extended sports coverage for the B-B-E community brought to you by the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper in Brooten, MN. (Address: P.O. Box 250, Brooten) http://www.bonanzavalleyvoice.com. Please submit feedback in writing to the address posted above. **This is Minnesota's oldest varsity high school sports blog. We hope to keep it going into the future!
Wednesday, July 15, 2026
Fascinating priest
I haven't blogged here since Sunday after spending considerable time reading about Father Wade Menezes of the Catholic Church. He provided the Homily at the Bonanza Valley Days Catholic Mass on Sunday. A biography of this priest can be found here: https://fathersofmercy.com/team-members/fr-wade-menezes.
Yes, I have video of the full Catholic Mass worship from St. Donatus on Sunday. It's uploaded, but I haven't broken out smaller video clips just yet.
The B-B-E Class of 2024 had a terrific Baccalaureate worship service tonight in Brooten. Of the class of 39 graduates, 26 were in attendance tonight with numerous siblings, parents, stepparents and grandparents. This is always a marvelous event to take in. I am always immensely proud of our community - and more specifically our faith community - on Baccalaureate night.
Video is uploading, and I plan to get it posted right away online for others to watch.
Here's the worship service video from tonight:
After worship tonight, I enjoyed visiting with a handful of B-B-E baseball seniors about how the season is going. They were excited to host Paynesville, but that seems unlikely with tomorrow's forecast of additional rain and wind. The Bulldogs won their home tournament on Saturday with a 10-1 win against Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg and then a 5-4 win over St. Cloud Cathedral. They are now 8-1 overall and 5-1 in the Central Minnesota Conference.
Monday updates to follow here...
11:30 a.m...about an hour ago, the home JV golf meet at Prairie View in Brooten was postponed one full week to Monday, May 6. As it stands, across the past 80 hours, the Brooten area has received between 3.5 and 4 inches of rainfall. Much of the ground is waterlogged for the time being.
Today's fastpitch game with Paynesville has been postponed to May 14 in Paynesville. For the baseball team, their game against Paynesville has been moved to tomorrow in Elrosa.
On Thursday morning, an additional video was added here. Other updates are forthcoming to this blog post. This is another supremely hectic week for the newspaper. Our Thursday morning is being consumed by a trip to St. Cloud to the CentraCare Plaza near Sartell. My wife has another doctor appointment as we further research why she is battling deadly blood clots.
The Lenten season is now in the second week for the Christian faith. Lenten worship services were held at a few area churches tonight. I've got a video featuring part of the Ash Wednesday Mass one week ago tonight in Brooten at St. Donatus. You can find that at the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper website by clicking here: https://rb.gy/lx2jlz.
Tonight I took in a soup and sandwich supper plus a joint West Lake Johanna and Trinity Lutheran parish worship service at Trinity in Brooten. One week ago, I enjoyed a soup and sandwich supper at Grace Lutheran church in Belgrade. SUCH good food!!
While it ultimately came at the cost of speech team coverage, I finally got a story written with an ample array of pictures for B-B-E's Resistance Robotics team. You can see that in this week's February 22 issue of The Voice. They have an outstanding group of students on this year's team who are gearing up for the Great Northern Regional to be held in Grand Forks on March 6 to March 9. I am already making plans to travel to Grand Forks that weekend. We'll see how it all pans out.
*Here's a video from the high school shop on Monday this week when robotics team members were working on the robot:
**Here's a video from the girls' basketball game on Tuesday night:
Central MN Conference boys' basketball scores on February 20:
Eden Valley-Watkins 88, Maple Lake 33
Paynesville Area 72, Kimball Area 44
Holdingford 77, Royalton 64
Central MN Conference girls' basketball scores on February 20:
Royalton 58, Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City 44 (the Royals clinched second place in the CMC with this win)
Holdingford 58, Eden Valley-Watkins 37
Area girls' basketball scores on February 20:
Paynesville Area 75, Melrose Area 42
Walker-Hackensack-Akeley 73, Browerville 43
New London-Spicer 49, Watertown-Mayer 43
Sauk Centre 60, Osakis 34
Wheaton/Herman-Norcross 74, Clinton-Graceville-Beardsley 66
Kimball Area 52, Upsala 34
Albany 69, Minnewaska Area 43
Verndale 58, Long Prairie-Grey Eagle 35
It's been a busy weekend with Jake's Day at the Belgrade sportsmen's shooting range, the Stearns County Fair and then the outdoor Mass held at Saints Field this morning in Elrosa. Clean up also has continued in Brooten in the aftermath of Tuesday night's storm.
Here's video of a member of B-B-E's Class of 2032 at the rifle range yesterday morning at Jake's Day:
The outdoor Mass today drew upwards of 500 worshipers to Saints Field in Elrosa. It was a wonderful experience to take in!
Video from Elrosa:
In that video, the final song is performed by the choir and crowd. Unfortunately, the video camera went dead before the song was completed. Look for more coverage in this week's Voice.
Prayer and Party on the Prairie: everyone invited! (June 29)
You are invited!
What: Prayer and Party on the Prairie and Sonar Worship
All parishioners from the Parishes on the Prairie Area Catholic Churches from the West Union, Sauk Centre and Belgrade-Brooten-Elrosa areas plus friends, family and neighbors and the general public are invited to an afternoon and evening of prayer and party in an old-fashioned church social setting on Wednesday, June 29 at Ss. Peter and Paul church in Elrosa. The event starts at 3 p.m. with bingo and fun that includes yard games, baseball, basketball, sand volleyball and playground activity. An Adoration is at 4 p.m. that includes food and drinks and a local talent show. The Ss. Peter and Paul Feast Day program and procession starts at 6 p.m., and live music by Sonar is at 7 p.m.
The two-part purposes of the event are:
*Prayer for a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the parishes of St. Alexius, St. Donatus, St. Francis de Sales, Ss. Peter and Paul, Our Lady of the Angels, St. Paul's, Holy Family School and Center for Christ; and
*Party: to grow in community, for Jesus said, "If you have love for one another, then everyone will know you are my disciples." John 13:35.
The Belgrade-Brooten-Elrosa Catholic churches will not hold Mass services through at least Easter Sunday, April 12.
This stemmed from the announcement today by the St. Cloud Diocese.
I'll admit, this is all very exhausting to be in the media. I know there are much tougher professions out there (i.e. - in the medical field) … but the toll this will take on my friends, neighbors, fellow business owners...it's unnerving.
Throwing this out quick before shutting things down for the night/day/whatever.
Head to Elrosa on Sunday morning for the Ss. Peter and Paul Catholic church ham and egg breakfast. They begin serving at 9 a.m., and their advertisement was on page three in this week's Bonanza Valley Voice. Head up/down/over to Elrosa and show your support!
Enjoy today's sunshine, Jaguar Country! A great day to be outside.
Don't miss out on two church-related events on Sunday! They overlap one another, but you are more than welcome to take in both! (11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.)
At the B-B-E elementary school, St. Donatus Catholic church hosts a fall dinner and raffle in the cafeteria/gymnasium. The raffle is at 1 p.m. for numerous prizes, including the grand prize of $500 cash.
At Chippewa Falls Lutheran church in Terrace, they are hosting a hog roast and a craft and bake sale.
These are two of 15 churches in the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper's coverage area (14 if you don't count the now-closed church of Gausdal Lutheran).
Below, video from the end of Thursday night's border battle volleyball match:
Needless to say, the Jaguars were just a little excited about the win! Great job!!
