B-B-E's Prom day (VIDEOS)

Today has been what I'll just call "Prom day" all day long in Jaguar Country. The grand march was an outstanding event! They had 53 couples/vehicle units pass through at the high school and Olson Auditorium.

And! They had at least 93 kids attend the prom dance. This has been a really, really great day. Video will be posted later.

Here's the crowning of the Prom King and Queen, Wyatt Lewis and Summer Lundberg, at 10 p.m. tonight.


Officially, this is the 35th prom held for B-B-E schools. The first B-B-E prom was held in the spring of 1989.

Here's a brief view of the post-grand march atmosphere at the high school cafeteria. The sun was shining strong outside, and it turned into a terrific day


We had random shots of light rain throughout the afternoon, but overall the day had very little rain and just a light breeze throughout the afternoon.

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Boys' golf second at conference opener

The B-B-E Jaguars boys' golf team had a strong showing at the first Central Minnesota Conference meet of the season. Yesterday at Kimball, the Jaguars shot a 188 to take second place ahead of host Kimball, who shot a 189. Paynesville Area took fourth with a 190. Osakis won the meet with a 171. Brady Schwinghammer led the team with a 39.

A busy day ahead, and boys' golf opens season (VIDEOS)

The B-B-E Jaguars boys' golf team opened their 2023 season with a meet at Greystone Golf Course in Sauk Centre yesterday (Wednesday) afternoon. Brady Schwinghammer shot a 77 to take second place overall. Today the boys' golf team competes at Kimball.

Today the B-B-E Jaguars track and field teams compete at Sauk Centre starting at 3:30 p.m. Other teams included are Melrose Area, Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City, Minnewaska Area, Paynesville Area, New London-Spicer and Montevideo.

Here's Tiyana Schwinghammer clearing the bar with ease in the high jump on Tuesday this week:


She cleared 4'4" in that jump, and she topped out at 4'8" to take sixth place in a very competitive field.

The baseball and fastpitch teams both play conference doubleheaders today starting at 4 p.m. The baseball team is at Holdingford, while the fastpitch team hosts Holdingford in Brooten.

Here's Coach Funk with his fastpitch team between innings at Swanville in the season opener on April 14:


We are very thankful that today appears to be a day that all of our sporting events can take place. It does not look like that's the case tomorrow, however.

Baseball, fastpitch in action; track and field hosts varsity meet

In their home and Central Minnesota Conference opener tonight, the B-B-E Jaguars fastpitch team lost 13-5 to Paynesville Area. It was a crisp, well-played game with no errors on either side. The visiting Bulldogs had 10 hits compared to 9 for the Jaguars. Next: the Jaguars (0-2, 0-1) host Holdingford in a doubleheader this week Thursday starting at 4 p.m. in Brooten.

In their season opener, the B-B-E Jaguars baseball team lost 14-1 in five innings at Paynesville Area; the Bulldogs out-hit their guests by a 14-3 margin. The Jaguars trailed 3-1 after one inning but gave up six runs in the second inning. Next: the Jaguars travel to Holdingford on Thursday this week for a doubleheader starting at 4 p.m.

More to come later. I have a newspaper to wrap up for the printing press.

Central Minnesota Conference baseball scores on April 25:
Eden Valley-Watkins 13, Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City 0 (5 innings)

Central Minnesota Conference fastpitch scores on April 25:
Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City 14, Eden Valley-Watkins 3 (5 innings)

Area baseball scores on April 25:
Melrose Area 10, BOLD 0 (6 innings)
BOLD 5, Melrose Area 1
Morris Area/Chokio-Alberta 8, Benson 1
Montevideo 10, West Central Area 8
Montevideo 9, West Central Area 0
Minnewaska Area 2, Sauk Centre 0
Minnewaska Area 6, Sauk Centre 2
Lac qui Parle Valley 13, MACCRAY 5
Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg 7, Minneota 3
Renville County West 11, Canby 0
Yellow Medicine East 5, Lakeview 0
Dawson-Boyd 6, Tracy-Milroy-Balaton 3

Area fastpitch scores on April 25:
New London-Spicer 16, Minnewaska Area 1 (5 innings)
BOLD/Renville County West 13, MACCRAY 3
BOLD/RCW 9, MACCRAY 0
Lac qui Parle Valley 10, Yellow Medicine East 0 (6 innings)
Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg 14, Tracy-Milroy-Balaton 4 (5 innings)

Jones, Schwinghammer win titles at Minnewaska

Branton Jones won the shot put at Minnewaska Area tonight with a best throw of 41 feet and 6 inches. He also took second place in the discus throw with a best throw of 119 feet and 3 inches. Tiyana Schwinghammer won the high jump with a best jump of 4 feet, 8 inches. The track and field teams host an eight-team meet tomorrow (Tuesday) with Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City, BOLD, Benson, Browerville, Eden Valley-Watkins/Kimball, Paynesville Area and St. John's Prep. Action begins at 3:30 p.m.

I recently heard the exciting news that Schwinghammer singed with Northland College of Thief River Falls last week to continue her basketball career. She will join one of the top junior college women's basketball programs in Minnesota.

I just noticed that they took most of the rain out of the forecast for the rest of this week!!! This is exciting news. This Thursday, the forecast calls for 60 degrees and low wind, which bodes well for having a track meet at Sauk Centre. Fingers crossed. I'm hoping to make it to that meet and return in time to catch the tail end of a home fastpitch doubleheader with Holdingford.

Spring sports fire up again

I haven't gotten a handle on everything coming this week, but it appears that today and tomorrow will be good days to get outdoor sports going! The sun is shining strong, althought it's still very cold out for this time of the year.

I spoke with new baseball head coach Ben Klaphake today at practice, and he is excited to finally get their season underway with a lone game at Paynesville tomorrow at 4:30 p.m. The Jaguars practiced outdoors today at the high school's JV field. This is just their third time practicing in that location.

The track and field teams are competing at Minnewaska Area today.

The fastpitch team will host Paynesville Area tomorrow at 4:30 p.m. for their conference opener.

Did you know? Back in 2013, the spring sports (varsity at least) did not get started until Monday, April 29. That day was the Jaguar baseball opener, and the track and field teams started their season the next day with a home meet.

In business news...
The Bonanza Valley State Bank will have their new website go "live" on Monday, May 1. Also, it's been exciting to see the progress that's been taking place at the site of the new Jenniges Meat plant and retail store on the west side of Brooten.

Law enforcement procession lasts 2-plus hours

The law enforcement procession in support of fallen Pope County Sheriff's Deputy Josh Owen lasted over two hours this afternoon in downtown Glenwood. It was one of the most overwhelming displays of solidary I have ever seen in my life. Law enforcement was in attendance from all corners of Minnesota and nearly every county and municipality in the state. LEOs from neighboring states were also there in squad cars/SUVs, and I even learned that police officers from as far as New York and Arizona attended Deputy Owen's funeral this morning at Minnewaska Area high school.

Additional coverage has been posted to the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper website. An article was posted today that includes video from the funeral procession for Deputy Owens. Link: https://www.bonanzavalleyvoice.com.

I did not see this coming: my article on Governor Tim Walz has received over 30,000 views in a little over 24 hours. It is far and away the most-viewed web article I've ever posted in the eight or so years since I created the newspaper's website.

In a country where many elected officials and government bureaucrats spout derisive and corrosive statements to the public about police officers, it's more important than ever that we show support for the Thin Blue Line and remind the world that working in law enforcement is still a noble and honored profession.

It's snowing

We've gotten about two inches of wet, heavy, slushy snow this afternoon. It was raining earlier today.

I'm keeping busy following the tragic loss of one of Pope County's sheriff's deputies. You can read more about that in this week's Bonanza Valley Voice print edition and also at the newspaper's website: http://www.bonanzavalleyvoice.com.

Beyond that, I'm laying low.

A little late to the party, but...

I'm late to the party on announcing this, but...today's varsity events (at Eden Valley) were cancelled due to the snowfall and cold weather. I don't have information on makeup dates. It still appears that tomorrow's track and field meet at Minnewaska Area is a "go" - let's hope!

Tonight was a terribly busy night with a Belgrade city council meeting, a Catholic parish meeting and the B-B-E school board meeting...all taking place in Belgrade. I made it to two of the three events...if this was baseball I'd be a king by batting .667!!! So I'll take that.

In other news...
Congratulations to Kara Wold (dramatic interpretation) and Jeffrey Cihlar (extemp speaking) for earning trips to the Class 1A state speech meet!! The state meet is April 28-29. More to come in this week's newspaper.

Press conference held on Cyrus shooting (VIDEO)

The Pope County Sheriff's department held a joint press conference with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) this afternoon in Glenwood. You can read parts of the statements provided there by clicking over to the Bonanza Valley Voice website: https://bit.ly/414AH3b.

It is worth noting...
Small town police departments and sheriff's offices are not flush with staff to begin with, and when officers are pulled out of rotation either because they were killed, or they were involved in a shooting, it puts tremendous strain on the entire law enforcement system. Criminals don't say, "Well, gee, the police department is hurting now, they're short-handed, I suppose we can give them some slack for the time being."

Here's Bureau of Criminal Apprehension superintendent of investigations Scott Mueller speaking about increasing violence perpetrated against law enforcement:


Too many in the public take our law enforcement and even our EMT responders for granted. It's not just an automatic thing that these people magically appear when we are in distress. There's so much that goes into it that they are recruited, schooled, trained and then do the hard work of filling the shifts and providing the law enforcement response when things go badly.

At B-B-E schools and across Jaguar Country, we are fortunate to have men and women ready, able and willing to answer the call of duty whether it's part of the Belgrade-Brooten police department, area county sheriff's departments, ambulance crews and fire departments. They are all wonderful people. We cannot thank them enough.

BBE Jaguars fastpitch begins Coach Funk era (VIDEO)

A new head coach has taken the reigns of the B-B-E Jaguars fastpitch team, and they opened the season today at Swanville. The Bulldogs scored five runs on two outs in the bottom of the first inning to break a scoreless tie, and they piled on eight more runs in the bottom of the second.

After settling in and playing a competitive brand of fastpitch softball, the Jaguars then outscored the Bulldogs 3-1 in the final two innings, but it was not enough as they fell 14-3 in five innings.

In the top of the fifth, Kenna Lieser had a leadoff walk that was followed by back-to-back singles by Faith Radermacher and Taylor Shelton. Kacey Fischer then had a fielder's choice that drove in Lieser. Two straight strikeouts made the rally short, however, as two were left stranded to end the game.

Coach Funk leads a team that brings back eight starters from last year's 3-18 squad. They have high expectations on seeing a big improvement on last year's 2-12 mark in the Central Minnesota Conference.

Here's video from the top of the fifth inning tonight in Swanville:


NEXT: the Jaguars open the Central Minnesota Conference schedule next Monday, April 17 at Eden Valley (at the elementary school).

Area fastpitch scores on April 14:
Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City 5, Sauk Centre 1
Lakeview 10, Montevideo 7

Don't forget!: two breakfast/lunch events are taking place on Sunday, April 16 in Brooten and Elrosa. They have been advertised in the April 13 issue of the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper.

Fastpitch softball opens today (UPDATES)

The B-B-E Jaguars fastpitch softball team will finally get the 2023 season opened today. They travel to Swanville for a 4:30 p.m. non-conference game.

 **Update: after one inning, the Bulldogs are ahead five to zero.

After 2 1/2 innings, the Bulldogs have a 13-2 lead. More to come in a new blog post.

Reminder: Highway 71 closed near Crow River Lutheran church

Spring flooding has claimed a southbound route from Belgrade via Highway 71.

For the time being, motorists are being re-routed south of Belgrade with Highway 71 being closed near Crow River Lutheran church. The detour takes people west from the Menards campus on County Road 13 over to County Road 18 (Stearns County) which becomes County Road 1 in Kandiyohi County. Then the detour shifts onto County Road 5 to State Highway 9, and then motorists can travel east back to Highway 71 to the Pete's Surplus corner.

Reminder: when a road is closed it is illegal to travel in that area. Motorists can be fined up to $1,000 and/or 90 days in jail. In addition, if travelers need to be rescued from a closed road, other expenses and penalties will apply.

In other news...
Click over to the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper website to read about upcoming entertainment coming to Central Square and Civic Center in Glenwood (short link): https://bit.ly/3MGiRz7.

Conference speech meet (VIDEO)

The Central Minnesota Conference speech meet is being hosted tonight at the B-B-E high school. The awards ceremony should take place at about 8:15 p.m.

More to come.

Here's a video showing you part of the fun that you miss out on when you don't get to attend a high school speech meet!


UPDATE: as a team, the B-B-E speech team earned third place with 48 points to edge fourth-place Royalton's 45 points. In first place was juggernaut Eden Valley-Watkins with 170 points. Maple Lake earned runner-up honors with 73 points. In fourth place was Kimball Area (30 points), and Paynesville Area took fifth with 21 points.

It's also exciting to announce that in a very crowded, talented field of speakers, the three seniors on the speech team all took second place in their respective categories: Dylan Hirman, second in humourous interpretation; Kara Wold, second in dramatic interpretation; and Paige Klaphake, second in storytelling. I have more results to share but can't get to the rest until tomorrow. It's time to get back to publishing the April 13 issue of the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper!

The snow is subsiding

Here's a glimpse of the high school parking lot and then the football stadium from on top of the hill on Saturday, April 1. The video begins with B-B-E senior Paige Klaphake in an impromptu snowball fight with her brother, Austin.

VIDEO:


Today we will surpass 70 degrees! I expect we will lose half of the snow that was on the ground when we woke up this morning.

Let's get spring sports rolling!

We have more waiting to do before spring sports can get rolling. This week will move us a lot closer to the point where we can see our Jaguars in action at track and field stadiums, the golf courses and the baseball and fastpitch softball diamonds.

Just for the heck of it I went back in my video archives and located this video that is almost nine years old. It features members of the B-B-E Jaguars track and field teams at the Section 5A meet at Clemens Stadium in Collegeville. From what I could tell, I saw Taylor Gregory in a high jump attempt, Kinlee Swanson in a long jump attempt, Colby Schramel in the pole vault and Sidney Shacter in the discus throw.

VIDEO from 2014:


*Here's an archive video from April of 2012:


Daniel Rooney was a senior that spring.

I am not optimistic that we will see a track and field meet this Thursday at Benson. Although we have high temperatures this week, I doubt it will be enough to firm up the football stadium at Benson high school.

Today is Easter Sunday (VIDEOS)

Today is Easter Sunday. I made the trek to the Norway Lake community this morning and took in Easter Festival worship at East Norway Lake Lutheran church.

Here's the ENL church choir singing the Hallelujah Chorus on Easter morning worship one year ago:


That is one magnificent song. You can watch a throwback video to four years ago when the East Norway Lake church choir performed the Hallelujah Chorus to conclude sunrise worship on April 21, 2019...click here: https://bit.ly/43ldAmi.

Here's Maundy Thursday worship just a few nights ago at Big Grove Lutheran church:


I hope you have had a marvelous Easter weekend.

New playoff sections released

And they're not really new, but some have been adjusted somewhat compared to what we have been used to for the 2021-2022 and 2022-2023 athletic seasons.

For the football team, Section 4A now has just six teams. This fall we have the following teams joining B-B-E in Section 4A: ACGC, Benson, Browerville, LPGE, U/SA.

Other tweaks have taken place across the sections. In basketball, K-M-S has moved to Section 3AA for the playoffs next year.

A list to be thankful for

Here's where I'll post things I've been thankful for lately.

I didn't get this filled out last night. Here's a start.

1. We have a thriving local business community. It is necessary to have that while operating a small newspaper. 

2. The ability to walk to my office everyday if I choose to. Generally I try to do that unless the streets are very icy.

3. Being able to send our children to a school that features kind, caring and hardworking staff (ALL staff! Top to bottom!). We are blessed to have staff in our school who we can trust. This is not something you can assume at every school in America.

4. The hope we have with spring coming and soon the ability for me to get into our family garden.

5. Working, functioning printers in my office! I spent about 2 weeks of misery trying to fix and then upgrade my office printers. To fulfill administrative paperwork, just about every small business out there needs to regularly print paperwork out. This newspaper is no different. It was a hard crash and burn until I got two different printers online: one is brand new and the other is a 15-year old LaserJet. The 15-year old LaserJet replaces a LaserJet printer that is nearly 22 years old. That oldest printer is still mechanically sound, but I can't find proper drivers for it to continue talking to my computers. (GRRRRR!)

Digging out! (VIDEO)

We just had another interesting weekend in the Bonanza Valley...as you either experienced in person or heard from other sources...last Friday night, the Bonanza Valley area received over 6 inches of wet, heavy snow. This created many headaches the next morning for anyone who had to get anywhere (our family had to get to Junior Olympics volleyball in Sauk Centre)...

Below, city staff in Brooten are shown clearing snow from main street on Saturday morning:


Time to get back to writing. The next newspaper issue will be published in the next 24 hours.

Speech at subsections

The B-B-E speech team recently competed at the sub-section meet this past Thursday. Senior Paige Klaphake earned a sub-section title! Exciting! The team now prepares for the Central Minnesota Conference meet, which is coming next week Tuesday (April 4) at the high school in Belgrade. The meet was rescheduled from its original date due to the weather.

To see the full list of area community events, click over to the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper: https://bit.ly/3zpfpAX.

Belgrade Easter Egg hunt

The Belgrade Easter egg hunt has been pushed back to 1:00 p.m. today at the same location (high school parking lot).

Our area received over 6 inches of snow last night.