Girls' basketball sweeps EV-W, Pirouettes dance team sweeps at home invitational (VIDEOS)

In their best night of the season so far, the B-B-E/Paynesville Pirouettes dance team earned a clean sweep in 3 categories tonight in their home invitational. The Pirouettes took first place in JV jazz, varsity jazz and varsity kick. This gives them tremendous momentum heading into the Camden Conference championships, which is this Friday at Yellow Medicine East high school in Granite Falls.

Here's a video featuring the awards ceremony from tonight:


The Section 2A dance meet is at New London-Spicer on Saturday, February 7.

Additional dance team coverage is in the upcoming issue of the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper, which goes to press before sunrise tomorrow!

In basketball news...
Also in home action tonight, the B-B-E Jaguars girls' basketball team completed a season sweep over Central Minnesota Conference rival Eden Valley-Watkins with a 69-51 win.

The Jaguars (12-4) had balanced scoring and were led by Tiffany Dingmann's 15 points, all on 5 made three-point shots. Also in double figures were Macey Roering (12), Teagan Dingmann (10), Kacey Fischer (14) and Mya Worms (10). In the CMC, the Jaguars improve to 7-0 and continue their hold on first place alone.

Here's a video featuring the final seconds of the game:


At Kimball tonight, Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City's girls' basketball team lost 61-47 to fall to 2-5 in the CMC. The Cubs improve to 6-1 and remain just one game out of first place.

In their CMC game tonight, I heard the B-B-E Jaguars boys' basketball team defeated Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City. The final score was 85-65. That's all I've got for this blog post, as it's time to get the newspaper ready for press. The blog post will be vastly revamped tomomorrow. Good night.

Next for the boys' basketball team: the Jaguars (6-7) host a strong Benson team on Thursday this week. The Braves are 13-0 overall and hold first place alone in the Prairie Conference. They are the No. 4-ranked team in the Section 6A QRF standings. The Jaguars sit at No. 11 out of 22 teams.

Central MN Conference girls' basketball scores on January 20:
Holdingford 59, Paynesville Area 53
Royalton 59, Maple Lake 24
Kimball Area 61, Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City 47

Area boys' basketball scores on January 20:
Morris Area/Chokio-Alberta 80, Eden Valley-Watkins 56
Browerville 69, Long Prairie-Grey Eagle 62
Montevideo 66, Melrose Area 46
Kimball Area 63 Milaca 50
Minnewaska Area 64, Sauk Centre 53
Benson 70, Osakis 68
West Central Area 73, BOLD 39
Hancock 69, Rothsay 57
Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg 90, Minneota 47
Hillcrest Lutheran Academy 95, Parkers Prairie 45
Underwood 52, Border West 41

Home dance competition is tonight

The B-B-E/Paynesville Pirouettes dance team will host their home invitational tonight, Tuesday, January 20 at the elementary school in Brooten. Doors open at 4 p.m. for tickets, and gymnasium doors open at 5:30 for spectators. The National Anthem will be played at 5:55 p.m. with the invitational performances to follow. Teams invited include Sauk Centre, Litchfield, Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg and Canby/Minneota.

Also tonight...and unfortunately, I'll have to miss it...the Belgrade city council meets at 6 p.m. in a regular meeting. A summary of the meeting agenda has been posted at the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper's editor's blog: BelgradeCityCouncilagenda.

HALFTIME in Belgrade: the girls' basketball team has a 32-27 lead over EV-W. The five B-B-E starters all have between 5 and 8 points at the break. More to come later tonight in a new blog post.

Two Pirouettes earn All-Camden honors, Winter Sports Show resumes (VIDEOS)

Note: late on Saturday night, an area scoreboard will be added to this blog post from Friday night action. Then! A new blog post will be added much later tonight that talks about today's (Saturday) action!

At the Camden Conference championships tonight at Renville County West high school, senior Emily Houk and junior Taya Ogdahl earned all-conference honors for the B-B-E/Paynesville Pirouettes dance team. They competed tonight in the varsity jazz division. In that division, Lac qui Parle Valley/Dawson-Boyd won the Camden title. In the kick division, Yellow Medicine East took first place.

At home, the B-B-E Jaguars boys' basketball team fell 78-39 to visiting Holdingford. From field goal range, the Jaguars shot 36 percent compared to 50 percent by the Huskers. Also a factor in the game: Holdingford launched 64 field goals compared to B-B-E putting up 49 attempts. Holdingford had 31 rebounds in the game, while the Jaguars had 18. Next: the Jaguars travel to Kimball Area next Tuesday for another Central Minnesota Conference game.

Holdingford improved to 14-2 overall, and the Huskers are 6-1 in the CMC in a first-place tie with Kimball Area and Paynesville Area.

Here's my latest installment of a winter sports show:


Below is a video featuring what I was talking about at the dance competition at RCW tonight.

Here's the Lac qui Parle Valley/Dawson-Boyd Shadows in the kick division:


That's all I've got for tonight. It's an early rise on Saturday, as the 5th grade Class of 2032 girls' basketball Jaguars host Highway 55 league games at the elementary school beginning at 8 a.m.!

Central MN Conference girls' basketball scores on January 24:
Royalton 63, Holdingford 42
Kimball Area 69, Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City 34
Paynesville Area 52, Eden Valley-Watkins 50

Area boys' basketball scores on January 24:
Paynesville Area 76, Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg 57
Henning 63, Bertha-Hewitt 33
Pierz 64, Royalton 57
Morris Area/Chokio-Alberta 56, Montevideo 45
Minnewaska Area 74, Eden Valley-Watkins 58
Browerville 76, Long Prairie-Grey Eagle 46
Parkers Prairie 55, Ashby 47
Border West 65, Rothsay 46
Hancock 67, Brandon-Evansville 65
West Central Area 62, Melrose Area 51
Willmar 63, Zimmerman 59
Sauk Centre 56, BOLD 43
Rockford Area 69, New London-Spicer 55
MACCRAY 72, Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City 67

Area girls' basketball scores on January 24:
Walker-Hackensack-Akeley 75, Pine River-Backus 44
Sauk Centre 69, BOLD 44
Maple Lake 49, Mille Lacs 33
Albany 47, Little Falls 45

Pirouettes shine again - now FIVE for FIVE! plus Winter Sports Show No. 5 (VIDEOS**)

Today, the B-B-E/Paynesville Pirouettes dance team made it an unprecedented five straight for competitions where they've hauled home hardware. Both the JV kick (first place) and JV jazz (second place) squads were outstanding in the Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City Invitational. Next for the dance team is their home competition next Thursday, January 16 - details TBA.

Here's a video featuring the JV Kick squad at Alexandria one week ago:


In a tough field out of 7 teams in Alexandria, the JV Kick Pirouettes earned a second-place trophy.

More to come. After a lengthy break from recording them, I'm back in the swing of things and am preparing a new sports podcast for tonight.

**And fresh from the sports department's recording studio! Here it is:


As I stated multiple times in the video...repeat after me! Be a good teammate. Be a good teammate. Be a good teammate!

And circling back to last night in girls' basketball action...

Here's part of the starter introductions last night in Grove City, plus the tip-off and first few minutes of the game:


Tomorrow, the 5th grade girls' basketball team is heading to Benson for a tournament. No rest for the restless!

Area girls' basketball scores on January 11:
Mountain Iron-Buhl 77, Braham 65
Hillcrest Lutheran Academy 57, Park Christian 48
Sauk Centre 67, Montevideo 38
Cass Lake-Bena 73, Perham 63
Wabasso 57, Red Rock Central 47
Willmar 71, Mound Westonka 42

Area boys' basketball scores on January 11:
West Central Area 60, Ada-Borup West 56
Redwood Valley 84, Delano 76
Hutchinson 54, Worthington 53
Cherry 78, Morris Area/Chokio-Alberta 64
Nevis 63, Henning 57
Park Christian 55, Hillcrest Lutheran Academy 49
BOLD 60, Buffalo Lake-Hector-Stewart 22

Pirouettes make it 4-for-4! Unprecedented! (VIDEO)

The B-B-E/Paynesville Pirouettes dance team continues to make program history as they earned hardware earlier today at the Alexandria Cardinal Invitational. In a field of 7 teams, the Pirouettes JV Kick team took second place. This makes it four in a row for competitions where they have hauled home a team trophy!

In both kick divisions at Alexandria, Crosby-Ironton won the JV and varsity titles.

Here's video of the JV Jazz squad today in Alexandria:


Next: the dance team travels to the Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City Invitational on Saturday, January 11.

Dance team success, and Tuesday preparations! (VIDEOS)

Well, I'll be spending half the night tonight preparing for tomorrow. Since I know I don't have a long trip to away sporting events for the next couple of days, I can safely burn some midnight oil! This is required now to get through the week.

First, I am finally caught up with uploading video from the past weekend. It was a busy and successful weekend that we can be proud of. A post-dance competition interview with Pirouettes assistant coach Morgan Schwinghammer is posted below here. The B-B-E/Paynesville dance team is preparing this week for the Albany Invitational, which is on Saturday, December 14.

Here's Coach Schwinghammer talking about her JV kick squad's success:


I have greatly enjoyed being able to take in the season opener for the dance team for the past three seasons. It is an honor and a privilege! I switch gears over to basketball tomorrow with two home events: the girls host Kimball Area for the conference opener, and the boys host Benson.

Let's get into the Christmas spirit with this video!


The youth of Trinity/West Lake Johanna Lutheran churches performed Christmas carols during a live Christmas Nativity scene as part of the family-friendly Brooten Santa Day activities on Saturday. The caroling took place at the Trinity Lutheran parking lot.

UPDATE on Tuesday...radio coverage: Smooth Magic 107 FM will be covering the boys' basketball game in Brooten. Brady will also cover Thursday's girls' basketball game in Belgrade against Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg. **And the girls game is being carried by 106.5 FM the Train of Norway Lake-Sunburg.

Halftime: in Brooten, the boys have a 37 to 31 lead over Benson. Also, the girls are ahead of Kimball 28-20.

Pirouettes terrific at Minnewaska, bring back hardware (VIDEO added*)

It was an exciting awards ceremony tonight at Minnewaska Area, as the B-B-E/Paynesville Pirouettes dance team hauled in a second-place trophy in the JV Kick division. In first place was Montevideo, while the Pirouettes defeated four other teams: Sauk Centre, Minnewaska Area, Foley and Alexandria.

**Here's an exciting video clip from Minnewaska tonight:


Before dropping back into high school sports coverage, I have some college sports news to post. Exciting! The SCSU Huskies volleyball team is heading to the NCAA Sweet 16! The Huskies defeated Concordia-St. Paul tonight by a 3-1 score in the NCAA D-II Round of 32 at Halenbeck Hall. B-B-E Class of 2022 graduate Emily Kern is a junior defensive specialist on the team. They compete in the NCAA Central Region championship tomorrow at Halenbeck Hall.

Game scores for SCSU were 23-25, 25-15, 25-16, 25-20. The Huskies are 29-2 overall.

*Saturday update: the girls basketball team defeated Brandon-Evansville 59-50 today to even their record at 2-2 overall. A new blog post will be added much later tonight. This has been an extremely busy day with Brooten Santa Day - which was wildly successful!!!

 

Pirouettes conclude season at section meet (UPDATES)

On Monday night, February 12, I took a little time to add speech team coverage after the school board meeting concluded...see below.


The B-B-E/Paynesville Pirouettes dance team finished their 2023-2024 season with the Section 2A competition at New London-Spicer high school. The Pirouettes placed 10th out of 12 teams in the jazz division with wins over Litchfield and Sauk Centre, who placed 11th and 12th, respectively.

St. Cloud Cathedral won the jazz section title, while Holdingford won the kick section title.

*Here's the Pirouettes performing in the season opener...which was over three months ago at Minnewaska Area high school:


B-B-E/Paynesville's dance team fielded a very young team, as they have just one senior. She was one of the best, though, and Brenna Quade will be dearly missed from the program.

Monday night updates...(February 12)...
The B-B-E speech team had a marvelous showing at the St. Michael-Albertville invitational on Saturday. This event features over 700 students! In the small schools division, B-B-E had a stellar third-place finish. Congratulations! Look for additional speech coverage in this week's Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper.

There's much to report on otherwise. I learned that B-B-E's athletic department is currently searching for one additional fastpitch softball coach for the spring. Also, after four seasons leading the program with one memorable and exciting state tournament berth, Alanna Hunter has resigned as head coach of the volleyball team. Her first season was the "COVID" season of 2020 that we all would like to forget (they were successful that fall with a 9-1 record). A graduate of New London-Spicer in 2011, Hunter has coached track and field and also volleyball at B-B-E, where she's a middle school math teacher. I have greatly enjoyed my time working with her in both the fall and spring seasons.

In other news...
This weekend I have finally had time to focus on and learn more about the changes that are being pushed upon public schools by Governor Walz, the state of Minnesota and the "geniuses" at the Minnesota Department of Education. Many of these changes are focused in science and social studies. I find some of what is espoused in social studies changes to be fair minded with good intent. However, there's much that I find completely, 100 percent out of line. Too much. This isn't the place for me to spout off all of my opinions, so I'll save additional commentary for my newspaper column and my newspaper website opinion section.

As for B-B-E losing our dearly beloved Carl Williams, who will leave B-B-E at the end of this school year for a science teaching position in North Dakota, here's something that should alarm everyone: he has been in contact with multiple former students, past B-B-E graduates, who are currently seeking careers as teachers. They are equally troubled by what Minnesota is pushing on teachers and schools. This isn't a one-man crusade by Mr. Williams. He's simply standing his ground and living with this crucial character trait called integrity - so let's say you disagree with him. That's your right. What about when all these changes keep many bright young people from entering the education field? How the heck does that help solve our teacher shortage in Minnesota??????

If you click on the following link, you can watch a 15-minute interview by Liz Collins with Mr. Williams: https://rumble.com/v4be243-february-4-2024.html.

You should know that I am seething with anger over what is happening to education in Minnesota and that we are losing Mr. Williams. He has coached multiple sports at B-B-E. He was head coach of the fastpitch softball team for two seasons after it was revived for the 2016 season. B-B-E previously did not field a varsity fastpitch team in the 2013, 2014 and 2015 seasons. He has also coached junior high football and C-squad girls' basketball. More recently, he has been a dedicated helper as a volleyball line judge and also a scorer's table official at home basketball games. I am going to go out on a limb and say that he will be extremely difficult to replace. In fact, there's a chance we may not even be able to replace him in the near term. Science teacher applicants are few and far between.

Yes...SEETHING WITH ANGER over this issue!!!


Area boys' basketball scores on February 10:
Russel-Tyler-Ruthton 74, Pipestone Area 72
Worthinton 97, Hutchinson 90
Willmar 69, Little Falls 53

Area girls' basketball scores on February 10:
Providence Academy 94, Alexandria 89
Albany 68, Detroit Lakes 28

In wrestling news...
It appears now that the Section 5A wrestling tournament's Final Four will be held at Paynesville high school. I had previously heard it would be at Minneota. ("Check your sources!") The wrestling postseason begins on Thursday, February 15 with home action for our team in the quarterfinals. Teams advancing from the quarterfinals will square off at 12:30 p.m. on Saturday, February 17 at Paynesville. The winners of those semifinals face off that afternoon in Paynesville for a berth in the Class 1A state tournament.

Coach Fester reported on Monday night that the Section 5A Final Four is in Minneota on February 17. The MSHSL website has posted incorrect and/or confusing information. As of Monday night (February 12), the MSHSL playoff bracket for Section 5A shows that the championship is set for 2:30 p.m. at Paynesville on February 17. So strange...currently, I trust our head coach!! (Which is why I asked him.)

As of Sunday night, the wrestling playoff seedings have not been posted. The Jaguars will be either the No. 1 or No. 2 seed.

Dance team at conference championships, plus basketball and wrestling on the road (VIDEO)

We want to give all the best wishes and messages of good luck to the B-B-E/Paynesville Pirouettes dance team as they compete in the Camden Conference championships at 6 p.m. at Lakeview high school in Cottonwood. Other teams competing include host Lakeview, Lac qui Parle Valley/Dawson-Boyd, Canby, MACCRAY/Renville County West, Worthington and Yellow Medicine East.

The dance comp starts at 6 p.m.

At Canby, the B-B-E Jaguars wrestling team is facing potential Section 5A playoff opponents with a triangular that also includes Minneota.

Meanwhile...to the north! It is Hoops For Hope night
A big and exciting basketball doubleheader is taking place at Sauk Centre high school. The B-B-E Jaguars girls' basketball team is battling the No. 10-ranked hosts as the gymnasium is filling up. They trailed 26-19 with about 8 minutes left in the first half. Halftime: #10 Sauk Centre 38, B-B-E 33. The Jaguars have stuck with the taller Mainstreeters, and a three-pointer by Anna Jaeger with 8 seconds left drew them within 5 points before the break.

Here's a video from just before the boys' basketball game tonight:


In the girls' basketball varsity game, Sauk Centre won 76-56.

The varsity boys' basketball game should tip off at about 19:40. Updates to come after the game.

Boys' basketball game updates...
The boys' basketball game has been a treat for the packed house at SCHS gymnasium. B-B-E rocketed out to an 8-0 lead with 15:40 left when Hayden Sobiech drained his team's second three-pointer. Luke Dingmann hit a short-range shot with 14:18 left to make it 10-0. The Mainstreeters got on the board with Jay Neubert's three-pointer with 13:15 left. From that point, the Jaguars expanded their lead to 20-5 with 10:49 left on a Josh Walstrom three.

B-B-E led 39-22 at one point with about one minute remaining, but the Mainstreeters got two huge three-pointers and trail 39-28 at halftime. For B-B-E, Luke Illies leads the way with 11 points, and Hayden Sobiech and Josh Walstrom each have 9 points. Luke Dingmann has 6 points, and Kaden DeRoo has 4 points to round out the first half scoring.

Time to head home. This blog post is a wrap...a new one will be posted after 10 p.m.

JV Pirouettes are champions! Girls' basketball defeats Kimball (VIDEOS)

Area scores and other updates are coming on Friday to this blog post. Also! Don't forget the bank treats...see more below!

I had a bona fide 2-and-Oh night! This is awesome. It's especially fun to see two wins from two different teams on the same night.

In their lone home dance comp of the season, the B-B-E/Paynesville Pirouettes had one first-place finish tonight. The JV kick squad, which is in just the third day overall of their present lineup, took first place. The coaches and team members were ecstatic!

Here's the Pirouettes gathering for a team photo tonight:


Programming note for Friday...tomorrow (December 15) is the day of treats! Treats, goodies and cookies! And gifts! All of this can be had at the Bonanza Valley State Bank in Brooten plus the Kensington Bank branches in Elrosa and Belgrade. All three will have treats, goodies and more for their customers from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. in Brooten and Belgrade plus 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. in Elrosa. Spread the word!

Down the road at the high school, the B-B-E Jaguars girls' basketball team improved to 2-0 in the Central Minnesota Conference with a 61-46 drubbing of Kimball Area. They head to Paynesville Area with a doubleheader with the boys' basketball team tomorrow! Tip-off for the girls' varsity game should be at about 5:30 p.m. The JV and C-squad girls' basketball games start at 4:15 p.m.

In tonight's girls' basketball game, the Jaguars led 35-25 at halftime after Brooklyn Fischer canned two three-point shots in the final 30 seconds. The senior forward had a monster night while finishing with a career-high 36 points, including six three-pointers, 11 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 steals. The Jaguars withstood some early adversity in the second half after their shooting went ice cold and the Cubs made a run. With 14:49 left, the Cubs went 1-of-2 at the free throw line to make the score 35-34. After the Jaguars extended the slim lead to 40-34, the Cubs cut it to 40-37 with 9:39 left. From there the Jaguars regained their footing and pushed it to a double-digit lead when Adley Hagen hit a layup with 6:10 left for a 50-39 lead.

*Here's a lengthy video featuring the last 3 1/2 minutes of the game:


Also! Best of luck to the B-B-E Jaguars wrestling team, as they take off on Friday morning for Pequot Lakes, where they will compete in a large two-day invitational. Coach Fester reported that over 30 teams will be there. I have to circle back and report that on Tuesday night, the Jaguars defeated both Little Falls/Swanville/Pillager and also Holdingford to improve to 3-1 in dual meets and 1-0 in the CMC.

Central MN Conference girls' basketball score on December 14:
Holdingford 68, Paynesville Area 39

Central MN Conference boys' basketball score on December 14:
Eden Valley-Watkins 62, Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City 43

Area girls' basketball scores on December 14:
Nevis 61, Cass Lake-Bena 58
Mountain Iron-Buhl 76, Walker-Hackensack-Akeley 39 (MI-B hands W-H-A their first loss of the season in a battle of Top 10 teams)
BOLD 45, Minneota 44
Central MN Christian-Prinsburg 59, Lac qui Parle Valley 20
Willmar 74, St. Cloud Area 38
West Central Area 70, Melrose Area 38


Area boys' basketball scores on December 14:
Melrose Area 49, Paynesville Area 47
Morris Area/Chokio-Alberta 70, Minnewaska Area 34
Henning 60, Sebeka 44
BOLD 69, Montevideo 67
New London-Spicer 69, Redwood Valley 59 (A big section win for NL-S, as they hand the Cardinals their first loss of the year)
Royalton 65, Aitkin 60
Upsala 66, Swanville 45
Ashby 60, Benson 56
Parkers Prairie 52, Battle Lake 41
Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg 76, MACCRAY 69

Home dance comp! (VIDEO)

We have a home dance competition on the schedule tonight. The B-B-E/Paynesville Pirouettes dance team is hosting at the elementary school. Other teams at the competition are Minnewaska Area, Wabasso, Lakeview and Sauk Centre.

Here's the JV Jazz squad performing at Minnewaska in the season opener two weeks ago:


**Update out of the dance comp! the Pirouettes JV kick squad took first place!!! That was exciting to take in!! SO proud.

Also tonight! The B-B-E Jaguars girls' basketball team is hosting Kimball Area in a Central Minnesota Conference game. The Cubs are 2-4 overall.

UPDATE: with about 3 1/2 minutes to go in the first half, the Jaguars hold a 26-20 lead over visiting Kimball Area. HALFTIME: B-B-E 35, Kimball Area 25.

More to come in a new blog post!!

Dance team at Minnewaska + wrestling updates

The B-B-E/Paynesville Pirouettes dance team has started the 2023-2024 season with the Minnewaska Invitational. Following the playing of the National Anthem, The JV Jazz Pirouettes performed first in their division to start the dance comp. Each varsity division has six teams, including Sauk Centre, Montevideo, Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City, Minnewaska Area and Moorhead along with our Pirouettes.

More to come. I also have to catch up with how the wrestling team is faring at the Melrose Defender Invitational. Update: as of 6:30 p.m., the B-B-E Jaguars wrestling team has 98 team points to hold first place! Alexandria Area is in second with 85.5 points, and Paynesville Area sits in third with 85 points. In the 145-pound bracket, Ryan Jensen won a 13-2 major decision in the quarterfinals. At 160, Ethan Mueller won by fall (3:43) in the quarterfinals. At 189, Maximus Hanson has two wins by fall, first with a time of 3:23 in the first round and then by a time of 3:24 in the quarterfinals. He faces Alexandria senior Landon Raths in the semis. Carson Gilbert won by fall (1:08) in the quarterfinals at 215. At 285, Harley Weber won by fall (1:32) in his quarterfinal match to get a spot in the semis.

Update: as of 7 p.m., Paynesville Area has pulled into first place with 128 points. The Jaguars are in second with 111 points, and Mora is in third with 108.5 points. At 114, Noah Welte has blazed his way into the championship with two wins. He won a 12-1 major decision in the quarterfinals and then by fall (1:59) in the semis.

Update just 12 minutes later! The Jaguars are now in first place with 135 points and a two-point advantage over Thief River Falls. In third is Paynesville with 128 points, and Mora is in fourth with 108.5 points. Ryan Jensen won by fall (0:49) in his semifinal match to get a spot in the finals.

The varsity kick division should get underway at 7 p.m. at Minnewaska.

At Pine River-Backus tonight, the B-B-E Jaguars girls' basketball team has a 28-17 lead later in the first half. At halftime: B-B-E 30, PR-B 21.

Update later on Friday night: there is a giant battle taking place for the top spot at Melrose. At 9 p.m., the Paynesville Area Bulldogs are in first place with 185 points. The Jaguars are in second with 178.5 points. In third is Thief River Falls with 158 points. NEW UPDATES in a new blog post...including a final score on the girls' basketball game.

Pirouettes at section dance meet (VIDEO)

Today at Melrose Area high school, the B-B-E/Paynesville Pirouettes dance team gave an incredible performance at the Section 2A dance competition. Performing in the jazz category, the varsity team placed ninth in the field and got a big win over Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City.

*Here's video featuring their full performance today:


As exciting as their performance was, it is also exciting to note that the team graduates just one student-athlete, senior Annika Heieie, and has a very bright future ahead.

Additional coverage is forthcoming in the next newspaper issue. It is too nice of a day to spend more time than necessary on a computer. Great sunshine! And soon I am headed to Heidi's Bar in Sedan for the Glacial Ridge A.B.A.T.E.biker/motorcycle safety group chili feed (3 to 7 p.m.!) Glacial Ridge A.B.A.T.E. chili feed in Sedan

Pirouettes dance team home SUCCESS!!! (VIDEOS!)

We still have a fair level of activity remaining this week, and it has already been a jam-packed and exciting week. Tonight just raised that to another level! This was a truly very special night to be a part of with our B-B-E/Paynesville Pirouettes dance team. So much to talk about! Let's get into it.

The Pirouettes dance team hosted a six-team meet tonight at the elementary school. We had a near-packed house, and it was awesome!! A seventh team, Lac qui Parle Valley/Dawson-Boyd, was unable to make the trip due to poor road conditions out west.

Teams performing tonight were:
B-B-E/Paynesville Pirouettes
New London-Spicer Blackcats
Canby-Minneota
Sauk Centre
Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City Sensations
Minnewaska Area

*Here's the varsity jazz team in action tonight performing to the song "Bird Set Free":


With the exception of the two members from Paynesville, I know all 11 B-B-E student-athletes on our Pirouettes dance team very well. They are such wonderful, hard-working kids who are extraordinarily kind and polite. If you don't know these student-athletes, you are missing out. They are very, very proud of their dance program and are quite dedicated to both self-improvement and team improvement! Led by B-B-E Class of 2015 graduate and head coach Katie Boie, the Pirouettes went through what was a not-so-easy transition in mid-December to split up their 13-person roster into varsity and JV squads. This created an extra layer of work and especially teamwork to pull off. Tonight those efforts paid off with the JV jazz squad earning a first-place trophy with a hard-fought win over New London-Spicer. They were so thrilled to earn this success! I am extremely honored to have a front row seat to all of this. That is a recurring theme to this 2022-2023 school year. And I absolutely LOVE it.

It is the hope of every member of the team and the coaching staff that this season can be a springboard to getting more student-athletes to join them for the 2023-2024 season. The future is bright for this sports program!

*Below is video of the exciting awards ceremony. This was such a joy to be a part of. Their reaction brought tears to my eyes:


The JV Jazz squad earned a ranking points total of 3.5.

AND I can FINALLY announce this after a month of trial-and-error and complete anguish after initially struggling to get a brand new and very expensive camera off the ground and up and running. I purchased a very expensive camera before Christmas and have trial-and-error'd different lenses on it. I am THRILLED to say that tonight's dance comp was the very first sports event that this camera started sizzling at!! I am still learning on it, but the camera really popped. I got some truly outstanding shots. It has taken almost a year of plannign and researching and saving money to pull this off!! I had been limping along from February last winter all the way through the end of 2022 with just one large digital camera. It is a very old model that has seen its better days...although I'm proud to say that it pulled off some amazing photography for me last fall with the high school musical. I am excited for what will be this new camera's second event at the Kimball high school tomorrow night!!! If you know me and my newspaper, you know that photography is very, very important to me...and it's the lifeblood of The Voice that allows me to make money and keep this operation afloat!!

More to come, including a result from the boys' basketball game at Royalton. **Also if anyone is reading this with interest in girls' basketball...the Friday night game for our Jaguars is AT Kimball. Some websites are listing this game incorrectly. Kimball has already visited our gym!! They will HOST our Jaguars tomorrow night in a big conference battle!

UPDATE from Royalton: the B-B-E Jaguars boys' basketball team defeated the Royals 64-42. They have now won six straight games! A total of 9 Jaguars found the scoring column, and the Jaguars led 32-11 at halftime. NEXT: the Jaguars (8-2) travel to Ashby tomorrow night (Friday) for a Section 6A match up with the Arrows.

Final and parting addition to this blog post before calling it a day...here's a link to the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper website where you can watch part of the Central Minnesota Band Association middle school honors band concert. This was held on Saturday, January 14 at Elk River high school. Two members of B-B-E's middle school band participated in this awesome 'band camp" style day!! Thank you again to Mr. Biehn for lining this up!! Link: https://bit.ly/3whLUQc.

Central MN Conference boys' basketball scores on January 19:
Eden Valley-Watkins 76, Holdingford 46
Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City 70, Kimball Area 47
Paynesville Area 95, Maple Lake 23

Area boys' basketball scores on January 19:
Dassel-Cokato 65, New London-Spicer 60
Central MN Christian 77, Canby 74
K-M-S 56, Minneota 43
Mountain Iron-Buhl 65, Cherry 72
Henning 89, Bertha-Hewitt 39
West Central Area 56, Sauk Centre 50
T-M-B 64, MACCRAY 61
Barnesville 79, Minnewaska Area 38
Border West 80, Rothsay 44
Battle Lake 62, Hillcrest Lutheran Academy 60
Nevis 65, Cass Lake-Bena 58 (CL-B's first loss of the year after an 11-0 start)
Cromwell-Wright 53, Braham 42
Hancock 72, Brandon-Evansville 66
Parkers Prairie 64, Ashby 38
Pierz 65, Upsala 49

Area girls' basketball scores on January 19:
Maple Lake 46, Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted 33
Benson 42, Heron Lake-Okabena/Fulda 38
Royalton 59, Eden Valley-Watkins 55 (Central MN Conference game held at Eden Valley)
Parkers Prairie 51, LP-GE 16
Browerville 51, Swanville 38
Osakis 53, Upsala 43
Braham 66, East Central 27
Sauk Centre 60, Melrose Area 28
Menahga 58, Pine River-Backus 40

Home dance competition! Tonight! (VIDEO! Updates)

The home dance competition with 7 total teams will start at 6 p.m. tonight. The National Anthem will be performed at 5:55 p.m. The B-B-E/Paynesville Pirouettes dance team is excited to see you come out and support them!!

**Here's the JV jazz squad performing at A-C-GC high school this past Saturday:


Updates to follow in a new blog post! Hit refresh!

Back in the saddle in the home office...what an exciting night right here in Jaguar Country!! This is fun! SO proud of our B-B-E/Paynesville Pirouettes dance team!! Their JV and varsity jazz squads had an outstanding night. SO COOL!!!! Love it. They work hard, and the hard work pays off!!!

Video is uploading. More to come in a new blog post.

A whirlwind...and announcement on home dance

It's a whirlwind right now! Activities are pounding away again and it is BUSY! This is a GOOD thing! It is going to pound and pound and pound away here for the next 8 days!! Eight days of crazy and then we all get a soft landing into B-B-E's Christmas vacation that begins on Friday, December 23.

ANNOUNCEMENT:
The home dance competition scheduled for tomorrow has been postponed until Thursday, January 19. The time and location remain the same: B-B-E elementary school at 6 p.m.

More to come. It's time to pack up for the barbershop quartet singers who are coming to Grace Lutheran church in Belgrade tonight! They begin singing at 7 p.m.

**Update...here's a short video clip I recorded tonight at Grace:


Tomorrow night I hope it will work out for a trip to Ashby! Yes, way north on I-94 for our boys' basketball team's second game of the season. This game will count in the Section 6A standings. Last year the Arrows fell in the sub-section semifinals to Hancock.

**AND another announcement that I'm a day late on...the non-conference game with Upsala for our B-B-E Jaguars girls' basketball team was postponed until Thursday, December 22 at home. The times are as follows: JV game at 4:15 p.m. in Belgrade and the varsity tip-off to follow at 5:30 p.m.!

Pirouettes dance team, wrestlers open winter seasons (VIDEOS*)

It has been a very, very busy day, and I'm finally getting around to some serious blogging. We've got our first dance comp and also the first wrestling meet in the book! And I can't type fast enough here to get caught up. I've got three videos posted below, the second being my first winter sports show of the 2022-2023 season. At some point tonight I will get caught up on updating the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper website. That was supposed to get done this morning, but it has been a battle all day staying on track. That's the kind of day I've had.

Here's the dance team and others enjoying the song 'Macarena' tonight at Minnewaska Area's high school gym:


The B-B-E/Paynesville Pirouettes dance team performed in the varsity jazz division. A total of seven teams were represented tonight along with our Pirouettes: Moorhead, Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City, Sauk Centre, Minnewaska Area, New London-Spicer and Montevideo. Our dance team features 13 on the roster, and seven of those girls performed tonight. They all did so well, and the team had a great time on what will be back-to-back days of dance comps. If you have yet to see a dance competition in person, you really need to get to one this winter. For our team, they are excited to host a dance comp on Thursday, December 15 at our elementary school in Brooten starting at 6 p.m.

**Here's my first winter sports show of the 2022-2023 school year, or you can count it as a "Greatest Show on Earth" installment No. 2 of the day as a continuation of what I posted in an earlier blog post:


*Here's head coach Katie Boie in a brief post-comp interview at Minnewaska:


Coach Boie is a 2015 graduate of B-B-E and was a dedicated, passionate member of the B-B-E Dazzlers dance program throughout high school. She also played tennis in the fall and was also part of the track and field teams in high school. The dance program is extremely blessed to have her at the helm. I'm excited to see this team succeed this winter and see it grow in future seasons.

It should be pointed out that Morgan Schwinghammer was part of a carpool to the dance comp with Becky Mueller, who was a B-B-E graduate in 2004. The main connection I have with Morgan is through her mom, Marci, who grew up with my sister; they were 1997 B-B-E graduates along with Morgan's dad, Darin. We've known the Otteson family since my sister was in kindergarten way back in 1984-1985. My sister and I rode Don Segaar's bus to school in the 1980s and 1990s with the Otteson children. Their family was devastated in May 2021 when Marci's youngest brother, Spencer (B-B-E Class of 2006 and a three-sport Jaguar athlete), passed away after a courageous battle with cancer. He was only 33 years old and was in a group of student-athletes at B-B-E who were the first Jaguars I covered as a sports reporter. This illustrates how long I've been doing this. Spencer was the greatest kid. He was always smiling. It's so wrong when cancer takes "kids" like him. (Anyone 10 years or more younger than me is still a kid in my eyes.) We can rest our hearts in knowing that Vicki and Spencer are watching over their family from heaven.

Becky said good-bye to her father-in-law last summer. Greg Mueller passed away on June 8 at the age of 69. Morgan's grandmother, Vicki Otteson, passed away on Halloween day this fall at age 65. They were both incredible parents and grandparents. Just the best. The absolute best. We miss them both dearly. If you got to know either of them, they made you better. They were both deeply proud and loyal supporters of the B-B-E Jaguars athletic programs.

Spencer Otteson with his wife, Amanda.

**And on to wrestling news...
The No. 4-ranked B-B-E Jaguars wrestling team took second place at the Sauk Centre-Melrose Defender Open. They had 149.5 points behind first-place Thief River Falls, who racked up 194.5 points. Taking third place was Paynesville Area with 129.5 points.

I am thrilled to report that junior Ryan Jensen was in action today in Melrose. I spoke with his mom earlier today at Boosters, and she said he is able to wrestle but has to wear a brace of some type on his leg. Ryan suffered a severe ankle injury in the football season opener on September 2 in Murdock. He has fought a long, hard battle to get back up to speed and get on the wrestling mat. And!!! He took first place tonight. Bravo!

Sauk Centre-Melrose Defender Open team standings:
1. Thief River Falls 194.5
2. B-B-E 149.5
3. Paynesville Area 129.5
4. Alexandria Area 122
5. Andover 121
6. Albany 113
7. Sauk Centre-Melrose 99
8. Osakis 78
9. Eden Valley-Watkins 65.5

Here's the individual placements for the Jaguars by weight division:
106: Noah Welte 6th
113: Aiden Mueller 6th
120: open
126: Louie Tensen 4th
132: open
138: Ryan Jensen 1st
145: Brett DeRoo 5th
152: Tanner Viessmann 2nd
160: Hunter Laage (1-2 record, did not place)
170: Maximus Hanson 1st
182: Carson Gilbert 2nd
195: Talen Kampsen 3rd
220: open
285: Ethan Spanier 1st

Catching up on the dance team

The B-B-E/Paynesville Pirouettes dance team travels to Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City on Saturday for an invitational. Teams included at the A-C-GC meet are Litchfield, MACCRAY, New London-Spicer, PACT Charter, Southwest Christian, Spectrum and Wabasso. The Pirouettes travel to the Camden Conference dance championships at Canby high school on Friday, January 28 (6 p.m. start).

The regular season concludes on Saturday, January 29 at New London-Spicer (10 a.m. start).

Almost a month after their home dance competition, I've finally uploaded the photo gallery to the Bonanza Valley Voice Smugmug gallery (short link) = https://bit.ly/31UpN6T.

Home dance meet (VIDEO)

The B-B-E/Paynesville Pirouettes dance team hosted a six-team competition last night. They appeared in top form for both jazz and kick divisions. The team has a wide range of experienced, veteran dance team student-athletes and junior high-age members. I was thoroughly impressed by both squads!

Here's the team lined up for the National Anthem last night:


Don't forget to stop by the Bonanza Valley State Bank today! Their big event was advertised on page 5 of the December 9 and December 16 Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper issues. 

And!! Tomorrow! It's the big day in Brooten! Santa Claus is coming to town...that was on page 8 this week, where the full-size poster was published. You can read more here at the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper website: https://bit.ly/3F6L8Za.

Dance team at home tonight (VIDEO)

The Belgrade-Brooten-Elrosa/Paynesville Pirouettes dance team hosts their home competition tonight at the B-B-E elementary school. Doors open at 5 p.m., the National Anthem will be performed at 5:55 p.m., and the competition starts at 6 p.m.

Teams included are Canby-Minneota, Lac qui Parle Valley/Dawson-Boyd, Sauk Centre, Tracy-Milroy-Balaton and Yellow Medicine East. All six teams will compete in varsity jazz and varsity kick divisions.

*Below is a dance comp video from all the way back to February 8, 2020 in Montevideo:


The B-B-E/Paynsville dance team was competing at the Section 3A meet in that video. That was the last time I watched our dance team perform without facemasks. Certainly looking forward to tonight!

And we are in the season of Christmas right now! I am uploading a video recorded last Wednesday night at Grace Lutheran church in Belgrade. It features music from the Grace Lutheran WELCA Christmas program with The Grahn Sisters from the Kandiyohi area. They are singing "Go Tell it on the Mountain" with the audience.

Video (processed shortly after 4 p.m.):


I have much more video from that event but won't get to it until tomorrow.