Champs again!

Holy smokes! At Pierz tonight the B-B-E girls' golf team won their second Central Minnesota Conference meet in a row. They shot a 186 to beat Osakis by one stroke. Alyssa Dalen was medalist with a score of 40 to beat Osakis's Alayna Eldred by one stroke. On Friday the girls' golf team is at Minnewaska Area.

Current CMC girls' golf standings after three meets:
1st Osakis 549
2nd B-B-E 550
3rd Pierz 611
4th Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted 703
5th Eden Valley-Watkins/Kimball Area 709
6th Maple Lake 832
7th Rockford Area 300

At the Rockford meet in CMC action, freshmen Jayden Miller shot a career-best 38 to take medalist honors and help his B-B-E Jaguars boys' golf team finish in fourth place. The performance also launched Miller into the running for all-conference honors; he currently sits in 14th place in the CMC. Unofficially it's the first time in school history that B-B-E has had a male and female golfer both take medalist honors at a conference meet on the same night.

At Elrosa in a CMC doubleheader, the B-B-E Jaguars baseball team took on state-ranked Maple Lake and played great but came up short in both games. The Jaguars out-hit the Irish 7-4 in game one, but a four-run fifth inning spelled the difference with Maple Lake getting a 7-5 win. Of their seven runs, three were earned off of B-B-E pitchers Jordan Wosmek and Adrian Belden. In game two, the Jaguars had four errors and seven hits compared to Maple Lake's six hits and five errors, but the Irish managed to pick up an 8-6 win to sweep the season series for the second year in a row. Of their eight runs, just two were earned off of B-B-E's Jacob Weller, who pitched a complete game (107 pitches, six hits, four walks and two strikeouts). Maple Lake stays tied at the top of the CMC with Pierz with the two wins. Next: the Jaguars (2-7) host Hancock (2-6, 1-5 Pheasant) on Friday with a 5 p.m. start time.


Central Minnesota Conference baseball scores on April 30:
Rockford Area 6, Eden Valley-Watkins 5
Rockford Area 10, Eden Valley-Watkins 3
HL-W-W 15, Holdingford 7
HL-W-W 14, Holdinford 4


Area baseball scores on April 30:
Osakis 5, Royalton 4
St. John's Prep 8, Long Prairie-Grey Eagle 3
Sauk Centre 6, BOLD 1
Minnewaska Area 15, Yellow Medicine East 8 (Lakers are red-hot and 9-0 overall)
Melrose Area 11, Paynesville Area 7
Albany 9, Zimmerman 3
Morris Area/Chokio-Alberta 9, Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City 0
MACCRAY 9, Dawson-Boyd 4
Lac qui Parle Valley 20, Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg 1 (5 inn.)
Clinton-Graceville-Beardsley 9, Hancock 6
Glencoe-Silver Lake 6, New London-Spicer 0

Garage Sale in Elrosa

Garage sale: Friday May 8 (7 a.m. - 7 p.m.) & Saturday May 9 (7 a.m. - noon). One block north of Elrosa on Highway 71. Patio furniture, sewing machine, much more. Come see, you won’t be disappointed. Watch for balloons.

Subscribing!

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Pitch, Hit and Run for area youth

 The Belgrade-Brooten-Elrosa Area Jaycees will host a free Major League Baseball® Pitch, Hit &  Run™ Competition for area youth. This event will take place on Saturday, May 2 beginning at 9 a.m. in Elrosa at Saints Field. Registration begins at 8:30 a.m. that day.

Pitch, Hit & Run™ is the official skills competition of Major League Baseball®. This grassroots program is designed to provide youngsters with an opportunity to compete, free of charge, in a competition that recognizes individual excellence in core baseball/softball skills. 

Boys and girls are divided into four age divisions; 7/8, 9/10, 11/12, 13/14, and have the chance to advance through four levels of competition, including Team Championships at Major League ballparks and the National Finals at the 2015 MLB™ All-Star Game®. 

The individual Pitching, Hitting and Running Champions, along with the All-Around Champion in each age and gender group at the Local Competition will be awarded and advance to the Sectional Level of Competition. 

All participants must have their parent or guardian fill out a registration/waiver form prior to the start of the competition. For questions concerning the competition, please contact your local coordinator, Evan Welle, at evanw@mycmcu.org.

Radio

Today's home opener for the B-B-E Jaguars baseball team will be aired on Smooth Magic 107 FM in Glenwood. The game is in Elrosa starting at 4:30 p.m. with Pierz as the opponent.

**Update: the Jaguars lost 12-0 in five innings. They host Maple Lake in a doubleheader this Thursday.

Belgrade Nursing Home open house

Check out this week's Bonanza Valley Voice that features an article on the 50-year anniversary of the Belgrade Nursing Home. Below is their advertisement that's on page 12 highlighting their open house. Plan on bringing your friends, neighbors and family to Belgrade on May 3 to celebrate this grand achievement.

B-B-E’s 1:1 initiative is ‘real world ready’

More school news!

Please join us in a session about Getting our Kids Real World Ready as we begin the 1:1 Initiative here in our district.  During this session we will share the “why”, visit about Collaboration, Creation, Critical thinking, and Communication; the 4 C’s along with the SAMR (Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, and Redefinition) Model  that we have based our pilot program on.  In addition, you will see our mission that is having a positive impact on our kids on our education community. This session will include some of of our own leaders and students who will be sharing what they are passionate about how they have engaged in ideas they see will continue through the 1:1.  It is now that we need to give power to our pupils.  We are very excited to have you join us on Thursday, April 30th at 7:00 p.m. in the B-B-E High School Media Center as we highlight purposeful technology integration and give you a peek into the window of the 21st century education!

National Day of Prayer

National Day of Prayer in Brooten on May 7

The Brooten community will host the annual Community Prayer Service on Thursday, May 7, joining others throughout our country in the National Day of Prayer.

It is time to ask God for His protection and leading as a nation and to remember God’s blessings.

The Community Prayer Service is open to all people and churches in our community. Numerous pastors from area churches will participate in the program, which consists largely of music and prayer.

It’s a great thing when people from different churches get together to worship and call on God for His continued work in our community and nation. We invite everyone in the Brooten area to join us for this meaningful service. It will be held at the Brooten American Legion hall at 9 a.m. on Thursday, May 7.

Speech Showcase!!!

*********************

The public is invited to attend the annual B-B-E speech Showcase on Monday, April 27 at the high school auditorium stage. Come and see one of the state’s best Class 1A speech teams show their talents! This very exciting event starts at 5 p.m.

Elrosa wins!

The Elrosa Saints amateur baseball team beat Greenwald 11-1 today in their season opener.

Terrific Grand March!

Kinlee Swanson and Jordan Wosmek in a James Bond pose.

Here's a video clip lasting nearly four minutes from the final part of grand march today:

That's a good-looking bunch of Jaguar wrestlers! Josey, you missed out on the photo!

Katelyn Heinze and Austin Trustheim.

It couldn't have been more perfect. A day after it rained and rained and rained (very needed rain), the B-B-E Prom Grand March was held under sunny skies, hardly a bit of wind and temperatures hovering around 55 degrees. Yeah, a bit on the chilly side, but we had no complaints in Jaguar Country! Besides, that's what the heater's for - whether prom couples showed up in trucks, cars, semi tractors or farm tractors!

And the Bonanza Valley Voice photo gallery:
http://bonanzavalley.smugmug.com/2015-BBE-Bonanza-Valley-area-e/26th-annual-BBE-prom-grand-mar

Check out more photos from the grand march in this week's Bonanza Valley Voice.

Quite the day

At a wet and rainy NLS invitational today, the B-B-E Jaguars girls' golf team took first place while defeating Section 5A rival BOLD. The Jaguars had a 383 compared to second-place BOLD's 404.

Great job!

In case you were wondering, the details for B-B-E's prom are on page two of this week's Bonanza Valley Voice.

Girls' golf delivers!

The B-B-E Jaguars girls' golf team won today's conference golf meet with a score of 182. They beat Osakis by six strokes. Good job! Peyton Miller had the third-best overall individual score with a 41. In the overall Central Minnesota Conference team standings, the Jaguars trail the Silverstreaks by just two strokes.

On Friday the Jaguars compete at New London-Spicer.

At Kimball on Thursday, the B-B-E Jaguars baseball team went 1-1 in sub-section and conference action against the Cubs. They lost 17-5 in five innings in game one before Jacob Weller pitched a complete-game shutout in a 5-0 win. They are now 2-3 in the CMC and 2-4 overall.

KMGK sports banquet i

This is a great event to honor area athletes in the KMGK coverage area...here's the information. Spread the word! And remember there's a deadline to order tickets by May 1 !

Click on the graphic to enlarge it for best viewing.

Weather news

The varsity baseball game at Upsala was postponed. Junior High track as well.

The temperature is a "balmy" 35 degrees now with winds gusting to 36 mph!!! Yikes! Oh, and to top it off, it was snowing here earlier today.

First win!

In their third Central Minnesota Conference game of the season, the B-B-E Jaguars baseball team picked up a 6-4 win at Holdingford tonight. Now 1-3 overall and 1-2 in the CMC, the Jaguars travel to Upsala on Tuesday to face the Upsala-Swanville Area Patriots in a sub-section game. USA is red hot to start this season with a 5-0 record.

At Willmar today, the B-B-E Jaguars girls' golf team took second place in a strong field of Class 2A and Class 3A teams.

Read more in this week's Bonanza Valley Voice.

Goat Ridge Brewery is open

Goat Ridge Brewery owners Josh Reed (left) and Kelly Asche.

The Goat Ridge Brewery is open to the public! Their first day of business was Thursday this week. I squeezed in a trip to New London on Thursday night and grabbed a few photos and some video from the exciting day for the families involved with this venture.

Josh Reed and Kelly Asche are co-owners. Reed is a 1991 B-B-E graduate and was one of nine seniors on Coach Montbriand's first boys' basketball team in the 1990-91 season. Asche is a 1999 graduate of Hancock high school.

Here's a short video clip from opening night:


Check out some of the photos and other coverage in next week's Bonanza Valley Voice.

In other news...last night in Spicer the NLS Wildcats beat the B-B-E Jaguars baseball team 18-8 in six innings. Next for the Jaguars is a game at Holdingford on Monday.

KMGK Sports banquet

The date is Wednesday, May 6 at Lakeside Ballroom in Glenwood. Mark it it on your calendar and get your tickets at either BBE school office. More details will follow.

State speech has incredible results!

B-B-E's rock star-loaded speech team had six of their eight state entrants placed eighth or better today at the Class 1A state speech meet at Lakeville North high school. Two were state runners-up! Wow! Having six state speech finalists is a school record at B-B-E.

Here's how the state speech meet hardware shook out for B-B-E:
Earning second place were Molly Tengwall (storytelling) and Tom Siebels (discussion). Mariah Heinze took fourth (Serious Interpretation of Drama), Katie Hieserich placed seventh (Original Oratory) and Joe Reller / Riley Schumann placed eighth (duo interpretation).

Don't miss out on the exclusive State Speech Q and A section in this week's Bonanza Valley Voice. Featured in this week's Q and A are Joe Reller, Tiras Dotson and Molly Tengwall. Next week's issue of the Bonanza Valley Voice will include Q and As for Tom Siebels, Riley Schumann, Austin Meyer, Katie Hieserich and Mariah Heinze.

Not a subscriber to the Bonanza Valley Voice? Stop cheating yourself and sign up! Here's an easy way to solve that problem:
http://lifeinbonanzavalley.blogspot.com/2015/01/online-payment-for-subscriptions.html

Another bus stop-arm violation

A female driver was texting on her cell phone and drove through a school bus stop-arm in Alexandria yesterday. Two children were getting off of the bus, but thankfully they weren't crossing the road at that moment.

Yeah, it's an epidemic. I have a feature story on "distracted driving" starting on page one of this week's Bonanza Valley Voice. What you learn in that story could save your life or the life of a loved one.

Foodie Fun at the Red Hen House!

Girls' golf second at CMC opener

What a great night for outdoor activities! The B-B-E girls' golf team finished in second place at the first Central Minnesota Conference meet of the season. The Jaguars scored a 182 to trail first-place and defending conference champion Osakis who had a score of 173. The Silverstreaks were led by freshmen Alayna Eldred who carded an outstanding 34 to take medalist honors.

The track and field teams hosted a six-team meet to start their season. I have a boatload of photos from the meet. Right now I'm gnashing my teeth trying to find room for track coverage in this week's Bonanza Valley Voice...the press rolls in just a matter of hours so I have to get back to it!

Baseball opener

Today in the season and Central Minnesota Conference opener, the B-B-E Jaguars baseball team lost 14-4 in five innings at Pierz.

Up next for the Jaguars is another CMC game at Eden Valley-Watkins on Thursday at 4:30 p.m.

Tomorrow will be an exciting day! The Jaguars track and field teams host their season opener at the high school sports complex.

This Jaguar sports update is brought to you by the support of the Belgrade Hardware Hank!

Click on the graphic for best viewing.

Wanted

Any left over or out-dated venison for a wiener dog that has food allergies. Call 320-346-2254 after 5 p.m. or leave a message. Thank you!

...and in other news, here's an announcement from Big Grove Lutheran Church about an upcoming event: Big Grove Sunday School invites everyone to their Spring Celebration, Sunday, April 19^th, starting at 11:45, at the Brooten Lanes. Serving hot beef sandwiches, hotdogs, chips, pickles, beverage & ice cream sundae bar – free will offering. Bowl for $3 per person/game! Come to eat, bowl, watch, and just have fun!  Proceeds used toward 150^th Anniversary events.

Jaguar baseball opener is online today

Here's the live link, and first pitch is set for 4:30 p.m. at Pierz Healy high school:

http://www.sfmsports.net/?hc_location=ufi#!sfmsports-channel-three/can2

Speaking of broadcasting, Smooth Magic 107 FM of Glenwood has the following listed for spring broadcasts for the Jaguars (baseball) in home events: April 28 (Pierz), May 8 (K-M-S), May 9 (Browerville) and May 14 (HL-W-W doubleheader).

K-9 units

Yes they will.

Eight are great!

Eight members of the B-B-E speech team are state-bound while helping their team take the runner-up trophy at the Section 5A meet today in Ogilvie.

Food for thought

Terrific second-hand comments to share about our governor's sham idea to float universal preschool on taxpayers...and hopefully our legislature throws water on Dayton's half-baked idea to pay back his union cronies:
"I agree that we need to invest in the people of our state, especially to help bridge the education gap. I'm not 100% sure on universal pre-school. My sister is a pre-school teacher and brought up these good questions/points that need to be considered. The free pre-school is for 4-year-olds, but many kids now start at 3. All-day may be too long for them, and then how do you split up the classes? You start adding more kids, you need more space...not all schools can magically come up with new classrooms. You add more kids, you need more teachers. Rural schools are already having a hard time hiring teachers, and some cannot afford to hire more. It also cuts into day cares. A lot of providers count on having those kids being their for their livelihoods. Maybe a bump in tuition assistance, or upping the income limit for receiving assistance is a better choice."

Sports schedule updates

Two things:

1. The track and field meet that the Jaguars were going to compete in at Melrose Area has been cancelled.

2. The JV fastpitch game at Kimball Area has been moved from today to April 27.

Two events are on the schedule for Friday, April 10: junior high baseball at home (high school) against Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg and junior high fastpitch at home (elementary school) also against K-M-S.

A thank you

As some of you may recall, I've had a frequent follower / visitor to this website in the past few months dating back to last November. This admirer, Mr. Nemmers, has taken it upon himself to follow me "very closely" on the Internet and sing his praises of the work I do.

I have to give a huge shout-out and thank you to Mr. Nemmers, as he has helped my business in many, many ways. I've been riding a wave of truly unprecedented levels of success (130+ new subscribers, a 15 percent increase) since January and see only the sky as the limit of what I can do in the realm of journalism in our little corner of the world that we call the Bonanza Valley. While this is not what you would call a "money-making" venture - having a little cash left over at the end of the month after all the bills have been paid has been a nice treat as a small town business owner who puts in a lot of blood, sweat and tears grinding out my work seven days a week. I will put in as many hours as is necessary being the watch dog for taxpayers while also shedding the spotlight on the wonderful events and happenings of our B-B-E area.

I have to admit, when weeks pass without me showing up on his radar, I am sad. Then, lo and behold, he fires off more praise and showers the world with more adoration of my work.

So, Mr. Nemmers, thank you! As the saying goes, "you are really good for business!"

On another note: parents, please have regular conversations with your children about who they interact with and what they post on the Internet. This goes for adults too (young adults....college-age adults...) You seriously have no idea who you'll catch the attention of when you're interacting and commenting and conducting business on the Internet. Stay safe.

Orchestra to feature local talent

Tony Sanders is a 2009 graduate of B-B-E high school and is the current band / choir director at Browerville schools.

Happy Easter

Remember the purpose of the day!

In other news...it's always interesting to read about drama going on in other school districts across central Minnesota or anywhere else in the state. Lately I've been following what's happening in the Morris Area school district. They've reported a problem with getting enough bus drivers on staff to operate their fleet of route and activity buses. One idea they're strongly considering is getting rid of their in-house transportation service and farming it out to a private business (such as Palmer Transportation).

It's a thorny issue for sure. The requirements to become a bus driver get more and more strict each year. This is one topic I need to devote more time and investigation to. At B-B-E, we have a truly outstanding group of dedicated bus drivers. That is not by accident. We should be very thankful for what we have and work hard to keep it.

If you take an unbiased look at B-B-E schools, we've got it pretty good. We have a lot to be thankful for with great and modern facilities, great teachers, great programming and great students coming from great families. We have the usual budgetary pressures (nothing intense) and yes, we have ongoing bullying issues that parents need to be vigilant about...nothing I've heard is really serious. I've heard no hints of bullying by staff or other students that would lead me to think we'll find ourselves in local or statewide newspaper headlines.

Just look to the east, and at Minnewaska I have read that at least one staff member is in deep, serious legal trouble. I'm not sure if it's a teacher or another staff member. It could get ugly!!! Not fun.

Check out this letter...looks like all is not well in Morris!
http://www.morrissuntribune.com/letters/3714666-letter-local-bus-drivers-are-blessing

That was fun!

It was a zoo today at the Brooten city park...dozens and dozens of area kids flocked to Brooten to enjoy the Brooten Commercial Club's Easter egg hunt and bike drawing.

Time for spring to arrive and stay!

Head coach Pat Illies and players shown during the scrimmage on Tuesday.

It appears that the first official spring varsity event that I'll attend is next Tuesday in Paynesville with a track and field meet. It was fun to take in part of a baseball scrimmage (varsity) on Tuesday at the high school JV diamond against Paynesville.

Time to start putting together spring preview articles. Spring, you can arrive and stay!!! No more winter until December!!!

Noteworthy

My two cents: don't use the Bible to hurt people. If you do, it may come back to haunt you:

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2015/04/owner-of-indiana-pizzeria-that-wont-cater-gay-weddings-tells-conservative-host-they-may-close-business

Position opening at B-B-E