Slow start

The sports department at the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper has had a slow start to coverage of the fall sports preseason. Here's what I've gathered so far:

B-B-E Jaguars girls' tennis - turnout under third-year head coach Katie Hanna stands at a respectable 17 in the first week of preseason drills. They have five seniors this season, and their photo was featured on page 13 of this week's Bonanza Valley Voice. The season begins on Friday (tomorrow) at the MACCRAY triangular; Redwood Valley is the third team. The following day, the Jaguars travel to Milbank, SD and then compete at the Litchfield quadrangular next Wednesday.

B-B-E Jaguars football - eighth-year head coach Chris Moscho, a 2002 graduate of Melrose Area and a nine-year veteran of the B-B-E elementary teaching staff, has somewhere between 32 and 35 young men to work with in grades 9-12 as of the first week of preseason. This extreme lack of depth is an issue the team will have to work through this season. The current breakdown is: seven freshmen, five sophomores, eight juniors and 12 seniors.

One exciting addition to his coaching staff is 2011 B-B-E graduate Kevin Kuefler. Coach Kuefler was a senior on the 2010 team that advanced to the Section 4A championship, which resulted in a tough 15-6 loss to Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City. He was also a sophomore on the first B-B-E Jaguars boys' basketball team to win a conference title (2008-09) and a senior on the B-B-E Jaguars boys' basketball team that lost in the Class 1A state title game in March 2011. It's no secret that he was one of B-B-E's best athletes to ever walk the halls of our high school. He has been a terrific addition to our school's coaching staff after gaining the elementary phy. ed. teaching position last year.

Getting back to the football team, the Jaguars open the season on Friday, Sept. 1 when they host Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City. That game will be aired on Smooth Magic 107 FM of Glenwood.

I'll be gathering a light volleyball report on Friday.