SIX wins to write about! Thursday, Friday and Saturday...

Tuesday morning...no time to get anything updated here or added...however I'd love to have you click over to the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper website and take in a short video clip from my time spent with Roger Sagedahl of Brooten last week...click here: https://rb.gy/c50j20. I hope to keep big errors out of this week's newspaper, such as what happened with a "double jump" of the large story about Sagedahl. Tonight is a huge, HUGE home wrestling triangular plus a home boys' basketball game.

Time to do some catching up! There's four wins to write about across our B-B-E wrestling and both basketball teams. I'm blogging right now from Cougar Sports Center on the campus of the University of Minnesota-Morris. My youngest daughter is part of their fastpitch softball clinic hosted by the Cougars women's fastpitch team. First is a pitching clinic, and after that comes a hitting clinic. The women's fastpitch program at UMM is led by Villard Class of 1990 graduate Heather Pennie-Roy, who was an All-State pitcher for the Osakis-Villard Black Nights and Waska Warriors teams before moving on to star at UMM in the early 1990s. It is an honor to see my daughter interact with and learn from college student-athletes who are furthering their education under the guidance and encouragement of their veteran coach, who has been a terrific role model for girls of all ages and backgrounds who utilize sports opportunities to better themselves. Coach Pennie-Roy has led the UMM fastpitch softball team since being named head coach for the 1999 season, when I was a junior at UMM. At UMM, she's the senior women's administrator and an assistant Athletic Director. She continues to hold the UMM record for lowest career ERA (2.97 across the 1991-1994 seasons).

Other noteworthy items from the UMM college website's biography of Pennie-Roy: an alumna of Minnesota Morris (Class of 1994), Pennie-Roy graduated after a prolific career where she was a standout on both the softball and volleyball teams, earning numerous All-Conference honors in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC) as a Division II student-athlete. In 1998, she spent 10 years leading both Cougar softball and volleyball programs, before moving to an assistant volleyball coach role in 2008 until the conclusion of the 2015 season. A three-time hall of fame honoree, Pennie-Roy is enshrined in the Minnesota Morris Athletics Hall of Fame (2014), Minnewaska Lakers Hall of Fame (2015), and the Minnesota High School Fastpitch Coaches Association Hall of Fame (2011).
We'll be taking more trips to Morris for other youth sports camps offered at UMM in the coming years.

Let's go back all the way to Thursday night, when the B-B-E Jaguars wrestling team traveled into Morrison County to Royalton high school. The Jaguars faced two teams for two Central Minnesota Conference duals. In the first dual, they defeated Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City 62-10 to clinch a share of the title. They followed that by defeating Royalton/Upsala 42-12 to clinch the CMC title outright for the fourth time in the past five seasons! Incredible!

The wrestlers had little time to rest, and on Friday night they traveled to Granite Falls for a quadrangular hosted at Yellow Medicine East high school. The Jaguars had two duals that night, facing both Quad County and No. 12-ranked Bertha-Hewitt/Parkers Prairie/Verndale. Against Quad County, which is a co-op from YME, MACCRAY and Renville County West high schools, the Jaguars won 69-0. The last dual was against BH/PP/V, and they took care of business with a 44-23 win that improved them to 15-2 overall in duals this season.

On Friday at YME, B-B-E senior Maximus Hanson became the school's fourth wrestler to earn over 200 career wins. Another big achievement for our athletic program to celebrate! Congratulations! He is a defending state champion with his eyes set on another state title next month.

The Jaguars conclude the regular season on Tuesday this week when they host a big quadrangular starting at 5 p.m. Teams coming to town include BOLD (2-17), Crosby-Ironton (3-14) and Long Prairie-Grey Eagle/Browerville (11-8). I'm not sure if the Jaguars will wrestle all three teams. By this point, some wrestlers are approaching their limit for match counts.

Shifting to basketball...
On Saturday at the former Eagle Valley elementary school in Clarissa, the B-B-E Jaguars boys' basketball team played in the first of a boys/girls doubleheader against Browerville. After taking a small 28-26 lead into halftime, the Jaguars overcame a tough, physical battle in the second half in a 63-56 win. The Tigers, who were a long-time rival with the Jaguars when they competed in Section 5A (through the 2020-2021 season), are currently the second-ranked team in Sub-Section 5A-West behind defending section champion Nevis. Browerville had won three straight coming into yesterday's game. The Jaguars are 11-7 overall and host Kimball next Tuesday.

I'll write on the final varsity event, the girls' basketball game in Clarissa, later tonight. The fastpitch clinic is nearly finished now for my daughter at UMM. Then we get to drive home in the fog!

...at Clarissa yesterday, the B-B-E Jaguars girls' basketball team got back in the win column as they work to get past two tough losses last Tuesday and then on Friday night. Facing fellow Section 5A rival Browerville, the Jaguars shot the lights out in the former Clarissa gymnasium with six first-half three-point shots. At the break, they led 53-20. The final score was 75-41 as they improved to 11-10 overall. The Tigers fall to 5-13.

Next for the girls' basketball team is a home contest on Thursday, February 8 against Eden Valley-Watkins. In the Sub-Section 5A-East standings, the Jaguars are currently ranked No. 3 behind Ogilvie (17-3) and Braham (16-4).