Tiyana Schwinghammer: B-B-E's Triple-A nominee (VIDEO)

On Monday in Belgrade, Tiyana Schwinghammer speeds out of the backcourt while chased by two Upsala defenders during the first half of her team's 76-39 section win over the Cardinals.

Each year students can be nominated from high schools across Minnesota for the prestigious Triple-A award, which is sponsored by the Minnesota State High School League. The Academics, Arts, and Athletics Award, commonly known as the Triple 'A' Award, honors high school seniors throughout the state who have a 3.0 or higher-grade point average and who participate in League-sponsored athletic and fine arts activities.

The full explanation of the Triple-A award can be found here: https://www.mshsl.org/triple-award.

B-B-E Class of 2022 members Nate Walstrom and Paige Prentice were our high school's male and female nominees a year ago. This year it is exciting to announce that Class of 2023 member Tiyana Schwinghammer is B-B-E's nominee. Schwinghammer, a three-sport student-athlete also heavily involved in our Fine Arts program while carrying an ambitious academic course load, will attend the District 20 banquet tonight in Paynesville with other area Triple-A nominees. The winners of the District 20 Triple-A awards (male and female) will be announced at the banquet.

Her list of activities is too lengthy to properly list right now. That complete list is being compiled! 

Last July, Schwinghammer was crowned part of the Miss Brooten royalty which has added an extra layer of "busy" to her already busy schedule. Leading by example, Schwinghammer has shown great dedication to her royalty peers while traveling to events near and far representing the community of Brooten.

On the basketball team this winter, she is one of five talented seniors leading a 10-2 squad gunning for regular season and playoff hardware. Schwinghammer, a 6'0" forward, is averaging 14 points per game with 16.8 points per game in the last four contests. In her last two games, she has shot 62 percent from the floor while collecting 18 rebounds, 7 steals and 4 blocked shots. In addition, she is one of five seniors on the B-B-E Resistance Robotics teams that is gearing up for TWO regional contests in March.

In the fall, Schwinghammer was part of a 12-8 No. 1 doubles pair with our girls' tennis team. In the spring, she competes in numerous track and field events and has been on the varsity track and field team since her eighth-grade season. That's just the beginning of a long list of her activities that includes leadership positions with the high school's band AND choir. I also can't forget to mention her willingness to join my newspaper as a photographer last fall, which has provided The Voice with much needed help this year. Major props to her for the terrific example she has set for younger students at B-B-E!! We are all rooting for you tonight!

Blogging will resume again tonight after 8 p.m. when I'll add video here.

**Here's a very exciting video clip featuring last night's comeback for our girls' basketball team at Paynesville:


I had thought about clipping out footage of video to post here with Schwinghammer shining on the basketball court in recent games, but knowing her as well as I do, I know that she would MUCH prefer I post video highlighting her team and not just her. So in this video, it is terribly exciting to see the Jaguars dig in and claw back from what had been a 42-37 deficit under the 10-minute mark last night in Paynesville. I do have to point out Schwinghammer's tough shot made at around the 1:50 mark when she sank a floater in the lane to make the score Paynesville 45, B-B-E 44. By about the 2:20 mark in the video, Bree Thieschafer made a breakaway, one-on-one layup to put the Jaguars in front 46-45. Exciting!!! At the 4:18 mark on the video, Schwinghammer squared up on the right wing and nailed a three-pointer on Thieschafer's assist.

**BREAKING NEWS! this blog post is a good spot to add this...tonight I just caught the latest Minnesota Basketball News state rankings that were released today. Our girls' basketball team has climbed back into the Top 10 after falling to No. 16 two weeks ago. The newest state rankings have them at No. 8 in Class 1A. Meanwhile, conference-leading Holdingford has risen to No. 12 in Class 2A.

WELL! How much can I pack into this blog post focused on our Triple-A nominee? I had to add this...I just stumbled onto this off of a Twitter feed from Coach Bob Starkey, an assistant women's basketball coach at Louisiana State University. Too good not to share. This goes into what I've been harping on for the past few weeks...how older kids leave examples for younger kids, which is the natural order of how any youth organization works from a school system down to a youth sports team.

There's a wide-eyed little person
Who believes you're always right;
And their ears are always open,
As they watch you day and night.
You are setting an example
Every day in all you do;
For the little one who's waiting
To grow up to be just like you.


THANK YOU to B-B-E Class of 2009 graduate Dani Davis, owner of Coop's Corner, for sponsoring this Jaguar Sports blog post!