On the winning track: fastpitch Jaguars win thriller over Benson (VIDEOS)

A clutch RBI-single by sophomore Lillian Thompson lifted the B-B-E Jaguars fastpitch team to a 3-2 come-from-behind walk-off win against Benson today. The game marked the final home game of the season. B-B-E is 11-7 overall heading into tomorrow's regular season finale, which is a Central Minnesota Conference game at 4:30 p.m. (May 12) at Eden Valley-Watkins.

The Jaguars trailed 2-0 going into the bottom of the sixth inning. They scored once in the sixth and then twice in the bottom of the seventh for the win.

Here's video from the top of the 3rd inning today:


Kamie Fischer's sacrifice bunt helped set up Thompson's late game heroics. That bunt advanced Abby Lieser, who advanced on an error by Benson's second baseman while fielding a ground ball. McKinley Haider entered to pinch run for Lieser, and she scored the tying run on Lydia Primus's two-out RBI-single to centerfield. Thompson then slapped a base hit to the outfield to drive home Primus and end the game.

Here's a video featuring the end of the game:


Brielle Worms was fantastic in the circle with 10 strikeouts against 3 walks and 4 hits. The Jaguars had no errors in the field to 3 by the Braves. For her part, Benson's freshman Tess Nygaard was also strong in the circle with 5 strikeouts, 2 walks, 1 earned run and 6 total hits given up.

B-B-E and EV-W (13-8) are currently both tied for third place in the CMC with 7-6 records. The winner tomorrow locks up third place alone. Holdingford (10-3) has locked up second place, and Kimball Area won the title once again and remains undefeated (12-0) in the CMC.

The Jaguars currently sit in fifth place in the Section 4A standings. Within their reach is the No. 3 or No. 4 seeds, but that all hinges on beating EV-W tomorrow plus how Braham and Mayer Lutheran fare today and tomorrow.

It's time for the school board meeting.

On Tuesday this week:
The track and field teams travel to Maple Lake for the CMC championships starting at 3 p.m. The girls' golf team has a CMC meet at Paynesville, and the baseball team hosts A-C-GC in Elrosa for a 5 p.m. CMC game.

Two additional albums of sports photos have been added here: https://bonanzavalley.smugmug.com/B-B-E-Spring-Sports-2026.

Central MN Conference fastpitch scores on May 11:
Paynesville Area 2, Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City 0
Kimball Area 15, Royalton 0 (4 innings)

Central MN Conference fastpitch scores on May 8:
Holdingford 6, Maple Lake 3

Catching up, gearing up! (VIDEOS)

Sunday is catch up and gearing up day! Gearing up for a BIG week!

The Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper's sports department photo gallery from the fall season is being updated. You can find that by clicking here: https://www.smugmug.com/app/organize/BBE-Fall-Sports-2025.

To see the general, non-sports events folder for 2025, you can find that here: https://bonanzavalley.smugmug.com/2025-B-B-EBonanza-Valley-area-events.

Here's a video from the most recent Fellowship of Christian Students gathering, which was on Friday morning:


And hats off to Grace Lutheran Church of Belgrade for hosting this each Friday morning.

On Sunday, we had quite strong sunshine, moderate winds out of the south plus a high of about 63 degrees in Brooten. It was a marvelous day for outdoor work.

Here's a video from the middle of game 3 against Park Christian last Friday:


The Jaguars had a rough patch in the beginning of the video, but after the Falcons cut a deficit down to 17-11, the Jaguars scored two straight. Teagan Dingmann had a nice attack on the right side.

About Hillcrest Lutheran Academy's volleyball team...
I'll probably move this small scouting report to a new blog post later tonight.

Senior Ella Knutson (5'10" MH/OH) had a career-high 20 kills against Underwood in the playoff opener last Wednesday. She also racked up 12 ace serves and 2 blocks. Their setters, Stella Moline and Brooke Swedberg, had 24 and 16 assists, respectively, running the 6-2 offense. Moline was perfect on 16 serve attempts.

Sophomore Elsa Retzlaff (5'10" OH) had 21 digs, and libero Chloe Walkup (5'6" senior) had 13 ace serves with errorless serving. The Comets totaled 81 digs, 48 kills, 10 blocks and 43 set assists.

ON MONDAY...
The Brooten city council meets in regular session on Monday night, October 27 at 7 p.m. The meeting agenda can be found at the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper's editor's blog: https://shorturl.at/Parav.

I am in a high-pressure race to get this week's newspaper ready for the printing press. I have to shorten up the hours I can spend on it to accommodate two major tasks: (1.) get ample sleep tonight and Tuesday night; and (2.) make the trip on Tuesday to Fergus Falls. The paper may suffer! But I can't help it. On Wednesday night, I have a trip to Rochester Mayo looming. That is the big one, and it's right ahead of a Fargo trip! Yikes!!

I'll write a little more on this in my newspaper column this week, but I want to give a huge shout-out to Principal Trent Johnson for the concern and effort he is putting into this year's Veterans Day program at the elementary school. This program, led by the Brooten American Legion and Legion Auxiliary, is on Tuesday, November 11 at 9:30 a.m. in the elementary gymnasium. In recent conversations about Veterans Day, Johnson talked about the importance of Veterans Day and the importance that children learn about this event, its history and about properly honoring our veterans.

While I'm giving shout outs, here's a shout out for B-B-E Class of 2024 graduate Brooklyn Fischer, who is a standout volleyball player for the St. Cloud Technical and Community College Cyclones. She is one of eight sophomores on the team. On Saturday, SCTCC hosted Western Technical College in a conference match and won in 4 sets. During that match, Fischer broke her college's career kills record. In a 2-1 weekend where the Cyclones beat Rochester Community in 5 sets and lost to Ridgewater College in 5 sets, Fischer had 45 kills, 102 digs and 12 ace serves. Those stats led those categories for her team. The Cyclones are 16-13 overall and 10-6 in the Minnesota College Athletic Conference South Division.

Fastpitch playoffs moved to Thursday; it rains all day Wednesday (VIDEOS*)

The same schedule holds for the Sub-Section 3A-North playoff opener, but it will take place on Thursday, May 22 instead of today. For the B-B-E Jaguars fastpitch team, they will have Wednesday to prepare for No. 6-seeded Benson for their playoff opener, which is at 4:30 p.m. in Granite Falls. I still have to look up where their fastpitch teams play.

Since yesterday morning, the Brooten area has received in the neighborhood of 3 inches of rain! Oh, my! The memory of a drought is fading. That's all I've got right now.

A couple boys' golf updates were posted to the last blog post. Also, girls' golf notes were added from yesterday's CMC meet.

With the steady rain we've received this afternoon, practices for baseball, fastpitch and track and field were all moved indoors.

Here's a glimpse of varsity fastpitch practice today:


As of early Tuesday evening, I think we've surpassed 3 inches of rain in the last 36 hours.

Shifting on to Wednesday...
By Wednesday night, the rainfall totals in Brooten have surpassed 5 inches since sunrise on Monday morning.

In other news, the May 22 issue of the Bonanza Valley Voice features the annual graduation section. This year, the newspaper's graduation section features 55 graduates with the B-B-E Class of 2025. Out of all 55 graduates, only 12 are committed to attending a four-year college. "Don't quote me"...but I believe this is hte lowest percentage (22 percent) of any B-B-E graduating class that is committed to a four-year college. Do you know what I call that? I call that progress!

At B-B-E elementary school on Wednesday morning, the staff and students held their year-end awards banquet. A special part of this event featured the Class of 2025 seniors joining the grades K-5 students for a few unique activities.

Here's a video featuring the Parents and Seniors Night 6 nights ago...


Thursday is the big day this week! The way things stand, I hope to see track and field action plus fastpitch softball action in both Litchfield and then Granite Falls. We'll see how the night goes.

I'd like to give a big tip of the hat to Maple Lake fastpitch coach Tim Knudsen, who has taught P.E. and coached at Maple Lake high school since 2004. In Maple Lake's game two win against our Jaguars last Thursday, Coach Knudsen earned his 400th career fastpitch win. That is a tremendous achievement! He is a 1981 graduate of Burlingame high school in California. Don't kid yourself: we need the CMC to continue being a strong and tough conference to compete in. This only makes our Jaguars stronger in preparation for the playoffs.

In the Section 5AA playoff opener, Maple Lake's fastpitch team lost 11-1 on Monday this week to Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted. The Irish finish the season 10-11 overall. They will graduate 6 seniors off of their roster.

In Section 6AA, Kimball Area (20-1) is the No. 2 seed out of 16 teams. Melrose Area (16-4) is the No. 3 seed, and St. Cloud Cathedral (19-1) is the No. 1 seed. Paynesville Area (14-7) is seeded No. 5, and Holdingford (7-13) is the No 9 seed. Seeded No. 10 is Eden Valley-Watkins (9-12). The EV-W Eagles earned an upset win to open the playoffs by defeating host Foley 8-5 on Monday. This avenged a 4-1 loss at Foley back on April 21, which was during a stretch where the Eagles started the season 1-8 overall. Their season seemed to turn around with a 12-2 six-inning win against visiting Osakis on April 29. EV-W is 8-4 in their last 12 games going back to that Osakis win.

Royalton (7-14) was the No. 13 seed, and they were eliminated from the playoffs on Monday in a 15-5 loss in 5 innings to Pierz.

Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City (4-14) opens the Section 4A playoffs tomorrow as the No. 8-seeded team, and they face No. 9-seeded Heritage Christian.

More from 'Fueling for Performance, Fueling for Life' at BBE's Olson Auditorium

The Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper website features another web article posted with video from the "Fueling for Performance, Fueling for Life" presentation at Olson Auditorium on March 24.

You can find it by clicking here: https://shorturl.at/HzzWY.

I've also reposted the jigsaw puzzle information at The Voice website: https://shorturl.at/Fcb0o. Earlier this week, they only had one confirmed team signed up. We need more! They would love to have 3 or 4 teams competing on Saturday.

Coming on Friday and Saturday...robotics is back in action!
This was just released tonight by F.I.R.S.T. Robotics. The Granite City Robotics Regional begins on Friday morning at the River's Edge Convention Center, and the times for qualification matches have been set. For the B-B-E Resistance Robotics team, their first qualification match in St. Cloud is set for 9:31 a.m., and a livestream via Twitch will be active. B-B-E's team will be in the Red Alliance in that first match, with their other alliance teams coming from Devils Lake, ND and from Hutchinson.

Today, B-B-E's robotics team participated in three practice matches in St. Cloud. Altogether, the Granite City Regional includes 48 teams. The official Granite City Regional website is https://frcnorthland.org/granite-city.

Here's the tentative schedule for B-B-E's team on Friday:
Match 1:at 09:31 (Red Alliance)
Match 2: at 10:34 (Blue Alliance)
Match 3: at 11:18 (Blue Alliance)
Match 4: at 1:41 p.m. (Blue Alliance)
Match 5: at 3:16 p.m. (Red Alliance)
Match 6: at 4:18 p.m. (Red Alliance)
Match 7: at 5:32 p.m. (Red Alliance)

On Friday, I'll get a more detailed web article posted at the newspaper's website that will also include information about Saturday's robotics action, which is set to feature 3 qualification matches.

Here's the live stream link! https://www.twitch.tv/firstinspires5. *UPDATES in a new blog post on Friday morning.

Speaker gives harsh assessment of energy drinks (VIDEO)

This was updated with another video link on Thursday.

At B-B-E high school's Olson Auditorium tonight, B-B-E Community Education hosted Danielle Rancourt of Grand Forks, who is a Registered Dietician and Certified Sports Dietician. She is also a former Division I athlete. Rancourt gave a presentation to the community and the student body and parents called "Fueling Performance: Fueling For Life" which also included a Q and A session at the end. One question was posed to her (by me) was about energy drinks and the dangers they bring for youth who consume these types of beverages.

I didn't quite start "recording" soon enough, but in her first comment, she stated that the daily recommended intake for caffeine for high school-age youth is 100 milligrams (and no more!)...this was confirmed by a simple search online with The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), who recommends caffeine limits for adolescent children (ages 12 to 18) of 100 milligrams.

VIDEO of her response:


Rancourt's professional website, which features a host of information and opportunities to learn more from her, is http://www.pivotnutritioncoaching.com.

More to come in the morning. It is time to sleep!

Update on Thursday afternoon:
To view another video clip from that evening, click over to the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper website: https://shorturl.at/HFZul. A feature story from the evening was published in this week's newspaper issue. Part II is coming next week.

Another web article featuring coverage from the Thrills and Spills dirt bike racing show on March 20 has been posted to the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper website. You can find that by clicking here: https://shorturl.at/P3JUx.

A new blog post will be finally posted this week on Thursday night.

Winter sports shows get underway, and weekend updates (VIDEOS)

I didn't get around to a second podcast recording on Friday night after the evening of college and high school sports had concluded. I'm re-posting the first winter sports show, which I recorded late Thursday night. Topics in that first winter sports show included comments on the girls' basketball game against K-M-S plus other notes on winter sports teams, including props given to boys' basketball head coach Austin Rambow.

Here's winter sports podcast No. 1 of the 2024-2025 season:


On Saturday, the 7th/8th grade girls' basketball teams hosted the Central Minnesota Conference tournament. At the high school, the Class of 2029 8th graders played their tournament, and the Class of 2030 7th graders hosted at the elementary. Updates from that to follow.

Here's video from the 4th quarter at Ridgewater College on Friday night:


More to come.

Here's a business announcement...Bonanza Valley State Bank has their Christmas/Holiday open house for their customers on Friday this week! Click here to read all about it at the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper: https://shorturl.at/mg7OJ.

B-B-E's grades 6-12 Christmas band and choir concert is at 7 p.m. on Monday night at Olson Auditorium. I'll post the live player in a new blog post.

Record for state-qualifying games at B-B-E (VIDEOS added)

A few additions were posted on Sunday to this blog post including video from Fargo...on Sunday afternoon, I am actually taking it easy!! For once.

This is mostly a "placeholder" blog post. I randomly thought about this and decided to flush it out tonight. Before I get to what I'm talking about, I'd like to encourage you to go back and review the Friday Night Lights X blog post. I added a video and some other updates on Saturday.

Overall, in B-B-E Jaguar athletic history, not including golf teams, a total of 55 teams have competed in state-qualifying contests. That is crazy!!!! Wow! It took about a half hour, and I found myself making a couple mistakes while doing it. This is what I came up with: between 1995 and yesterday, the Jaguars have had 21 teams win state-qualifying games, also known as section championships. Another 34 teams competed in section championship games but fell short of the big show. It is really mind boggling for a small school. Think about that! A total of 55 teams have made it all the way to section championship games.

Then add in numerous boys' and girls' golf teams who competed at the state meets (all between 2019 and 2023), and you have an impressive string of success for our small school!!!

The 21 non-golf teams who have competed at state all made it to the big show between 2005 and 2024. Between 1995 and 2005, the Jaguars had 11 total teams all fall short of the state tournament by one game. I personally witnessed 9 of those 11 section final losses. Teams losing in section championships from 1995 to 2005 included girls' basketball, boys' basketball, football, wrestling and volleyball teams. After the boys' basketball team lost in the 2005 Section 5A championship, the volleyball team won the Section 6AA title in November of 2005 to become B-B-E's first team at the state tournament.

Here's my total for state tournament teams by sport: volleyball with 7 state teams, boys' basketball with 4 state teams, wrestling with 4 state teams, girls' basketball with 3 state teams, football with 2 state teams and baseball with one state team. Add it up! That's 21 state tournament teams not including boys' or girls' golf (who have 5 cumulative state trips). I hope I'm not missing anything there. If something pops up, I will update this blog post.

Sunday...don't forget the Ss. Peter and Paul Catholic church ham and egg breakfast! They serve from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.!! (Ad on page 2 this week in The Voice.)

**Added on Sunday after church...here's the first 3 minutes of the Section 4A championship, with the video beginning with the opening kickoff:


As I wrote on Friday night, the Jaguars started out on fire on defense. They were LIGHTS OUT for those first three plays while holding the Patriots to a net negative two yards while forcing a punt.

Here's a video from the second quarter in the FargoDome on Friday...


Remember...church breakfast in Elrosa on Sunday!

Here's a video from late in the 3rd quarter with just over 3 minutes to go...the Jaguars are on defense near midfield:


State tournament updates...
In the Class 1A state volleyball pairings, West Central Area (27-4) earned the No. 4 seed and will open at 5 p.m. on Thursday, November 7 in the quarterfinals. Last night in the Section 6A championship, WCA swept Hillcrest Lutheran Academy to earn back-to-back state trips. The MSHSL website has not posted set scores from the match yet. *GRRRR!!

In the Class 1A state football pairings, Upsala/Swanville Area earned the No. 1 seed in the North half of the state field. The state tournament was split into "south" and "north" divisions for the first time ever. (A good move.) For U/SA, they open with No. 4-seeded (North) Parkers Prairie on Thursday, November 7 with a 6 p.m. kickoff at Rock Ridge high school's football stadium, which is located between Eveleth and Virginia. The Rock Ridge high school opened up in 2021, and their football stadium is impressive. My stepson Jack (Class of 2025) played two years of varsity football there with the Class 4A Rock Ridge Warriors.

I'll get a NEW blog post added later on Sunday night after taking an actual break from work!

The Voice Fall Sports Show No. 11! and...Box Score Sports Episode 5! (VIDEOS)

How's this for timing! Here you can get a double dose of...me!

Here's my 11th fall sports podcast of the season, recorded late last night:


And I was thrilled to be a guest on the B-B-E high school's Box Score Sports podcast, which was recorded this week and posted online this morning.

Here's Austin Berge and Aiden Mueller hosting Box Score Sports Episode 5 for the 2024-2025 school year:


Just for FUN! How about THIS for a throwback! Here's my blog post written on Saturday, October 28, 2006...a few hours after the Jaguars lost 14-7 in the Section 5A football semifinals in Murdock. It was an incredible game. Losses like them stick with you: https://bbejaguars.blogspot.com/2006/10/jaguar-football-we-were-robbed.html.

It's still Thursday morning...but it is time to begin preparation for the FargoDome! My list has about 100 items on it for today. The very first on the list is to hang a garbage bag on our "Back the Blue" sign in our front yard. I won't explain here why I'm doing that, but some of you reading this may get it. As I type this, we are just 24 hours away from KICKOFF! The pressure is ON!!

Late Thursday night...
I'm happy to announce that the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper's sports department arrived in Fargo right around 10 p.m. tonight! We quickly settled into our hotel room at the Quality Suites near the West Acres Shopping Mall. I have to say that this is SO worth the expense! The FargoDome is just four miles away, which means we can essentially "sleep in" tomorrow, enjoy a free hotel breakfast and then gear up for the big football game! Just being able to have a hearty breakfast basically a little over an hour before kickoff is a HUGE money-saving bonus. The breakfast itself can wipe out at least one-third of the hotel room's price. Add in the ability to have a low-stress Friday morning, and this has wins written all over it.

I'm getting caught up on SmugMug photo gallery uploads. You can see the Fall 2024 sports albums at this direct link: https://www.smugmug.com/app/organize/BBE-Fall-Sports-2024.

Now that November is...tomorrow! It is time to dramatically ramp up pre-musical coverage for the upcoming B-B-E Theater's production of Lucky Stiff at Olson Auditorium's stage. If you want to learn more about what the musical is about, you can visit Music Theater International's official website: https://www.mtishows.com/lucky-stiff. The show is PG-rated and takes place across two acts. I've posted a short web article online that features a video clip from their October 25 rehearsal. You can see that by clicking here: https://www.bonanzavalleyvoice.com.

Sports Show! (VIDEO)

Hot off the press! Or video camera...here's my ninth sports show of the fall...I got off to a very good start with my sports podcasting for this fall season with seven sports shows recorded from late August through Homecoming week in the last week of September...but just 2 so far in the first 20 days of October. The month of October has been wicked crazy, and I have had to dial back from 80-plus hours a week of working like I was doing in September. That is a pace I can't keep for more than a few weeks at a time.

Let's talk playoffs!


Currently, we await the outcome of the play-in round volleyball match in Hancock that takes place tomorrow night. Also, we look to Tuesday to see the outcome of the Browerville vs. Long Prairie-Grey Eagle football game. I actually might record a "Part II" for my sports show, as I forgot a few things that I wanted to include.

I'm having technical difficulties with link shorteners, so I can't get a short link prepared for a web article I wanted to share. I added video to the Crow River Lutheran church auction article that's posted at the Bonanza Valley Voice website. You can click here and look for it under "news" = https://www.bonanzavalleyvoice.com.

In other news...community news!
The Belgrade Lions Fish Fry is this week on Friday! Mark your calendar and bring your family! Click here for all the details: https://rb.gy/ntgokj.

I've got the agenda posted for tonight's (Monday) Belgrade city council meeting: https://lifeinbonanzavalley.blogspot.com.

AND...more Sonic Escape concert coverage! This is a two-week old video, but I got it posted today for the first time at The Voice's website: http://bit.ly/40czo4u.

Monday night update: the Hancock Owls swept Benson 3-0 tonight to advance to the Sub-Section 6A-South quarterfinals. The Owls will travel to our house on Wednesday to face the Jaguars with a 7 p.m. match.

Editor on Box Score Sports (VIDEO)

Click to see what I'm talking about! Link: https://bit.ly/3iPSee4. This crew does a fantastic job. 

From the words of Dick Vitale = "This is awesome, baby!!" More to come in a new blog post.

*I had one mistake in that interview...in 2012-2013, the boys' basketball team lost 66-59 to Wheaton/Herman-Norcross in the sub-section semifinals. It is true that it was a game that I will never forget. I swear it was just a 3-point loss...but indeed the Warriors won by 7 points back on March 9, 2013. I did forget that final seven-point spread. It was just B-B-E's second loss of that season with a 25-2 record.

I did nail W/HN's record of 17-8...that was their record coming out of that win over our heavily favored Jaguars. The Warrors then lost in the sub-section finals 66-45 to Battle Lake to finish 17-9 overall.

I was also pretty spot on regarding Rushford-Peterson in the 2013-2014 boys' basketball season. Our Jaguars trailed 26-25 at halftime and then limited the Trojans to just 14 points in the second half. This was against an R-P team that was averaging 70 points per game!! Think about that. That is crazy! For what it's worth, B-B-E's offensive average was 77.3 points per game. That group was truly a once-in-a-generation dream team.

B-B-E Homecoming continues under another sunny day (VIDEO)

Freshmen Kenna Lieser, Tiffany Dingmann and Josie Buckentine following their race through B-B-E's seventh annual Color FUND Run yesterday in Belgrade.

We've made it to Day Four of Homecoming week in Jaguar Country!

The sun is shining brightly on us today as we gear up for a host of activities later on. I've got tennis playoffs on my mind and on my schedule, so I have to bear down on work this afternoon before hitting the road to Litchfield high school before 3 o'clock. The B-B-E Jaguars girls' tennis team faces top-seeded Litchfield in the Section 6A quarterfinals starting at 4 p.m. The other side of the top part of the Section 6A bracket shows No. 4-seeded Minnewaska Area hosting No. 5-seeded Melrose Area. **This afternoon I'll get a new blog post added focusing on the tennis playoffs. It will include a video interview of senior Annika Heieie.

Tonight we have home cooking for our B-B-E Jaguars volleyball team! They host Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City for their Homecoming match. The Jaguars are currently 14-5 overall and 3-1 (second) in the Central Minnesota Conference.

*Here's a video featuring the large group color burst that took place following the conclusion of the K-12 Color FUND Run races. This was an exciting moment that I almost missed out on videotaping!


We had a great deal of activity taking place at the high school sports complex. As I've said many times already, we had a marvelous Color Run day. MARVELOUS!!!

More to come later tonight. In case you missed it, click back to the previous blog post and take in my 12-minute long sports show that focuses on Homecoming week. The Homecoming tailgating party is explained in the video, and that party (which is open to everyone!) starts at 5:30 p.m. tomorrow (Friday) at the high school. It is open to everyone in the community!

We had an AWESOME Color FUND Run! (VIDEOS)

That was an ocean's worth of fun! Such a terrific day! The weather was absolutely perfect. PERFECT!

Below is a video featuring the start of the grades 8 and 9 and then the grades 6 and 7 races today:


*Here's a brief video recorded while the Class of 2023 members took a group photo after the Homecoming Powder Puff football game today:


We are experiencing a marvelous, tremendous Homecoming week in Jaguar Country!!!

More to come later tonight. Soon it's time to head to Padua to the OktoberFest celebration at the Padua Pub! This was advertised in last week's Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper.

Going to need some luck...

I'm going to need a little luck and a few breaks going my way tonight, but I am working on a 16-page issue to the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper. I want to get extra sports coverage in, including cross country coverage, and many other news-related items. Also, I am excited to resume the Jaguar Spotlight profiles of seniors at B-B-E who are in 2 or more MSHSL-sponsored activities.

Everything is basically ready to go, it's just a matter of getting it all to fall into place...

*Update: we pulled it off, somehow! It was not what I hoped for, however, and we ended up "short-changed" on volleyball and tennis coverage. We'll try better next week.

Videos, catching up on the back log...and the Saints!

I've got a fair amount of photos and video content to post over the weekend. The last two weeks have been a blur. (Story of this past school year, really since things were cranked to "wide open" last summer across our area.)

**ADDED on Saturday afternoon...click on the following link to redirect to the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper website, where you can watch the full high school graduation ceremony: https://bit.ly/3GRxNWf.

B-B-E's elementary physical education teacher, Austin Rambow, worked with the high school track and field team to host a field day event for students in grades kindergarten through fifth grade. The field days were held on Thursday and Friday, May 19-20 at the high school football stadium. I had the extreme good fortune to spend about an hour there on Friday that week with the fourth and fifth grade students. The comeraderie and support I saw between all students was something special to take in. They were all rooting and cheering for one another. You had to really be there to fully understand what I'm talking about.

Here's a video clip recorded on May 20 that features the fourth grade girls facing the fourth grade boys in a tug of war battle (short link): https://bit.ly/3Q4qUVU.

Fast forward from May 20 to May 30, and here's a video from Memorial Day that was recorded at the Brooten Pavilion (short link)...this video is posted at the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper website: https://bit.ly/39clw22.

Here's a good portion of the song performed by the senior high choir tonight at graduation:


The video was recorded on a "point-and-shoot" camera and not with a tripod. My tripod with my video camera was set up on the stadium bleachers.

***Just got the box score and stats! Wow! Holy cow! The Elrosa Saints amateur baseball team won on the home diamond tonight while I was at graduation as they picked up a 3-2 win in 10 innings against neighboring rival Greenwald. Payton VanBeck started and pitched eight innings, and Ethan Vogt got the win as closer in the last two innings. Vogt also hit a solo home run in the fourth inning. Elrosa now hosts Regal in an exhibition game tomorrow night (Saturday) at 7:30 p.m.

Sports banquet day

Today we have the Smooth Magic 107 FM sports banquet at the Lakeside Ballroom in Glenwood. The Glenwood radio station has sponsored this banquet for many years, although it was unable to be held in 2020. B-B-E has a list of Jaguar student-athletes who are being honored. That was published in the April 28 issue of the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper.

Below is a video from the post-game huddle in Elrosa last Thursday night:


The B-B-E Jaguars baseball team had just defeated Holdingford in two games of a Central Minnesota Conference doubleheader. They travel to Dick Putz Field tomorrow in St. Cloud to face Royalton in another CMC doubleheader.

More to come later tonight.

Breaking, breaking, breaking local news

Extra, extra! Read all about it...what am I talking about? I'm talking about this: https://bit.ly/3M2cWRm. An extensive level of information is at the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper website 1,100-plus word article to digest.

While it is unfortunate that a great deal of my time is still dedicated to reporting on the COVID-19 "pandemic"...the issue continues to dominate the major media across the United States and the globe. I continue to push off the decision on whether or not to keep reporting on this. Maybe I'm wrong, but if I'm wrong, I'll err on the side of sharing information to the public.

In sports-related news...
Today's sports activities have all been cancelled due to the snow and wind that's reigning over the area this afternoon. Tonight is Maundy Thursday, at time for local Christians to go to church as we continue in our Easter weekend.

Track and field meet cancelled

Today's meet at Minnewaska Area has been postponed due to the cold weather. Today we have a high of about 33 degrees with winds gusting above 30 miles an hour. Yikes!

If you want to re-live some of the excitement of the recently concluded winter sports season in Jaguar Country, you can click over to the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper's online photo gallery: https://bit.ly/3umsWb4.

At last count, the winter sports folder included 54 separate photo galleries. That is over and above a new record at the newspaper for the number of game photo galleries from a single season.

PEP FEST(s)! (VIDEO)

It has been an utterly wild day...and the state tournament hasn't even started!!!

**Here's the full video featuring today's elementary school pep fest:


I have some video from the high school pep fest, but that probably won't get my attention again until after the state tournament. I have a huge, huge newspaper to get to press tonight!!!

More to come tomorrow.

Section boys' basketball finals (LIVE VIDEO, updates)

This blog post will include a live video player embedded, or at least the link that you can copy and paste. I am unsure if they allow embedded replay while it's live. Tip-off is at 7 p.m. in case you didn't know with our beloved B-B-E Jaguars boys' basketball team taking on No. 2-ranked New York Mills! Wow! It will be one heck of a game!!!

You can also tune in to both local radio stations: The Train 106.5 FM and Smooth Magic 107.1 FM, with both stations streaming on their websites.

LIVE VIDEO:


If that does not work, here's the link you can try: https://youtu.be/FcUIGK8mHok.

**Here's a 10-minute video from the second half of the Hancock game on Tuesday night:


GAME UPDATES coming...
With just over 2 minutes played, the Eagles have a 7-4 lead.

Halftime: B-B-E 37, NYM 36. This is a battle!!!! 

**With 7 minutes to go, the Jaguars have a 56-47 lead. The Eagles will not go away.

UPDATES IN A NEW BLOG POST! 


THANK YOU to Coop's Corner of Belgrade and Bonanza Valley State Bank of Brooten for sponsoring this Jaguars Sports playoff update!

Step II: cords were ripped!! Jaguars survive and move on! (VIDEOS)

At halftime, the B-B-E Jaguars boys' basketball team had malfunctioned down the stretch and trailed 35-29 today in the Sub-Section 6A-South semifinals.

That first half was a battle from the get go! Here's a video clip that begins with 3:00 left in the first half:


Another first-half video clip (that begins with 2:03 on the clock) was added tonight to the previous blog post that focuses on the first half of the game.

K-M-S maintained a one- to two-possession lead through almost the entire second half. With 7:43 left, they had a 50-49 lead. Just over two minutes later, their lead was 54-50.

A similar script to the first half was playing out late in the second half. With 4:20 left, Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg scored in the paint to take a 60-54 lead. It was not looking good, but fortunately, there was plenty of game left. Our Jaguars would need every bit remaining.

With 2:19 left, K-M-S's Alex Call had a three-point play to give the Fighting Saints a 65-60 lead not long after B-B-E fought back to tie it at 60-60.

The Jaguars caught a break with 1:38 left, when the Fighting Saints missed the front end of a bonus opportunity, leaving the score at 65-60. The last 98 seconds were frantic, nerve-wracking and had the feel of a wild roller-coaster ride.

After the bonus free throw miss, Ashton Dingmann ripped down the defensive rebound, and the Jaguars were on the move. Just eight seconds later, Kaden Pieper pulled up for a top-of-the-key three-pointer and rip the cords to cut the deficit to 65-63.

K-M-S worked the ball down court and patiently passed around, and the Jaguar defense was caught flat-footed while senior Gage Thorson scored a completely wide open shot on the right block to give them a 67-63 lead with 1:02 left.

On the other end on an inbounds play, Ashton Dingmann canned a three-pointer on the right wing against stiff defense with 54 seconds left and K-M-S's lead down to 67-66. The Jaguars got a badly-needed stop before Ashton canned a left-wing three-pointer with 24 seconds to go. BANG! Just like that: B-B-E 69, K-M-S 67.

**Here's video from the final ticks of the game...it was crazy:


Final score: B-B-E 71, K-M-S 67. The Jaguars move on to the Sub-Section 6A-South championship game which will be on Tuesday, March 15 at 7 p.m. at Minnewaska Area high school. Their opponent will be state-ranked Hancock or state-ranked Ashby. Let's PACK THAT GYM on Tuesday night!!! This is B-B-E's fifth straight appearance in a subsection title game!

If they don't know by now, the Jaguars have to understand that everyone wants a piece of them. It's guns blazing at them, especially being the top seed. The Jaguars were absolutely 110 percent motivated today, so this wasn't a matter of not taking K-M-S seriously. What this game came down to was two teams duking it out that have been playing outstanding basketball all throughout January and February. The Fighting Saints had the talent to win Section 6A. Fortunately for the Jaguars, the stars aligned at just the right time as they put it all together to overcome that late five-point deficit in the final two minutes. Moving on!!!!

In the other semifinal game at Minnewaska... No. 2-seeded Ashby holds a 39-36 lead with 12:50 left in the game over No. 3-seeded Hancock. *Update: with 14.5 seconds left, Hancock has a 51-50 lead over Ashby after an Arrows player traveled with the ball to turn it over Final score: Hancock 53, Ashby 50. The Jaguars (24-4) will face Hancock (23-5) for the subsection title.

Section 6A quarterfinal boys' basketball scores on March 12:
Henning 77, Hillcrest Lutheran Academy 63
New York Mills 69, Battle Lake 44
Hancock 53, Ashby 50

Don't forget tonight's Belgrade V.F.W. pork chop and steak fry fundraiser event! It begins at 5 p.m. Bring the family!!! They do an outstanding job there grilling the chops and steaks!! After that it's OPEN GYM time!!!