Marshall tournament

The B-B-E Jaguars volleyball team lost 25-19, 25-22 to Benilde St. Margaret's in their first match tonight at the Marshall Southwest Minnesota Challenge tournament. The Red Knights are a Class 3A school who went 19-10 last year.

Tonight they finish the first day of the tournament with a match against Russel-Tyler-Ruthton.

*Update: the Jaguars lost 25-13, 25-23 against R-T-R in the second match tonight to fall to 3-2 on the season. They open at 9:30 a.m. tomorrow (Saturday) against Yellow Medicine East (2-2). YME went 0-2 tonight as well with straight set losses to Class 3A schools Champlin Park and Eastview.

I know that the late Coach Weimerskirch's granddaughter played for Champlin Park and was a senior on last year's team. On a whim, I looked up how the Rebels did last year. Holy moly! They went 32-2 overall and finished as Class 3A champions. Seeded No. 2 for state, the Rebels defeated No. 1-seeded Eagan 3-2 in the state title match after dropping the third and fourth sets to erase an initial 2-0 set lead. Holy moly!!!! Not only that, but they prevailed in game five by a close 15-12 score. Holy moly! Add to all that the fact that it was Eagan's sixth straight appearance in the Class 3A state title match. It was not only Champlin Park's first state title in volleyball, but it was the school's first-ever team state title in any sport in the 27-year history of the school district! Holy moly!

I did a quick Google search of stories from the 2018 volleyball season, and on the first hit, I got the MN Volleyball Hub via the Star Tribune. In the article, Coach Weimerskirch's granddaughter Kaitlyn is quoted. She played the libero position. It was really neat to see her quote in the article. Coach Weimerskirch's fighting spirit lives on in the younger generations of his family, and for that, we can all smile in the midst of our immense sadness.

Champlin Park went 5-0 last year at the Southwest MN Challenge invitational in Marshall. They earned straight set wins over perennial Class 3A powers Lakeville South and Lakeville North to close out the last day of action. Back in 2016 in Kaitlyn's sophomore season, Champlin Park lost 3-1 to Eagan in the state finals. In her freshmen season, the Rebels took third at state. In her junior season, they placed fifth at state.

In speaking about volleyball's libero position, I found it noteworthy that the St. Paul Pioneer Press's article didn't mention player digs or have a quote from Kaitlyn Weimerskirch. I'll be the first to admit that sports reporters can get lost in the excitement about player kill totals and hitting efficiency and other offense-related statistics. That's a shame, because you don't get a balanced offensive attack (generally necessary to win state titles) without a magnificent set of back row players. Having kids diving for every ball is extremely crucial in the sport of volleyball.

So kudos for the Star Tribune's writer for getting that quote from Kaitlyn following that exciting match! As I said earlier, it was Champlin Park's first state volleyball title. And you can bet with all certainty that Coach Weimerskirch was there cheering his heart out for Kaitlyn and her team at Xcel Energy Center. I can imagine him now in the stands at Xcel yelling and shouting and beaming with pride as he soaked up the win with the rest of his family.

He will be so dearly missed here in Jaguar Country.

At Swanville tonight, the B-B-E Jaguars football team lost to Upsala/Swanville Area (2-0) by a 52-14 score in their Sub-District III opener. The Jaguars take an 0-2 record into next Friday's home game against Long Prairie-Grey Eagle.

LP-GE broke into the win column for the first time this season with a 28-20 win over Benson.

It was noteworthy to see the final score in tonight's game with Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City against Sauk Centre. The Falcons (2-0) named the score and decided to win 49-6.