Volleyball takes the title at Crosby-Ironton (VIDEO, updates*)

We have our first 'Ship of the fall sports season! First of many, I hope!

At Crosby-Ironton today in a 14-team invitational, the B-B-E Jaguars volleyball team swept their way through four opponents to claim the title. Defeated by the Jaguars in order today were Barnum, Deer River, Verndale and Pine River-Backus. The Jaguars are now 10-4 overall heading into a non-conference sub-section border battle at Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg on Monday.

Verndale entered the tournament with an 8-1 overall record. PR-B, a state entrant last year after they won the Section 5A title, was 5-3 overall coming in with one of the three losses happening in the season opener against our Jaguars in five sets. The Tigers also lost to Verndale by a 3-2 margin at home on September 12.

Today's tournament has certainly raised my excitement for this team! There's a long road from now to the postseason, but this was a big day for the team that will put them on more radars as the season moves along.

Here's a video from the last day of August...it seems so long ago now...


The Jaguars held a 23-21 lead when the video starts at MACCRAY high school. The Jaguars later served game point with a 24-22 lead. Both teams then slugged it out for a full 20 seconds!! MACCRAY had a net violation to end the game with the Jaguars winning 25-22. They ultimately won 3-1 for a 2-0 start to the season.

Don't forget! Sunday, September 17 is a really, really big day in Jaguar Country! Two big, big events! The first starts at 9 a.m. down in Burbank Township and about 3 miles south of Georgeville. (Google it if you aren't sure where Georgeville is.) The fourth annual Rustic Flower Farms Harvest Festival, which is owned and operated by 1995 B-B-E graduate Mary (Walsh) Solbreken, lasts from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. This has been advertised in the last three Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper issues.

The other big, big event is the annual St. Donatus Catholic church fall ham and turkey dinner. This will be hosted at the Padua Pub and runs from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. in the Padua Pub reception hall. This has also been advertised in the last three newspaper issues.

It's taken some time, but I'm getting this album caught up...the fall sports photo galleries albums. My Summer 2023 sports photos albums are just about completed. The fall album can be found here: https://bonanzavalley.smugmug.com/B-B-E-Fall-Sports-2023.

If you haven't seen it yet, check out the progress made in downtown Brooten last week by clicking here (short link): https://tinyurl.com/4etc7zcs. It's also terribly exciting to see the progress made at the Lucky Shots Bowling Alley, formerly known as the Brooten Lanes. They have installed new pin droppers, and the bowling alley will be up and running next week!