Pirouettes dance team, wrestlers open winter seasons (VIDEOS*)

It has been a very, very busy day, and I'm finally getting around to some serious blogging. We've got our first dance comp and also the first wrestling meet in the book! And I can't type fast enough here to get caught up. I've got three videos posted below, the second being my first winter sports show of the 2022-2023 season. At some point tonight I will get caught up on updating the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper website. That was supposed to get done this morning, but it has been a battle all day staying on track. That's the kind of day I've had.

Here's the dance team and others enjoying the song 'Macarena' tonight at Minnewaska Area's high school gym:


The B-B-E/Paynesville Pirouettes dance team performed in the varsity jazz division. A total of seven teams were represented tonight along with our Pirouettes: Moorhead, Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City, Sauk Centre, Minnewaska Area, New London-Spicer and Montevideo. Our dance team features 13 on the roster, and seven of those girls performed tonight. They all did so well, and the team had a great time on what will be back-to-back days of dance comps. If you have yet to see a dance competition in person, you really need to get to one this winter. For our team, they are excited to host a dance comp on Thursday, December 15 at our elementary school in Brooten starting at 6 p.m.

**Here's my first winter sports show of the 2022-2023 school year, or you can count it as a "Greatest Show on Earth" installment No. 2 of the day as a continuation of what I posted in an earlier blog post:


*Here's head coach Katie Boie in a brief post-comp interview at Minnewaska:


Coach Boie is a 2015 graduate of B-B-E and was a dedicated, passionate member of the B-B-E Dazzlers dance program throughout high school. She also played tennis in the fall and was also part of the track and field teams in high school. The dance program is extremely blessed to have her at the helm. I'm excited to see this team succeed this winter and see it grow in future seasons.

It should be pointed out that Morgan Schwinghammer was part of a carpool to the dance comp with Becky Mueller, who was a B-B-E graduate in 2004. The main connection I have with Morgan is through her mom, Marci, who grew up with my sister; they were 1997 B-B-E graduates along with Morgan's dad, Darin. We've known the Otteson family since my sister was in kindergarten way back in 1984-1985. My sister and I rode Don Segaar's bus to school in the 1980s and 1990s with the Otteson children. Their family was devastated in May 2021 when Marci's youngest brother, Spencer (B-B-E Class of 2006 and a three-sport Jaguar athlete), passed away after a courageous battle with cancer. He was only 33 years old and was in a group of student-athletes at B-B-E who were the first Jaguars I covered as a sports reporter. This illustrates how long I've been doing this. Spencer was the greatest kid. He was always smiling. It's so wrong when cancer takes "kids" like him. (Anyone 10 years or more younger than me is still a kid in my eyes.) We can rest our hearts in knowing that Vicki and Spencer are watching over their family from heaven.

Becky said good-bye to her father-in-law last summer. Greg Mueller passed away on June 8 at the age of 69. Morgan's grandmother, Vicki Otteson, passed away on Halloween day this fall at age 65. They were both incredible parents and grandparents. Just the best. The absolute best. We miss them both dearly. If you got to know either of them, they made you better. They were both deeply proud and loyal supporters of the B-B-E Jaguars athletic programs.

Spencer Otteson with his wife, Amanda.

**And on to wrestling news...
The No. 4-ranked B-B-E Jaguars wrestling team took second place at the Sauk Centre-Melrose Defender Open. They had 149.5 points behind first-place Thief River Falls, who racked up 194.5 points. Taking third place was Paynesville Area with 129.5 points.

I am thrilled to report that junior Ryan Jensen was in action today in Melrose. I spoke with his mom earlier today at Boosters, and she said he is able to wrestle but has to wear a brace of some type on his leg. Ryan suffered a severe ankle injury in the football season opener on September 2 in Murdock. He has fought a long, hard battle to get back up to speed and get on the wrestling mat. And!!! He took first place tonight. Bravo!

Sauk Centre-Melrose Defender Open team standings:
1. Thief River Falls 194.5
2. B-B-E 149.5
3. Paynesville Area 129.5
4. Alexandria Area 122
5. Andover 121
6. Albany 113
7. Sauk Centre-Melrose 99
8. Osakis 78
9. Eden Valley-Watkins 65.5

Here's the individual placements for the Jaguars by weight division:
106: Noah Welte 6th
113: Aiden Mueller 6th
120: open
126: Louie Tensen 4th
132: open
138: Ryan Jensen 1st
145: Brett DeRoo 5th
152: Tanner Viessmann 2nd
160: Hunter Laage (1-2 record, did not place)
170: Maximus Hanson 1st
182: Carson Gilbert 2nd
195: Talen Kampsen 3rd
220: open
285: Ethan Spanier 1st