And now it's Monday - tennis team heading to Yellow Medicine County + Fall Sports Show #2 (VIDEO)

The Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper's sports department has a long road trip ahead. Today, The Voice will head to Granite Falls to cover the non-conference match between our B-B-E Jaguars girls' tennis team and the Yellow Medicine East Sting. The match starts at 4:30 p.m.

If you want to see the agenda for tonight's Belgrade City Council meeting, click over to the newspaper's editor's blog at this link: https://shorturl.at/hamq9.

Finally, I got back in the saddle and recorded a fall sports show. It has been a full 13 days! The fall is moving too fast.

Here's The Voice sports department's Fall Sports Show No. 2:


Time to pack up for the 65-mile trip south.

Temperatures climbed into the upper 80s today. It was a crazy but necessary level of heat to help push the crops along. It's also been great for our family garden!

Girls' tennis Jaguars start season with a W (VIDEO)

The B-B-E Jaguars girls' tennis team battled from beginning to end and came away with a hard-fought 4-3 win last Friday against Long Prairie-Grey Eagle/Upsala-Swanville Area. The match was scheduled as the first of two for Friday, with Staples-Motley also coming to town to face both teams. For the second year in a row, however, rainfall nixed additional matches, so the Jaguars went home with the 1-0 record.

Here's Coach Kristine Bents speaking with her team in the post-match huddle in Long Prairie:


The Jaguars have a triangular in Melrose tomorrow (Thursday) starting at 2 p.m. The third team coming to town is Parkers Prairie.

Sounding the alarm

Greetings, Jaguar Country! I've got troubling news to report. I'm sick about it, and it's going to consume me this entire week. I'm stricken with a mix of anger and disgust at numerous players who quit the sport of girls' tennis at B-B-E. After speaking with the captains of this year's B-B-E Jaguars girls' tennis team this morning, it appears there's at least 3 so far, hopefully no more, who were on the team last year but are not going out for tennis this year.

I can ask what on earth is wrong with the players, but the bigger question in my mind is: what is wrong with their parents? What the heck? I am so disgusted right now! There is a scenario where too many girls quit, and the result is that they are unable to field a varsity team. The tennis program has been in existence at B-B-E since 1992. They have had lower numbers in some seasons since 1992, but they've always fielded a varsity team with a few athletes to spare for JV action.

For the players who are not quitters this fall, the captains practices for the girls' tennis team are being held this week at the high school courts from 8 to 10 a.m. They held practice this morning, and one glimmer of hope is that they have at least one new recruit to the team: seventh grader Harper Herickhoff. (GOOD JOB, Herickhoffs!)

That's all I've got to say right now.

...later, on Monday night: the outlook has improved! It's too early to tell if the outlook has "greatly" improved, but as of tonight, the odds that the tennis team can field a varsity squad is "high."

All of this is happening while the B-B-E Jaguars football team will not field a JV squad this fall. That's another entire issue that greatly stresses me. In case you were wondering: the varsity team's season opener is on Thursday, August 28 at home in Belgrade. Kickoff is at 7 p.m. that night against New York Mills.

...and now on Tuesday: it is looking like the tennis team will have a very nice group of seniors leading the way this fall. The captains and others on the team are working on getting other prospects to join. This is good! 

Remember: any time a student devotes to sports is time that they're not on their cell phones or on social media. THINK ABOUT THAT. 

What has been fascinating to me is that, amongst this personal angst I've had looking at the tennis numbers dip and rebound with in the span of 2 days, it's uncovered a bigger issue I see that has become well-known across the country. This stems from kids becoming detached from peers who are positive influences on their lives and instead devoting time and energy to negative influences in the form of peers who make bad decisions. I see it 100% in my own household. 

It is a never-ending battle parents in the technology age have to deal with.

This, that and that (VIDEOS, UPDATES*)

This blog post will serve as a catch-all for the next 24 hours or so. The next 72 hours are going to be flat out crazy. It begins with having a GOOD Tuesday, and that all hinges on being able to throw most of my energy and focus into publishing the October 17 issue of the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper.

Tonight, at the elementary cafeteria, the B-B-E Jaguars girls' tennis team held their season banquet and awards ceremony. In the last week, I fell a little behind on sports blogging for the tennis team. In fact, I think I still have video from the Section 6A playoffs in Litchfield that I haven't uploaded. Yikes! That was 11 days ago. In order to stay on track, I'll post a video that only has 2 views so far...this is from that day, October 3, in Litchfield.

Here's action at No. 1 and No. 4 singles in the Section 6A quarterfinals:


...and let's go back one day prior to that with the home playoff opener on October 2.

Here's action at No. 1 doubles with Ellan Fischer and Grace Berndt:


This year's tennis team fought with outstanding grit, determination and sportsmanship all season long. They improved week by week, which was shown by their performance at the Prairie Conference tournament on September 19 and then in the final week of September while leading into the postseason. This week's newspaper will feature additional coverage.

It's still shy of 10 p.m. tonight, and I need to get out and cover a bunch of vegetables in the garden. Based on the forecast, we'll see approximately 6 straight hours of freezing temperatures tonight as the mercury dips to as low as 29 degrees (between 3 and 8 a.m.). If I can get a few of our vegetable plots through the next couple of nights, the outlook says that we've got smooth sailing without frost until at least October 23!

And a Tuesday update...the blankets worked! We've got a great variety of vegetables that will live to another day.

Volleyball updates to follow here later on Tuesday night...
In the preliminary matches, the Jaguar JV and C-squad teams both won! The varsity match got underway at about 6:50 p.m.

Updates! the match is tied at one set apiece! We had two exciting games to start this border battle. The Bulldogs took game one 25-22 after the Jaguars held leads of 9-6, 10-4 and 12-6. In game two, the Jaguars won 25-20. ****More to come in a NEW blog post.

A (slight) delay to the newspapers! and TENNIS results

Oh, boy!

Today, the only way you can see the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper is to see a copy on the newsstand (RJ's Mini Mart gets stacked first, and then Coop's Corner and Belgrade Hardware later today). Due to what was about a 40-minute delay at the printing press, the annual U.S. Postal Service audit of the newspaper has been delayed from this afternoon until tomorrow morning.

What it means is that Post Office box holders in Brooten won't see The Voice until approximately 10 a.m. tomorrow (Thursday) instead of 3 p.m. today - which they're used to on Wednesdays.

The good news: Brooten rural routes will see the newspaper as usual on Thursday. However, Belgrade rural routes won't see it until Friday as well as Glenwood, New London and other nearby routes. There's really nothing earth-shattering in this week's Voice, so there's no harm to these delays. Life will go on. The auditing of newspapers is a key function of the USPS and ensures that what newspapers declare to the public is what is actually sent out as true "readership" each week. I appreciate the work of the U.S.P.S during a time when they continue to struggle will having full staffing. Locally, we're in pretty good shape - which we should all be grateful for! 

In playoff news...
Six members of the B-B-E Jaguars girls' tennis team are competing in the Section 6A tournament today at the Rogers Tennis Club. In singles action, I saw that Skylar Knight-DeWeerd defeated Sauk Centre's Emily Wojtanowitz in a hard-fought battle by scores of 6-4, 6-3. She then faced top-seeded Leah Maddock of Osakis and fell in straight sets.

Also in singles play, Hannah Hirman won her opener by defeating Amy Hernandez of LPGE/U-SA in a 6-0, 6-0 win. Hirman then fell in straight sets to Litchfield's Isla Dille.

In doubles action, B-B-E's duos of Ellan Fischer/Grace Berndt and Izzy Graham/Bree Thieschafer fell in quarterfinal-round match ups. That's all I have as of now. I haven't seen where the consolation brackets are, but I'll catch up on this later today.

Now it's time to get outside in the sunshine!!

On Thursday...the newspaper website has been updated: https://www.bonanzavalleyvoice.com. Time to get back outside! A high of about 83 degrees is coming!!

Tennis team season ends in quarterfinals (VIDEOS)

The B-B-E Jaguars girls' tennis team gave a terrific effort on the road today while facing No. 6-ranked Litchfield. The host Dragons entered the match as the top seed. The Jaguars fought hard up and down the lineup but were unable to overcome a superb Litchfield team. At one time, all three of B-B-E's doubles teams were playing at deuce. At No. 4 singles, Skylar Knight-DeWeerd held a 2-1 lead early in her second set. At No. 2 singles, Bree Thieschafer also had an early 2-1 lead in the second set but lost in straight sets.

Once the dust settled, the Dragons came away with a 7-0 win that puts them in the Section 6A Final Four round.

Here's a short video clip from No. 2 singles action today:



The tennis season is not over, however, as the top six players for the Jaguars will advance to the Section 6A individual tournament. Details to be announced at a later time.

Here's a short video clip featuring Hannah Hirman and Skylar Knight-DeWeerd battling at No. 1 and No. 4 singles, respectively...


Right now, I'm blogging from the Muddy Cow Bar and Grill in Litchfield! They have terrific food, and while we were getting our food, the Litchfield V.F.W. started a meat raffle. The tennis team is here getting supper. Soon it's wheels up for Maple Lake high school...31 miles away!

Section 6A girls' tennis playoff scores on October 3:
New London-Spicer 7, Sauk Centre 0
Osakis 7, Melrose Area 0
Minnewaska Area 7, St. John's Prep 0

Section 3A girls' tennis playoff scores on October 3:
Montevideo 7, MACCRAY/Renville County West 0
Benson/K-M-S 5, Lac qui Parle Valley/Dawson-Boyd 2
Morris Area/Chokio-Alberta-West Central Area 6, Pipestone Area 1
Luverne 5, Yellow Medicine East 2

**At Maple Lake, the Irish gained a 22 to 17 lead in game one. FINAL: B-B-E 25, Maple Lake 23.

Game 2...the Irish trailed 20-17 before making a big comeback to earn a 25-22 win. They scored the last 4 points of the set. This one is even so far! One set each. **Final scores and more in a new blog post.

Girls' tennis takes playoff opener! (VIDEO)

The B-B-E Jaguars girls' tennis team is advancing in the Section 6A playoffs thanks to a win today over Long Prairie-Grey Eagle/Upsala-Swanville Area. The Jaguars and Thunder met on our home courts on a summer-like day with temperatures reaching into the upper 70s with full sunshine.

Here's action at No. 1 doubles today:


Final score: B-B-E 6, LPGE/USA 1. The Jaguars swept doubles play while winning three of the four singles matches. Now 5-11 overall, they travel to No. 6-ranked and top-seeded Litchfield tomorrow (Thursday) for the Section 6A quarterfinals. Action begins at Litchfield high school at 4 p.m.

Individual results:
No. 1 singles - Hannah Hirman lost 3-6, 0-6.
No. 2 singles - Bree Thieschafer won 6-0, 6-0.
No. 3 singles - Izzy Graham won 6-4, 7-6 (7-1)
No. 4 singles - Skylar Knight-DeWeerd won 6-2, 6-1.
No. 1 doubles - Ellan Fischer / Grace Berndt won 6-4, 6-3.
No. 2 doubles - Kylie Zins / Hannah Wurm won 6-1, 6-0.
No. 3 doubles - Kwynn Quade / Olive Olson won 6-0, 6-0.

This win sets up Thursday as a HUGE day! The varsity tennis team plays in Litchfield, and the varsity volleyball team (C-JV-varsity) plays a little farther east at Maple Lake high school.

Home cooking for Jaguar tennis playoffs + volleyball wins (Updated)

This is exciting news!

With a flurry of late-season wins last week, the B-B-E Jaguars girls' tennis team has earned a home playoff match for the play-in round of the Section 6A tournament. They take a 4-11 record into the playoffs, which start on Wednesday this week (October 2) on the home courts. The No. 8-seeded Jaguars host No. 9-seeded Long Prairie-Grey Eagle/Upsala-Swanville Area at 3 p.m. on Wednesday. The winner moves on to the Section 6A quarterfinal round, which brings with it a trip to top-seeded Litchfield on Thursday, October 3. That quarterfinal match would start at 4 p.m. at Litchfield high school.

I'm just a tiny bit frustrated that the MSHSL hasn't updated their website yet...I looked on Monday night, and no updating for Section 6A. Many other sections are posted. Once I get more complete information, I'll get this blog post updated.

Section 6A girls' tennis seedings for the 2024 playoffs:
1. Litchfield (ranked No. 6 in Class 1A)
2. Minnewaska Area
3. Osakis
4. New London-Spicer
5. Sauk Centre
6. Melrose Area
7. St. John's Prep
8. B-B-E
9. LPGE/U-SA

On a brighter note...I'm going through over 1,300 Homecoming week photos. It is crazy! I also have a mountain of Hall of Fame ceremony video to go through, but that's going to take a couple of weeks. We had a very special induction ceremony on Saturday night at Olson Auditorium.

In weather-related news...it's not even 9 p.m. and we've already dipped below 60 degrees outside. Currently, as of 20:44, I see 56 degrees on the mercury. The temperature is plummeting! It is supposed to drop all the way down to 42 degrees by roughly 7 a.m.!! Wow! It got as hot as about 85 degrees on both Saturday and Sunday. Today, Monday, we reached the upper 70s. It felt good! Now we are in fall weather for about a day and a half. On Wednesday, we're supposed to reach a high of 77 degrees with full sunshine. That is gonna be great! Our family garden is going to be running strong far into October.

Tuesday morning update...
The B-B-E Jaguars volleyball team won an important road match by defeating Hancock 3-0 last night. The Owls are in Sub-Section 6A-South with our Jaguars, who are now 19-2 overall. Game scores at Hancock were 25-13, 25-21, 25-15. As a team, the Jaguars hit at just under 28 percent. Next: the Jaguars resume Central Minnesota Conference action with a trip to Maple Lake this Thursday night. The Irish have a great team this fall and are currently 13-5 overall and 3-1 in the CMC, just one game out of first place.

Homecoming Day IV! Another exciting day underway - and tennis wins!

We're having another incredible day of Homecoming excitement in Jaguar Country!

At Clara City tonight vs. MACCRAY/Renville County West in their last regular season match, the B-B-E Jaguars girls' tennis team earned a convincing 5-2 win over the Wolverines. I know the Jaguars had wins at No. 2 singles (Bree Thieschafer in straight sets) plus No. 3 doubles (Olive Olson and Hannah Wurm). This improves their overall record to 4-11 as they prepare for the Section 6A playoffs. It's also their best regular season record since 2021! Playoff seeding takes place on Monday, so the Jaguars won't know what the playoff road looks like until that night. Section 6A includes 9 teams, and currently, the Jaguars sit in the No. 7 or No. 8 range.

Other tennis wins against MACCRAY/RCW came at No. 1 singles (Hannah Hirman), No. 3 singles (Izzy Graham) plus No. 1 doubles (Grace Berndt and Ellan Fischer).

I also heard that the 7th/8th grade junior high football Jaguars lost a heartbreaker to Long Prairie-Grey Eagle by a 14-12 score in double overtime. A crazy tough loss, but they played a great game. Coach Funk reported that the Jaguars trailed 6-0 with a minute to go in regulation. They tied it with a 70-yard touchdown pass to force the first overtime.

More to come after tonight's varsity volleyball match. Our Jaguars are hosting Eden Valley-Watkins, who enter the night with a 3-10 record. They are ranked No. 4 as of this week in Sub-Section 3AA-North.

Volleyball update...the Jaguars and Eagles are heading into game four. The Jaguars hold a 2-1 set lead. **Final scores in a new blog post.

Tennis on a win streak! And Homecoming is underway (VIDEO)

The B-B-E Jaguars girls' tennis team has a two-match winning streak to their credit and three wins overall after today's action. On the home courts this afternoon/evening, the Jaguars clawed out a 4-3 border battle win against Melrose Area. They followed that with an exciting 5-2 win over Long Prairie-Grey Eagle/Upsala-Swanville Area in Prairie Conference action.

B-B-E 4, Melrose Area 3...
This was a HUGE win! The Dutchmen entered today's match with six wins overall. I do not recall the last time B-B-E has defeated Melrose Area in girls' tennis. It has been a few years. Strong singles play led the Jaguars in today's close win over the Dutchmen. At No. 2 singles, Bree Thieschafer won a thriller by scores of 7-5 (8-6 tiebreaker), 7-5. Izzy Graham picked up a straight set win at No. 3 singles by scores of 6-4, 6-1. At No. 4 singles, Skylar Knight-DeWeerd put up zeroes with a 6-0, 6-0 win. At doubles play, No. 1 doubles players Ellan Fischer and Grace Berndt won in three sets by scores of 6-7 (2-7), 6-3, 10-7. How about that!

Next: the Jaguars (3-10 overall, 1-3 Prairie) have Staff Appreciation Day with a third straight home match tomorrow against Parkers Prairie. Varsity action starts at 4 p.m., and JV players will also compete against the Panthers. It is also a Prairie Conference dual.

In football news...
Tonight in a home game, the B-B-E Jaguars JV football team won a close battle by a score of 24-18 over Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City. The Jaguars led 12-6 early and stayed strong through the final horn. This win evens their record at 1-1 overall.

This is an exciting day! Now it's time to prepare for Homecoming coronation!

And here's a video featuring the socializing taking place after coronation was held tonight:


You can catch up on the Homecoming coronation by clicking over to the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper website: https://shorturl.at/cD2kB. Additional video is uploading. **Due to technical difficulties, the coronation video won't be posted until Tuesday morning.

For Tuesday's activities...a grill-out will take place for high school students, which is exciting! The weather will be terrific for that. The 7th/8th grade volleyball teams travel to Eden Valley-Watkins. Taylor Nelson with the B-B-E/Paynesville Area cross country team competes at Koronis Hills in Paynesville. The tennis schedule was posted earlier in this blog post.

And! The 9th annual Color FUND Run is on Wednesday at 1 p.m. at the high school athletic complex.

Homecoming week is set to begin! (VIDEOS)

The hectic and exciting times of B-B-E Homecoming is soon upon us. It's a jam-packed week beginning with the B-B-E Jaguars girls' tennis team hosting a double-dual tomorrow (Monday) afternoon. Teams coming to town are Melrose Area and Long Prairie-Grey Eagle. The Melrose Area vs. B-B-E dual begins at 12:30 p.m. at the high school courts. For the LP-GE dual, that should begin at about 3 p.m., and that will be a Prairie Conference match.

Here's Bree Thieschafer battling at No. 2 singles in the Prairie Conference tournament in Osakis last Thursday:


Bree Thieschafer lost a close match in that semifinal, but she then defeated a player from St. John's Prep to earn the third-place medal.

Also on Monday! The JV Jaguars football team hosts Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City with a 4 p.m. kickoff. The 7th/8th grade Jaguar volleyball teams travel to Osakis with a start time of 4 p.m. To conclude the day, the Homecoming Coronation is set for 7 p.m. tomorrow night at Olson Auditorium.

The girls' tennis team hosts Parkers Prairie on Tuesday in Prairie Conference action starting at 4 p.m. with varsity matches to follow with JV matches.

Here's action from late in the first quarter in Grove City during Friday Night Lights IV:


Here's action from early in the second quarter in Grove City:


Now it's time to get out and finish digging our last load of potatoes at the R.D. Offutt potato dig south of Brooten.

Jaguar tennis grinds out wins at conference tournament (VIDEOS*)

The B-B-E Jaguars girls' tennis team has been fighting for and earning wins at the Prairie Conference tournament in Osakis today.

At No. 3 singles, senior Izzy Graham earned a tough win in the third-place match. At No. 3 doubles, freshman Hannah Wurm and eighth grader Olive Olson battled for a win in their third-place match in straight sets by scores of 6-4 and 7-5. At No. 4 singles, Skylar Knight-DeWeerd also earned third place with a win against at St. John's Prep player.

I'm proud of all the student athletes today at Osakis. The sun and heat became a factor in the second matches of the day. For teams/individuals who won at least one match, they played three matches today, making it essentially a quadrangular for them. The high reached past 80 degrees, which made for a hot day like we've seen many of this fall.

Here's a video from No. 3 singles action today in Osakis:


*Here's a video added late Thursday night featuring action at No. 1 doubles today in Osakis:


UPDATE: at No. 2 singles, senior Bree Thiescafer also finished with a win to take third place in the conference tournament today. Great job!

More to come! My laptop battery is low...busy and hectic afternoon with the Brooten Farmers Market coming at 4 o'clock! Our family garden is anchoring much of the produce available for sale. (It runs 4 to 7 p.m. by the way!) Then we jump straight into the home volleyball match against Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City. No rest for the wicked as I like to say!

Volleyball update...this evening featured Parents Night for the C, JV and varsity squads before the varsity team squared off with Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City. Volleyball coverage will be posted after 21:00 tonight in a new blog post.

Jaguars sweep Wolverines! Tennis, football yet to come (UPDATES!)

The B-B-E Jaguars volleyball team swept MACCRAY today to improve to 3-0 on the season. Game scores were 25-19, 25-22, 25-23. It was the first of three varsity events at the high school campus. As a team, the Jaguars had a 19 percent hitting mark and were led by 17 kills by junior Kacey Fischer. The Wolverines went 21-11 overall last year and have two of the area's top hitters (Emma Thein and Brielle Janssen). Janssen was also an All-State pick last year. They fall to 2-1 with the loss.

Here's a video featuring action in the middle of game three today against MACCRAY:


The B-B-E Jaguars girls' tennis team is hosting Sauk Centre with JV and varsity action (varsity first) starting at 4:30 p.m.

Finally, the B-B-E Jaguars football team begins their season with a home game at 7 p.m. against Bagley. Their game will be aired on Smooth Magic 107 FM of Glenwood (107.1) and streamed online: https://www.kmgk1071.com.

Varsity football updates...
In the first quarter, the Jaguars racked up a 14-0 lead in the first five minutes of the game. They expanded that lead to 22-0 before the second quarter. Late in the second quarter, after Bagley had shown some life on offense, they punched in a fourth touchdown and added a two-point conversion (the third of the game) for a 30-0 lead. That final score came in the final minute.

So for the record! Halftime: B-B-E 30, Bagley 0. I'll get more up later tonight! Time to get back in the stadium...and get our quiet crowd revved up. They were completely and utterly dead in the first half, which is unacceptable!

Tennis battles hard in loss to Benson/K-M-S (VIDEOS)

In a border battle against Benson/Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg on Friday, the B-B-E Jaguars girls' tennis team had many bright spots throughout the match in a 5-2 loss. The Jaguars, now 1-2 overall, earned wins at No. 2 singles (Izzy Graham) and No. 2 doubles (Skylar Knight-DeWeerd and Arlee Tensen).

Here's action at No. 2 singles on Friday morning:


Next: the Jaguars travel to Osakis on Tuesday next week for a Prairie Conference match. It will also be the second day of school, so the team will miss the afternoon classes with the match starting at 2 p.m.

The next week is big for Jaguar Country! The remaining three varsity sports get their seasons underway. The volleyball opener is Tuesday at home, the football opener is Friday at home, and the boys' cross country opener is in Maple Lake on Friday.

Here's a video from the end of football practice on Friday:


Big events are coming locally with the Pope County Farm Bureau Breakfast on the Farm plus the Sunburg Trolls Classic Car and Truck show (in Sunburg). Both events take place on Labor Day. The Breakfast on the Farm event will be held at the Anderson Farm roughly one mile west of Belgrade on County Road 19. Look for additional Breakfast on the Farm coverage ahead of that day in the August 29 issue of the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper.

**Click here...on the following link...to see a Breakfast on the Farm article on the Bonanza Valley Voice website: https://shorturl.at/zKEYN.

I finally have the majority (99% or more) of my Belgrade August Fest pictures uploaded to the newspaper's SmugMug online gallery. You can see those August Fest picture folders and more by clicking here: https://bonanzavalley.smugmug.com/2024-B-B-EBonanza-Valley-area-events. At my latest count, I have 627 pictures from the three days of Belgrade's August Fest.

Home cooking for tennis! (VIDEOS)

The B-B-E Jaguars girls' tennis team hosts Pierz today in a non-conference match. The action begins at 4 p.m., when they put their 1-0 record on the line against the traditionally-strong Pioneers, who play in the Granite Ridge Conference.

The Jaguars travel to Melrose on Thursday this week.

Here's a video from Long Prairie on Friday:


Here's a video from yesterday at the Brooten city park:


They had a wonderful turnout of about 120 people for worship! The churches of Big Grove/Crow River/Grace Lutheran and West Lake Johanna and Trinity Lutheran of Brooten hosted the event.

Jaguar tennis wins opener

The B-B-E Jaguars girls' tennis team won their season opener against Long Prairie-Grey Eagle/Upsala-Swanville Area on Friday morning. I'm still compiling all the details of the win, but the team score was 6-1. The Jaguars swept the doubles matches and earned wins at No. 2, No. 3 and No. 4 singles.

The triangular ended prematurely, however, as heavy rain came up on LP-GE high school about 20 minutes after the match between B-B-E and Staples-Motley started. Coaches decided to move into a rain delay, but just as it appeared the rain was subsiding, the rain picked up and soaked the courts. Soon after that, the Jaguars were at Long Prairie's Subway getting lunch as the rain continued. I didn't see what Brooten got for rain.

It was an odd morning with a light rain and mist coming down off and on during the drive to Long Prairie and during the match. Helping out was the fact that the courts were dry to begin with, as Long Prairie had not received rain earlier in the morning. It was frustrating to see the rain stop the action, as the forecast said "Cloudy and 15 percent chance of rain"! Dang it!

Next: the Jaguars host Pierz on Monday in a non-conference match. For the JV Jaguars, they travel to Pierz for their first competition of the season. Also exciting is that the JV team will pick up at least two additional players on Tuesday. (Hopefully four!) Hope still remains that the total roster will expand to 20 or more players. Fingers crossed.

This has been quite the week

Everything in a nut shell right now...

Unofficially, the B-B-E Jaguars football team has a 9th-12th roster of 34 guys this fall. This number sounds low, but it's a very good number considering the team graduated 12 seniors off of last year's record-setting 11-1 state semifinalist squad. The current 9th grade class has a decent turnout and good talent. The 10th grade is where the program really thins out, however, making the season fall squarely on the shoulders of the Class of 2024 and 2025 football players. As of last count, they have 10 seniors and 12 juniors. I'm only aware of one sophomore (quarterback Aiden Mueller). This means there are roughly 11 freshmen on the team. Due to the crazy nature of this week, I have been unable to catch up with Coach Moscho. I plan to do that next week.

The football opener is on Friday, August 30 at home against Bagley.

What has led me to totally re-arrange my Thursday and Friday this week revolves around the tennis program...this year's B-B-E Jaguars girls' tennis team is working hard to overcome the need to fill three open starting varsity positions. The varsity squad opens the season tomorrow at Long Prairie starting at 9 a.m. At the conclusion of the team's practice this morning, I learned that my 8th grade daughter was named as one of the 10 varsity starters (for tomorrow's action). This is news we were not expecting. It is great news - of course! I had not planned on making the trip to Long Prairie, but now that road trip is a "go" with wheels up at 8 a.m. sharp!

The tennis team continues recruiting to expand its overall roster. One exciting part to the team is that they have five seniors, which you can read about in this week's Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper. They are currently hoping for two additional athletes to join next week, which would bump turnout to 19 or 20. Fingers crossed!

That's all I've got for tonight. I have to get to updating the Bonanza Valley Voice website: http://www.bonanzavalleyvoice.com.

B-B-E's Fall Sports preseason begins!

While it's still "full bore" summer outside, today marks the first day of preseason practices for the fall sports of the B-B-E Jaguars in football, cross country, girls' tennis and volleyball.

Amateur baseball playoff update...
In Region 15C action yesterday, Farming defeated the Cold Spring Rockies 6-5 to clinch the No. 2 seed to the state tournament. The Flames had an incredible weekend that included a 5-4 win over St. Martin on Saturday afternoon. They followed that with an 8-4 win over Richmond earlier yesterday.

Watkins, who hosted the tournament, won the region title and has a first-round bye in Class C's 48-team state tournament field. The third seed went to Cold Spring, and the No. 4 seed was Richmond. Farming opens "state" in Green Isle on Saturday, August 17 at 11 a.m. against Maple Lake. Richmond opens state that same day in Green Isle at 6:30 p.m.

Girls' tennis cancer night (VIDEOS)

Today we have a big event on deck with the B-B-E Jaguars girls' tennis team hosting MACCRAY on cancer night. The team lineup will be introduced at about 3:45 p.m. All of us in Jaguar Country are rallying behind B-B-E Class of 2006 graduate Tiffany Breitbach, who is undergoing breast cancer treatments. She has coached volleyball at various levels as well as junior high fastpitch softball.

And an update later in the evening...MACCRAY is the alma mater for girls' tennis head coach Katie Hanna. It was truly, truly wonderful to see the MACCRAY tennis players wearing the same Cancer Night tshirts that Jaguar fans and players were wearing. Through Coach Hanna's connections at MACCRAY, they also ordered the same shirts. That was a really, really terrific gesture by MACCRAY. Such outstanding sportsmanship of the highest level.

Let's start praying for good weather for sure next Wednesday, October 4!!! The forecast does not look good right now for the B-B-E Color Fund Run. Currently the forecast calls for a high of 63 degrees with 50 percent chance of rain and wind between 10 and 20 miles an hour.

Here's Presley Detloff battling in one of her Prairie Conference tournament matches held one week ago in Osakis:


Presley Detloff is the lone senior on this year's tennis team. She is a remarkably dedicated three-sport student athlete at B-B-E. You can read more about her in this week's newspaper, where the Bonanza Valley Voice has the first Jaguar Spotlight of the 2023-2024 school year.

Also tonight...the B-B-E Jaguars volleyball team gets back into Central Minnesota Conference play with a road trip to Eden Valley-Watkins. All three varsity-level squads (A, B, C teams) attended the tennis team's cancer night in a show of solidarity along with all grades 9-12 football players. It was one of the most impressive sights I have seen in over 20 years of sports reporting. I could not be prouder.

Here's a video from last Friday night in the third quarter of Friday Night Lights IV!


B-B-E's second half defense that night is what they will need across all four quarters of tomorrow night's game in Swanville. U/SA is currently ranked No. 9 in the latest Class 1A state rankings, and they are 4-0 after defeating Browerville 36-14 last week. The Patriots racked up 232 rushing yards on the night with 141 yards on 16 carries coming from Carter Natvig. Their defense held the Tigers to 173 total yards, 151 on the ground and 22 in the air. U/SA's Jack Primus earned two interceptions. U/SA totaled 370 yards of offense with quarterback Frankie Meagher going 6-of-16 for 138 yards with two touchdowns. Primus was his top target with 4 catches for 127 yards.

I'll get more posted on this blog post and also a new blog post to follow after the volleyball match has concluded at EV-W high school. I've been getting a few more fall sports albums added to the Bonanza Valley Voice SmugMug photo gallery. You can find that by clicking here: https://bonanzavalley.smugmug.com/B-B-E-Fall-Sports-2023.

This blog post is a wrap shortly after 9 o'clock tonight. What you see is what you get. A new post is coming that features more tennis notes plus volleyball.

Today is an interesting day! And...tennis (VIDEO)

Today is a very intriguing day in the Bonanza Valley area. We are very likely experiencing our last day above 80 degrees until next spring! It could be May of 2024 before we get as warm as we will today. The high is predicted to top out at about 83 degrees. Tomorrow they backed off the high from 79 degrees down to 76 degrees. Then it appears the heat really backs off as the fall becomes much more fall-like.

Thursday morning...I made the short trek north to Osakis high school. It is brutal to drive on $4 a gallon gas...absolutely brutal. This economy is absolutely terrible right now, but I have to keep my hopes up. I am excited to cover part of the Prairie Conference girls' tennis tournament. Stay tuned for updates!

Update from Osakis: B-B-E's No. 3 doubles team of Arlee Tensen and Grace Berndt will play for a Prairie Conference title this afternoon. They won their semifinal match 6-2, 7-6 (7-2) against a dubs team from Long Prairie-Grey Eagle/Upsala-Swanville Area. Overall, the B-B-E Jaguars girls' tennis team performed well throughout the morning.

Here's video from No. 3 doubles today in Osakis:


The No. 3 doubles squad of Arlee Tensen and Grace Berndt trailed 3-2 in the second set before winning two straight points to go up 4-3. They fell into a 6-6 tie to force a set tiebreaker, which they won by a 7-2 score to advance to their bracket's championship match. A more complete set of results will be posted in a new blog post tonight that will also feature volleyball results from Grove City.

Later today I am quite excited for the Brooten Farmer's Market! If you haven't stopped by there yet this season, please do so! It lasts from 4 to 7 p.m. at the Brooten city park. Come one, come all!