Speech team shines in the Driftless Area, and a former Jaguar goes NJCAA dancing!

While the student body of B-B-E high school has been a giant disappointment in terms of the turnout provided for the B-B-E speech team, the students who are on the speech team have been having a remarkably strong season in spite of their small roster. Last weekend, the speech team had an overnight road trip to southeastern Minnesota's Driftless Area, to Chatfield high school. All members of the team who attended the meet placed fifth or better. Additional coverage of the team was published on page one this week of the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper.

More to come. Remember that tonight the boys' basketball team hosts Benson with a 7 p.m. playoff game to begin the Sub-Section 6A-South tournament.

**Update on Thursday afternoon...I just got the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper website updated. One of the added articles relates to the wrestling team. You can click over and read that while also taking in the end of the 172-pound state championship match on Saturday at Xcel Energy Center: https://shorturl.at/AILUW. Exciting times for our small but mighty wrestling program!

B-B-E Class of 2023 graduate Tiyana Schwinghammer and her Northland Community and Technical College Pioneers women's basketball team are going dancing! They are going dancing at the NJCAA National Tournament, which will be held March 13 to March 16 in Rochester, Minnesota. The Pioneers, 22-5 overall, lost 75-69 in overtime on Sunday in Coon Rapids to Minnesota West in the Region 13B championship. While the Lady Jays of Worthington earned the automatic bid to the NJCAAs, the Pioneers had to wait until yesterday to learn whether or not they received an at-large bid. They were in fact one of four teams who were given at-large bids to nationals, and they join eight region champions from across the United States from the NJCAA Division III ranks to earn national hardware.

The Northland Pioneers are the No. 5 seed in the tournament, and they open at 2 p.m. on Wednesday, March 13 against No. 12-seeded Nassau Community College of Long Island, New York. You can read more by clicking here: https://shorturl.at/ceDT3. The NCC Lions led all NJCAA Division III teams with 22 steals per game. Their leading scorer is Aiyana Hamilton, the No. 5 leading scorer in the nation. Northland, meanwhile, has the No. 7-ranked offense in the country at 73 points per game.

Northland freshman Emma Osborn leads the Pioneers at 16 points per game, while Tiyana Schwinghammer is second on the team with 14.6 points per game. Schwinghammer leads the team at 10.3 rebounds per game, which is the eighth-highest in the nation.

Here's a change of pace...as readers of this week's Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper know, last Thursday and Friday I was in Duluth with my wife on a small getaway. The big part of the trip included the Matt Rife comedy show at the Duluth Entertainment and Convention Center on Thursday night. Below is a video I shot the next day in the Canal Park business district in Duluth.

VIDEO:


Today I'm in the midst of preparing for a trip to Grand Forks tomorrow and Saturday, where I'll be taking in the F.I.R.S.T. Great Northern Regional robotics competition with B-B-E's team in action at the Alerus Center. Here's additional information on the competition: https://frc-events.firstinspires.org/2024/NDGF.