Belgrade Hardware store is open today until 12:30pm.

Some random numbers

Found this worth sharing.

Coach Dave Montbriand's teams went 59-57 when B-B-E was a member of the West Central Conference-South, with three of his teams (1990-91, 1996-97, 1997-98) getting runner-up finishes in that league. In 1998-99, they went 6-6 in the WCCS to tie Morris Area for third place.

In the Central Minnesota Conference, the Jaguars have gone 125-71 in 14 seasons. While Coach Montbriand has been at the helm, the Jaguars won 116 of those games. His CMC record is 116-38 with two runner-up finishes (2001-02, 2002-03) and then solo first-place finishes every season since 2008-09.

Coach Montbriand's overall record as a head coach is 354-170.

Coach Brad Goodwin, the very first head coach of the B-B-E Jaguars, had a record of 10-4 in the Prairie Conference (second place) in 1988-89 with an overall record of 15-7. In his second year, the Jaguars joined the WCC-South and went 3-9. His overall record as a Jaguar head coach was 23-21. As the head coach of the Brooten Buccaneers, Goodwin's teams went 56-24 overall with one Prairie Conference championship (1986-87).

Trey and Tanner Heinsius, two members of this year's Jaguar team, are sons of Chad Heinsius (Brooten '88) who was a junior on the '86-'87 Prairie Conference championship Buccaneers who were 12-1 in the conference and finished 19-2 overall.

Santa Claus!

I heard that Santa Claus is making an early-season appearance in Belgrade tomorrow morning.

He'll be available at Greater Visions Photography for pictures with children from 10:30am to noon.

(Video) First-round action at the Jaguar wrestling invitational

It begins with Josey Tensen at 120 pounds:

(Photo gallery) Jaguar wrestling invite

Here's a few photos from the opening round, and then a team photo at the end:
http://saukherald.smugmug.com/201314-winter-sports/BBE-seasonopening-Jaguar-Invit

By the way Happy Thanksgiving!

Jaguars earn third place!

These 12 guys...each one of them are warriors on the mat! Great job tonight.

Joe Reller competed in the 195-pound division. (Above)  He earned a pin in this match in 64 seconds during the first round.

 

Josey Tensen, a returning state entrant from last year, is shown during his 4-2 win by decision in the 120-pound semifinals today against Willmar's Juan Resendez.

Freshmen Spencer Amundson had two pins while going 3-1 today to take third place in the 106-pound division. It was his first varsity action of his career.

What a fantastic finish for the Jaguars wrestling team as they showed off a whole new lineup to start the 2013-14 season tonight. In a field of 7 teams with one "alternate" team to help fill out the brackets, the Jaguars scored 125 points behind runner-up Morris Area/Hancock/Chokio-Alberta (164) and team champion Willmar (194). Out of the 12 wrestlers they put into action, 5 were pure varsity rookies with no experience above JV until today. Plus just five return from 2012-13 who were full-time starters last year.

As the season was about to begin, nobody really had any idea what type of team would hit the mats at the varsity level for Belgrade-Brooten-Elrosa. A lot of questions were answered tonight when 12 Jaguars went into action and wrestled their hearts out while pulling out a third-place finish. They battled with a lot of energy and a ton of pride and would have made Coach Rich Vos proud for their efforts. There's absolutely no pressure on this team so they can go out and carve their own path this season. Good luck guys! I am excited about the possibilities ahead of you.

Final Jaguar wrestling invitational team standings:
1st - Willmar 194
2nd - Morris Area/Hancock/Chokio-Alberta 164
3rd - B-B-E 125
4th - Holdingford 100.5
5th - New London-Spicer 69
6th - Ortonville 50
7th - Browerville 44
8th - Bonanza Valley

Here's more video...this is from the semifinal round with Adam Jaeger at 113 pounds:


Adam Jaeger (126 pounds) lost 3-1 in the 113-pound championship to a guy who wrestled in the Class AA state tournament last season, sophomore Tom Stageberg of New London-Spicer. After a first-round bye, Jaeger built a quick 9-2 lead in his semifinal match and held on for a 9-7 win. Below are other random notes from each weight division represented by the Jaguars.

106: Spencer Amundson, freshmen and varsity rookie, went 3-1 today while earning two pins to take third place. His second pin was in the 3rd-place match, where he needed only 85 seconds to stick Danny Eastman of Ortonville.
112: Kaleb Voss, sophomore and a returning starter from last year's Section Final Four playoff team, went 1-1 and lost 6-0 to Noah Becker of Browerville in the championship.
120: Josey Tensen, a junior and returning state entrant and returning full-time starter, went 1-1 and lost 18-7 to senior Jakob Stageberg of NL-S.
132: Isaiah Gilbert, 8th grader and varsity rookie, lost by pin in his opener to a sophomore from Willmar; in his wrestleback match, he lost a heartbreaker by a 2-1 decision to sophomore Philip Messner of MA/H/CA.
138: Colby Schramel, sophomore and returning starter, won by fall (2:40) in his opener and lost by fall (4:42) in the semis; in the third-place match he won by fall in 85 seconds.
145: Jonah Voss, freshmen and varsity rookie, lost by fall in the semis and also the third-place match.
152: Alex Schramel, the only senior on the team and also a returning starter, won by fall in just 32 seconds in the quarterfinals over Browerville's Nic Becker; he lost by fall (1:58) in the semis and then won a 10-5 decision in the wrestlebacks over Keaton Knutson of Holdingford; in the third-place match, he won a very exciting 4-2 decision over NL-S's Logan Eckhoff.
160: Steven Mady, junior and varsity rookie, had a first-round bye, lost by fall in the semis and then pulled off one of the most exciting wins of the entire tournament in the wrestlebacks; in the wrestlebacks, Mady won a 4-2 decision in overtime over Ortonville's Robert Wood II; in the 3rd-place match, Mady lost by fall (4:11).
170: forfeit
182: Ben Thompson, sophomore and returning starter, won a 4-1 decision over MA/H/CA's senior Danny Tracy in the semis; in the championship, Thompson lost by fall to Vaughn Johnson of Willmar.
195: Joe Reller, sophomore and varsity rookie, defeated a senior from MA/H/CA (Aaron Nelson) in a quick 64-second pin in the quarterfinals; in the semis, Reller lost by fall to eventual champion Augustine Hahn of Willmar; he then lost in the wrestlebacks for a 1-2 record.
220: forfeit
HWT: Ben Feuerhake, sophomore and returning starter, won by pin (79 seconds) in the quarterfinals over Browerville's Austin Chyba; he battled and battled in the semifinals but lost in a fall (5:30) to eventual champion Leon Richards of Willmar; he erased James Gaida of Bonanza Valley in a 21-second pin in the wrestlebacks; in the 3rd-place match, Feuerhake won by fall (2:47) over Ortonville's senior Derrick Pillatzki.

More wrestling updates

In his varsity wrestling debut, Spencer Amundson took 3rd place in the 106 pound division with a 3-1 record. Ben Thompson lost in the 182 pound championship. Ben Feuerhake won by pin in 2:47 in the HWT 3rd-place match.

I'll have more posted at 10 tonight. Overall the Jaguars had a very good showing today.

Jaguar wrestling invite is underway!

Here's sophomore Ben Feuerhake in his first-round match this afternoon:


I also can report that Adam Jaeger won his quarterfinal match 9-7 after having an early 9-2 lead. He had a first-round bye. At 195 pounds, Joe Reller won by pin in the quarterfinals. As a team, the Jaguars were in third place out of 8 teams with the first round complete. Morris/Hancock/Chokio-Alberta and Willmar were tied for first with 22 points, the Jaguars had 20 points and Holdingford was in 4th place with 15 1/2 points. The Jaguars have 12 of the 14 weights filled, giving up the 170 and 220 divisions. That itself is impressive considering all the young blood on the team.

I have to travel out of the area for a few hours but if traffic is kind to me I'll get back to Belgrade before it's all over.

Update: Ben Thompson, Kaleb Voss, Josey Tensen and Adam Jaeger will wrestle for 1st place tonight.

(Photo gallery) Junior high hoops vs. NL-S

Evan Wiener is shown driving the baseline for a layup against NL-S in the 7th grade game.

Here's the link:
http://saukherald.smugmug.com/201314-winter-sports/BBE-Junior-High-Jaguars-vs-NLS

Here's a little reminiscing from the football season...the last moments of the 8th grade team's win over Benson and then the post-game huddle:

Varsity wrestling season begins today

Who's ready for some exciting varsity wrestling action?

Here's a clip from last year's season-opening Jaguar Invite, featuring Adam Jaeger (then a 7th grader) battling in the 106-pound division championship. He won it!


Good luck Jaguars! I hope to see a packed crowd today. Action begins at 2:30pm.

Holiday Concert is December 9

Here's a little plug from the BBE School Facebook page...hope to see another big crowd on that night.

Huge lead at halftime!

The Jaguars lined up during the National Anthem.

Trey Heinsius hitting a layup on a fast break shot.

The Jaguars boys' basketball team had a quick 12-0 lead with 3 1/2 minutes gone in the game and now are ahead 40-15 at halftime in Morris against the Morris Area/Chokio-Alberta Tigers. With 13:20 left, the Jaguars led 16-4 and then put up 13 unanswered points with scoring by five different players in that stretch. A three-pointer by David Rodgers put B-B-E ahead 29-4 with 7:19 on the clock.

To start the second half, the Tigers outplayed the Jaguars for the first 90 seconds...but the Jaguars said "enough" and put the clamps down the rest of the way. During a 3 1/2-minute stretch, the Jaguars outscored the Tigers 16-4 to go up 56-23 with 11:47 left in the game.


Here's the starter intros...


Final: BBE 73, MA/CA 37. Brian Goodwin scored 19 points to lead the Jaguars; Billy Borgerding had 15. As a team the Jaguars were ice cold from the floor, shooting 29-for-73 on field goals. It's a given that those marks will improve as the season continues.


A quick note from the JV wrestling tournament...8th grader Trevor Kern led the Jaguars by winning the 132 pound weight bracket. Great job! Be sure to come out tomorrow for the season-opening varsity wrestling tournament at the high school beginning at 2:30pm.

Area boys' basketball scores on November 26:
Sauk Centre 74, Wadena-Deer Creek 50
Long Prairie-Grey Eagle 63, Melrose Area 56
Benson 67, K-M-S 22
MACCRAY 69, Renville Co. West 24
Upsala 82, Pillager 55
Browerville 62, Verndale 51
Eden Valley-Watkins 70, Osakis 32
Swanville 78, Brandon/Evansville 42
Albany 63, Pierz 40
Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted 70, Watertown-Mayer 61
Holdingford 41, St. John's Prep 39
Kimball Area 79, Paynesville Area 65
Rockford Area 61, Dassel-Cokato 39

Heading to Morris

Off to Morris...just got done watching junior high basketball against NL-S...the 8th graders played two tough games...lost by double digits in game one but in game two they trailed 36-29 when I had to leave with about a minute remaining.

More updates to follow from Morris! Go Jaguars!!!

(Photo gallery) B-B-E Fall Band concert

Here's the Sauk Centre Herald photo album link with 114 photoshttp://saukherald.smugmug.com/EVENTS2013/Belgrade-Brooten-Elrosa-area/BBE-Fall-Band-612-Concert

A quest for STATE begins tonight!

A mission begins tonight in Morris for the Jaguars boys' basketball team, who is set on nothing less than a third trip to the Class A state tournament and an ending that includes their second state championship.

Tip-off is at 7:30pm at the Morris Area elementary school gymnasium against the Morris Area/Chokio-Alberta Tigers.

I'll be there, and so will D-Mac. Catch his coverage at 107.1 FM or at http://www.kmgk1071.com.

Fall Band concert was great!

The Senior High Band (almost all of it) is shown performing tonight.

The B-B-E senior high band was fabulous tonight! I am extremely proud of our growing music program that has over 250 members!! Wow! They are a great bunch. We have much to be proud of with our Fine Arts programs.

I've got a ton of photos and a few video clips too from tonight. Still wrapping up some 'Tarzan' coverage before I get to the band...

**Update on Tues. morning: here's the Sauk Centre Herald photo album link with 114 photos
http://saukherald.smugmug.com/EVENTS2013/Belgrade-Brooten-Elrosa-area/BBE-Fall-Band-612-Concert

Here's a short video clip from the senior high band's performance tonight:


I've got a mini-whirlwind going this week...band concert tonight, Junior High basketball Tuesday and somehow squeezing in JV wrestling too...then a trip to Morris for the varsity boys' basketball season opener...and then last but not least the varsity wrestling tournament on Wednesday. That's called Uuf Da!!!

(Video) From Act II of 'Tarzan'

From Friday night's opening performance:


I hope to see a large and supportive crowd at tonight's Fall Band concert! (Grades 6-12)

Incredible semi accident by Belgrade

Shown is the front end of the trailer, flipped on its side. The front half of the trailer was crumpled up like a pop can.

The semi tractor sitting on a rollback owned by Ed's Service Center in Willmar.

The accident happened some time on Monday morning. I took these photos at around 12:30 pm.

**Update -  for the record, here's what I learned from a State Trooper:  the driver of the semi apparently overcorrected his semi tractor while trying to come back off of the shoulder. This happened at about 8:30 am this morning a little under 2 miles west of Belgrade on Highway 55. The driver suffered just a cut on his forehead and miraculously walked away from the crash. The semi trailer was hauling herbicide. No herbicide leaked from the trailer.

No other vehicles were involved.

Fall Band Concert is tonight

The Fall Band Concert for grades six through 12 is tonight at the high school auditorium. It starts at 7:30pm.

Don't miss the final showing of 'Tarzan'!!

Here's a video clip from the first scene of Act II on Friday night:


The final showing is today at 2:00pm at the high school auditorium.

Basketball scrimmage held Saturday

Here's the Jaguars girls' basketball team in action against Sauk Centre :

(Photo album) 'Tarzan' opening night

From the final scene of Tarzan's Act II last night.

Here's the link at the Sauk Centre Herald with 190 photos from last night's performance:
http://saukherald.smugmug.com/EVENTS2013/Belgrade-Brooten-Elrosa-area/BBE-Theater-Tarzan-opening-nig

B-B-E theater packed for Tarzan's opening night

(Above) Two photos from Act I tonight.

They were pulling out chairs from all directions to get enough seating for the overflow crowd that came to watch 'Tarzan' tonight at the B-B-E high school auditorium.

The cast and crew were simply amazing tonight!! Wow, can they sing, dance and perform!!!

Here's a short clip from Act I where "Jane" discovers Tarzan for the first time:

PLEASE spread the word and get everyone you know to come to at least one of the final two shows! They perform next at 7:30pm on Saturday night and then finish up less than 24 hours later with a 2:00pm matinee show on Sunday.

The theater coaches, Mary Savelkoul (accompanist), cast and crew should all be incredibly proud of their hard work and dedication to this show! You are all amazing.

Upsala starts 0-1!

Sauk Centre beat Upsala 91 to 88 tonight! The Mainstreeters are looking at having a pretty solid year, but the Cardinals want to settle on nothing less than another run at a state championship next March. This puts quite a chink in their armor; they had a five-point lead at halftime. Leading Upsala scorers tonight were Christian Pekarek (27), Dylan Zimmerman (24) and Jeremy Halverson (23).

I was stunned when I saw the text message...still watching Act II of Tarzan tonight when I heard the news.

I knew Sauk Centre was going to have a pretty good team this year (not sure about getting 21 wins like they got last year)...but I never saw this coming.

Area boys' basketball scores on November 22:
Montevideo 58, MACCRAY 43
Benson 53, LQPV 43
ACGC 91, KMS 31
Paynesville 66, Minnewaska 47

Revisiting the four-day vs. five-day school week issue

The issue has come to the forefront at B-B-E.

Parents and community members are asked to take about 5 minutes of their time to fill out surveys regarding B-B-E's move to a four-day school week beginning with the 2011-2012 school year.

Survey results and feedback will be reviewed in depth at the December school board meeting.

B-B-E has a lot going for it right now: a healthy fund balance, a teaching staff that's working on a new 2-year contract (whereas numerous area schools still haven't settled their teaching negotiations), stable enrollment, successful athletic programs, thriving Fine Arts programs, a "Reward" school ranking for the K-6 elementary and a large crop of young, energetic and talented young teachers.

I don't want to throw out my bias on a four-day week...the bottom line for me is that I want our school to grow and thrive in the 21st century, and that means we need to keep our enrollment where it is or better yet gain enrollment! I do not know if a move to a 5-day week will help or hurt enrollment. My hunch is that it would help. We'll see once the surveys come back.

Notch, Gamdradt advance in commissioner race

With 3,757 votes cast, the totals were Steve Notch, 879; Dave Gamradt, 843; Brad Kirckof, 771; Jeff Bertram, 737; and Alan Loch, 527.

Hats off to Mr. Notch!! He showed that jumping into the race the moment that the county opened for business on the first day of filing in September meant nothing to the voters.

Vote early, vote often!

Just kidding.

Seriously though, if you live in Stearns County come out to vote today in the District 5 County Commissioner primary. It's a very important election for our little corner of the world.

Why do the boys start before the girls (basketball)?

Here's the answer, written by "facefacts" on Minnesota-scores.net:

Wisconsin and Minnesota (hockey) made the decision to join the other Big Ten schools and create a Big Ten Hockey Conference. The remaining teams in the WCHA created the American Hockey Conference. The Big Ten is going to play their conference tournament at the Xcel Energy Center while the AHC will be playing their conference tournament at the Target Center. The AHC agreed to a 4 year deal to do this and it takes place on the same weekend that was traditionally the boys state basketball tournament. Williams Arena will not be used as the boys championship for two reasons - first, it is incredibly difficult for fans to get in and out between games, especially with the big schools and second, Williams Arena may be needed for potential Men's NIT games and/or Women's NCAA games (depending on how the Gophers do). The MSHSL did not want to enter into scheduling agreements with the University of Minnesota with those uncertainties in mind. Instead, they flipped the boys tournament to start before the girls and left the girls tournament as is (the girls will play the semi-finals and finals at Williams Arena and will use Williams, Mariucci and Target Center for first round games). This was the only way for the boys to secure the necessary facilities and keep the 4 day tournament schedule (the girls will be using a 5-day format.)

Get your order in for Jaguar basketball apparel

Visit Rambow's website to place your order by the November 25 deadline!

http://www.Rambow.com

The Sauk Centre Herald photo gallery link to a few scrimmage photos:
http://saukherald.smugmug.com/201314-winter-sports/Sauk-Centre-boys-basketball-sc

Jaguar boys' basketball scrimmages in Sauk Centre

Sophomore Jordan Wosmek closely guarding a Royalton player in their third game today.

Justin Schmitz applying defense along the wing.

The Jaguars boys' basketball got a little preseason tune-up at the Sauk Centre scrimmage today. They faced Sauk Centre, Melrose Area, Royalton, Long Prairie-Grey Eagle and the JV team from St. Cloud Tech. Unofficially, they beat all five teams, with the closest win coming over Sauk Centre by a 27-24 score.

The season opener for the Jaguars is on Tuesday, November 26 at Morris Area/Chokio-Alberta.

And some video:


Next Saturday is a girls' basketball scrimmage at Sauk Centre including our Jaguars.

Circle it: next Friday night

B-B-E basketball fans get a rare opportunity to watch the prime competition our Jaguars boys' basketball team will have to get to the Class A state tournament next March.

Next Friday, the Upsala Cardinals play in Sauk Centre for their 2013-14 season opener.

Upsala and B-B-E will likely meet in the Sub-Section 5A-South championship game. If the Jaguars win that game, they'll play in the Section 5A championship game which will be on March 7 at Crosby-Ironton high school (114 miles from the B-B-E high school).

This is really crazy: the toughest Central Minnesota Conference games of the season will be in the first half of December. In fact, they're the first two CMC games on the 14-game schedule. On Tuesday, December 10, the Jaguars travel to Pierz. Three nights later they travel to Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted.

Then on Saturday, to bookend an incredibly difficult week, the Jaguars compete in the Minnetonka Invitational on Saturday, December 14.

Whew!

Football banquet, awards ceremony held

Coach Moscho and Jared Steffensen, one of the many seniors who were given special honor tonight at the Jaguars football team banquet.

A special group of senior student-athletes were honored tonight at the Jaguars football team banquet. They may be one of the toughest acts to follow in school history, as they rewrote countless team and individual records this year.

A short glimpse of tonight's banquet:


The volleyball team's banquet (grades 7-12) is next Thursday night.

B-B-E YES group attends fall gathering

On October 31, three B-B-E students plus Industrial Technology teacher Mr. Gjerstad attended a YES  “youth energy summit” opener at Prairie woods environmental learning center in Spicer.  

The YES program is a team-oriented youth program for grades 7 through 12 that works on environmental or energy saving projects. While at Prairie woods Environmental Learning center the group learned about solar energy, waste reduction, composting, and teamwork. They also got to meet new people and learn what their school was trying to do to help the environment.  They then learned about what they could do to fundraise enough money to succeed at the project that they chose. 

The project the B-B-E students are working on is a “Hydration Station” which is a water fountain that has a filter and a tall spout designed to fill water bottles. The system also counts how many water bottles we would save by reusing the same water bottle instead of throwing the plastic bottle away. Making and transporting plastic bottles takes energy that can be saved with this station. This also will help our community by reducing waste. 

8th grade Jaguars sweep Bulldogs

In two very close ball games tonight, the 8th grade boys' basketball Jaguars defeated Paynesville Area 26-22 and 26-23 in a home doubleheader.

Action from game one tonight:


The Jaguars trailed 16-12 at halftime in game two, then fell back as much as 22-14 before mounting a thrilling comeback in the three-point win.

Kyle Felling slices into the lane for a layup that tied the first game at 13-13.

I've got some photos from the 7th and 8th grade games...they'll be loaded tomorrow. **Here's the junior high Jaguars album for 2013-14: http://saukherald.smugmug.com/201314-winter-sports/BBE-Junior-High-basketball-Jag. It will be the only album this winter for those teams, and photos will be added here as their season goes on.

Thank a Veteran today!

So true!!!

Veterans Day programs at B-B-E will be held at 10:00am at the elementary school and at 1:15pm at the high school.

**Monday night...giving a quick shout-out to the fine staff members of B-B-E. We are extremely blessed to have our family be a part of this school district. I can't say enough good things about how hard they work and how great they are with our kids.

Also, I'm seeing a ton of "deer hunting" success stories on Facebook. Great job to all the hunters around the B-B-E area!! Many of the pictures include first-time hunters in the lower-junior-high grades. That's nice to see. Take care of those deer so my car doesn't have to!!!! Not only that, but being hunted/killed by humans with guns is 100 times more humane than getting creamed or maimed by an automobile.

Holdingford is out

For the second straight season, the Holdingford Huskers football team lost in the Class AA quarterfinals. They lost today to Hawley (Section 8AA champion) by a 29 to 22 score. It was 6-6 at halftime.

**Update: Lester Prairie/Holy Trinity lost 20 to 14 today to Sleepy Eye St. Mary's. Upsala/Swanville Area lost 28 to 12 to Mahnomen.

And at SCSU tonight, New London-Spicer has a 24 to 16 lead at halftime in their Class AAA quarterfinal game. The Wildcats broke a 16-all tie by scoring on a three-yard pass play with no time on the clock on 4th down.

**Update: late in the 3rd quarter, Coach Essler's Wildcats have a 38 to 18 lead. *Final: NL-S 56, D-G-F 30. Hats off to the Wildcats!!

Central Minnesota Conference 1-1 in today's state quarterfinals

Holy Maple Lake batman!!!!

What a night for the Irish football program, as I believe this is their first-ever win in the state football tournament: 28-10 over a 9-2 Pine Island team in the Class AA state quarterfinals. Not too shabby for a 4th-place team in the CMC.

Proctor's 19-6 win over Pierz takes a little of the luster off of my celebration but we'll have to see what Proctor does next week to see how things shake out in Class AAA.

Holdingford and Lester Prairie/Holy Trinity play tomorrow at 1:00pm and 3:00pm, respectively.

At today's Class A state volleyball tournament, Nevis ended Ada-Borup's season in dramatic fashion in the consolation semifinals. Game scores were 25-22, 25-20, 18-25, 18-25, 17-15. The Tigers play Martin County West in the consolation championship tomorrow.

Maple Lake's volleyball team was swept out of the tournament in the Class AA consolation semifinals by game scores of 25-19, 27-25, 25-15 by Dassel-Cokato.

Use extra caution on the roads this weekend

Tillage taking place north of Elrosa this afternoon.

Area farmers are forging ahead in fast and furious fashion in order to get the fall harvest completed along with the necessary tillage that goes with it.

Travel safely this weekend and be extra careful on country roads that could have a large piece of farm equipment on it as you navigate hills and turns in our rural areas.

Elementary book fair is today

Hours are 8:00am to 6:00pm in the elementary media center. This book fair, which concludes next Monday during the hours of noon-8:00pm (during P/T conferences), is a fundraiser to support bringing in a professional artist to the school next spring.

B-B-E wrestling apparel for sale

Jaguar wrestlers are shown cheering during the Section 5A quarterfinal 57-15 win over LP-GE last February.

**An announcement from the B-B-E Jaguars wrestling club:

The Rambow BBE Wrestling store is open! Click here:

http://programs.rambowinc.com/login.php?UserID=bbew&ReturnURL=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.rambow.com

Orders need to be in by November 18th.

By the way, the Jaguars wrestling team (varsity) season begins on Wednesday, November 27 with a home tournament.

Gruber named First-Team All-State

Becca Gruber (front center) and numerous teammates gathered at the State Volleybal banquet tonight.

At the Minnesota State Volleyball Tournament and All-State Nominees Banquet in St. Paul, B-B-E senior Becca Gruber was named to the Class A All-State First Team by the coaches association.

Gruber was a three-year starter on B-B-E teams who won 76 matches in the past three seasons.

Great job!

West Central Area school keeps its elementaries

In a vote today at West Central Area schools, they turned down an idea to close their elementary buildings and add on to their high school in Barrett by a 1,515 to 479 vote margin. (76% voting no)

WCA currently operates K-4 buildings in Kensington and Elbow Lake, with grades 5-12 attending their newest building in Barrett. Their current operating (excess) levy sits at a little over $1,400 per pupil.

At Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg, voters approved spending around $10.7 million for needed upgrades at their K-6 elementary school in Murdock while also adding a gymnasium and other space on the 7-12 high school building in Kerkhoven.

**Update: the K-M-S superintendent reported to me that their new high school gymnasium will be open in the Fall of 2015.

At Benson, voters approved a sharp increase in taxes for an excess levy, raising it from $720 per pupil unit to $1,200.

By a 615 to 241 margin, voters in Sauk Centre approved extending their levy of approximately $1,100 per pupil for another six years.

For comparison, B-B-E's levy sits at around $837 per pupil for a period lasting through 2020.

I have to remind everyone at B-B-E how extremely fortunate we are to have two well-equipped and very modern school buildings in our district. I think many (including myself) often take that for granted and forget the troubles facing other school districts in central Minnesota who have to worry about facility issues.

The big task ahead of us is the same as it has always been: getting more young families to move into the B-B-E school district!!!!

(Photo gallery) Volleyball season ends

Here's the Sauk Centre Herald link:
http://saukherald.smugmug.com/2013SPORTS/B-B-E-fall-varsity-sports/Step-IV-road-ends-for-Jaguar-v

Do unto others

It's true!

Pep Band rocks!

The B-B-E Pep Band is shown playing the school song "Indiana, Our Indiana" prior to player introductions.

Here's a video from the beginning of the pre-match drills on Saturday night in Pierz:

Junior High success in Sauk Centre

The Junior High boys' basketball teams went to Sauk Centre today and earned a 3-1 mark in wins/losses. The 7th grade boys' basketball Jaguars went 2-0 today at Sauk Centre today in the season opener. The 8th grade Jaguars A squad won by two points, while the 8th grade B squad lost 30-15.

In the 7th grade games, the A squad won an exciting game by a 25-22 score. The 7th grade B squad built on a 12-8 halftime lead and didn't let the Mainstreeters score a single field goal in the second half. Their final score was a 21-9 win.

Up next: their first home game, this Thursday at 4:45pm against Holdingford at the elementary gymnasiums.

(Photo albums) and more coming tonight

Here's the B-B-E Pep Band performing on Saturday night in Pierz:


Here's album #1 from Friday Night Lights XI:
http://saukherald.smugmug.com/2013SPORTS/B-B-E-fall-varsity-sports/Friday-Night-Lights-XI-the-Mi1

And album #2 (the second half):
http://saukherald.smugmug.com/2013SPORTS/B-B-E-fall-varsity-sports/Friday-Night-Lights-XI-the-Mig

By the way, good luck to the 7th/8th grade boys' basketball Jaguars as they open their season in Sauk Centre today. Tip-off is at 4:30pm.

A simply amazing turnout

Maryy Dak led the crowd in an awesome J-A-G-U-A-R-S cheer during the football game on Friday.

It was officially the largest crowd of B-B-E fans at a football game in school history. Wow!

(Video) Pre-match player introductions last night

Video:

For the record

Just to settle it if anyone is wondering, BBE will not have school on Monday.

Step IV is a bust: Jaguar volleyball falls to red-hot Nevis

One of this year's seniors consoles a younger player after the loss tonight. There was a huge amount of mutual respect between all four classes of girls on the varsity team: freshmen, sophomores, juniors and seniors.

Megan Weller fires off a serve in game three tonight. She and three other outstanding seniors will graduate next spring. They will be hard to replace if not impossible to replace, but at B-B-E we don't necessarily seek to replace players, we just groom more great ones and keep things running at a very high level!!

 Losing to "red hot" teams is getting old, but there's not much you can do about it but tip your hat to your opponent. The Nevis Tigers became three-time defending Section 5A champions tonight with a 3-0 sweep over our Jaguars volleyball team. They've won 4 of the last 5 section crowns since 2009. Game scores were 25-19, 25-18 and 25-10.

A long list of area teams fell today in volleyball section finals: Sauk Centre, Morris Area/Chokio-Alberta, BOLD, Henning. One piece of good news: the Maple Lake Irish punched their ticket to state with an amazing 3-2 win over Park Center tonight. The Irish trailed 12-6 in game five...an almost insurmountable deficit, when they proceeded to score 9 unanswered points to take it 15-12! Great job to the Irish, Coach Marty Kiebel and his staff.

**Posting again: here's my Sauk Centre Herald photo gallery from the Royalton win.
http://saukherald.smugmug.com/2013SPORTS/B-B-E-fall-varsity-sports/Step-III-Jaguar-volleyball-win

The Section 5A championship album will be added on Sunday or Monday...most likely Monday. I need some time off on Sunday!!!!!!

B-B-E finishes 26-8 overall after another absolutely tremendous season on the volleyball courts. I have an enormous amount of pride and admiration to the hard work our girls put into the sport. They truly love the game and love keeping B-B-E's great tradition going. Of course, going to state is clearly the goal every year, but just being in the running for state is incredibly difficult, yet we've done it every season since 2004 (getting into a section championship). That has to be one of the greatest postseason streaks in Minnesota. I know it rates right up there with such volleyball greats as Stewartville, Alexandria, Marshall, Minneota and others.

Does it suck to keep losing to Nevis right before "state"! You bet it does. But you can't help but have respect and tip your hat to their program. They will be on top until someone knocks them down...I visited briefly with Mr. Gossen tonight about what happened to us this weekend. He wholeheartedly agreed with my statement: if you are tired of losing, you just have to get better. If you work to get to a certain point but that's not enough - you just have to keep improving. He has what I call a fantastic sports mind. He gets it. He knows all about building winning programs in a variety of sports.

It boils down to that, underclassmen, no matter if it's volleyball, tennis, football, speech, FFA, basketball, etc...keep up the hard work, do your best, throw everything you have into what you love (athletics, academics, fine arts) and success will follow!!!