I'm going to lead off with the sad news here...
Mr. Keith Clementson has passed away. He was a genuinely warm-hearted person and one of my favorite teachers at B-B-E. You can see his obituary here: https://shorturl.at/bknR5. This news has weighed on me all day as I battle to get the newspaper ready for press. He was a great man who cared deeply for his students. His daughters Susanne and Dawn were Belgrade-Elrosa high school graduates, while his daughter Amy graduated from B-B-E high school in 1991.
In sports news...
For the first time in school history, the B-B-E Jaguars fastpitch team started their first week of preseason drills in the outdoors. The weather has been terrific today and yesterday! It reached a high of about 68 degrees on Monday. Today it climbed to about 63 degrees.
Here's a video from the tail end of practice tonight:
This year's Jaguars fastpitch team will have, for the first time since 2012, a C-squad/JV counterpart. Altogether, the Jaguars have 26 players in grades 8-12 that allows them to field two squads. This is exciting!
Here is overtime from the Region 13B junior college women's basketball championship game at Anoka Ramsey Community College on March 3:
B-B-E Class of 2023 graduate Tiyana Schwinghammer is averaging 14.6 points per game and 10.3 rebounds per game for the No. 2-ranked Pioneers, who are 22-5 going into the national tournament. You can read more on the Northland Community and Technical College's upcoming trip to the NJCAA national tournament by clicking here: https://rb.gy/fm25e4.
More to come...probably on Wednesday morning. I have a newspaper to get ready for the printing press tonight!
UPDATE late Tuesday night: I just returned from the site of a serious accident on County Road 8 west of Brooten. It appears that a truck was overturned along the shoulder of the inside of the first curve on CR8 west of town. Multiple Brooten fire trucks and first responders were on the scene. I'll learn more about this tomorrow morning. UPDATE on Wednesday: it was a pickup roller accident, and Pope County Sheriff's was the responding law enforcement agency handling it. Brooten Fire Department was also on scene.
