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. ALL VIEWS posted are strictly and without exception the opinions of the newspaper owner and no one else; they're written in first hand format. 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!
Tuesday, September 16, 2025
Volleyball Jaguars defeat West Central Area, tennis plays on back-to-back days (VIDEO)
In a non-conference match at West Central Area, theB-B-E Jaguars volleyball team has a 2-1 set lead in Barrett.
Game four final score: B-B-E 25, WCA 19. The Jaguars improve to 11-4 overall with the big Section 6A win.
Next: the Jaguars travel to Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City high school on Thursday this week to resume Central Minnesota Conference action. The Falcons are also undefeated in the CMC and hold a 7-7 overall record after losing 3-2 tonight to neighboring rival BOLD.
The B-B-E Jaguars girls' tennis team has had back-to-back matches yesterday and today. They were in Granite Falls on Monday. Today, the Jaguars hosted New London-Spicer. Both matches began in tremendous heat, with highs hovering in the mid to upper 80s yesterday and today.
Here's a video from YME high school yesterday:
More to come.
Area volleyball scores on September 16:
BOLD 3, Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City 2
The B-B-E Jaguars football teamhas a big game tonight in a district battle against Upsala/Swanville Area. This regular season game has routinely featured two of the top teams in the district, and this year is no different! U/SA is 1-1 overall after destroying Benson 45-8 in their district opener last week in Swanville.
Kickoff in Swanville is at 7 p.m. Updates to follow.
**Halftime: U/SA 14, B-B-E 6. It has been a great game so far.
With 9:10 left in the third quarter, the patriots took a 22-6 lead. The final score will be posted in a new blog post after 10 p.m.
We have a big, BIG game on hand! Tonight, in Grant County, the B-B-E Jaguars football team looks to hand West Central Area their second loss of the season. The Jaguars and Knights square off at WCA High School in Barrett with a 7 p.m. kickoff. It's going to be a COLD game! At least the wind is dying down. The low tonight is going down to 40 degrees locally. Yikes! As of 5 p.m. in Brooten, the temperature outside is 55 degrees and dropping.
WCA lost 28-14 in their season opener last week at Lake Park-Audubon; however, I expect a tough game tonight. WCA is always strong on their home field.
Here's a video featuring the Jaguars praying The Lord's Prayer before kickoff in the season opener:
Game updates to follow!
Halftime: B-B-E 6, WCA 0. This game is a battle!
In the third quarter, the Knights took an 8-6 lead...with 5 minutes to go. Their touchdown drive was filled with big plays as they drove 70 yards for pay dirt. The Knights overcame a holding penalty early in the drive by using multiple receptions good for 9, 14, 15 and 15 yards plus shorter receiving gains. With 5:01 on the clock, WCA tied the game with an 8-yard touchdown carry. Their 2-point conversion was good via a reception with their receiver all alone in the right flats. The score became WCA 8, B-B-E 6.
It's time to head home. The final score will be posted in the Friday Night Lights II blog post later tonight.
Back on track: Jaguars defeat Cubs in 4 sets (VIDEOS*)
A very young Kimball Area squad gave their best effort, an effort good enough to avoid being swept, but the B-B-E Jaguars volleyball team recovered from a rough second set to win 3-1 tonight and improve to 2-1 overall. After being swept in a disappointing loss on Tuesday night, the Jaguars applied a couple tweaks in the rotation that paid off. Improvements in passing and blocking are still needed, but they are coming along with the meat grinder of the schedule right in front of them across the next few weeks.
This was the Central Minnesota Conference opener for both squads.
The Cubs, who were just coming off of a thrilling 3-2 win against Section 5AA and neighboring rival Dassel-Cokato two nights ago, fall to 3-4 overall. They have no seniors on the roster, and their setter is just an 8th grader (5'4" Bree Johnson). They have a very good 5'11" middle in Mazie Jurek, one of 8 juniors who make up the majority of the team. We can all look for Kimball to make some noise in 2026, and it's a sure bet they are only going to get better this season as they gain experience.
How tonight's match played out...
B-B-E won the opening set 25-14 after initially trailing 2-0. An ace block by Mya Worms gave them a 3-2 lead, and they did not trail from there. The Cubs tied it at 6-6 after they fell behind 6-4, but Kacey Fischer's third kill of the night put the Jaguars ahead for good at 7-6.
The Jaguars had to fight from an early deficit in game two, when they started out down 7-3 and then 10-5. They later tied it at 22-22, but the Cubs evened it at one set apiece with a 25-23 win. In the video below, both teams basically traded points to the point where the Cubs led 14-10.
Here's a video from early in game two tonight:
After trailing 14-10 in game two, Kacey Fischer had a kill, and the Cubs then had a hitting error. Kadynce Haider's kill was followed by an ace block by Macey Roering to forge a 14-14 tie. The Cubs gained 17-14 and 19-15 leads, but an ace serve from Roering and a kill from Kacey Fischer brought the deficit to 20-19. The Cubs hit long to make for a 20-20 tie. After Macey Roering had another ace serve, the Cubs called a timeout. Consecutive B-B-E errors then put the Cubs ahead 22-21.
A kill from Kacey Fischer tied it at 23-23, but the Cubs got a kill after that to bring game point. The Jaguars hit into the net to end the set.
Needing to come out strong in game three, the Jaguars got a 2-1 lead on Kamie Fischer's kill. They fell behind 4-2 before fighting back to tie it at 5-5. A kill from Mya Worms put the Jaguars ahead 6-5, and they never trailed from that point while surging ahead 14-6 and then 17-11. The Cubs got as close as 19-16, but the Jaguars overwhelmed them down the stretch with ace attacks from Kamie Fischer, Kadynce Haider and Macey Roering for a 25-17 win.
In game four, the Jaguars built early leads of 7-2 and 15-3 before the Cubs went into their first timeout. A kill from Roering put the Jaguars ahead 17-5, but the Cubs toughened up their level of play while going on a 6-1 run. A kill from Teagan Dingmann brought a badly-needed side out. McKinley Haider fired off back-to-back kills to push the Jaguars ahead 21-12. Final score: B-B-E 25, Kimball 17.
Here's a video featuring the last 6 minutes of the match; this video begins with the Jaguars ahead 18-11:
The Cubs challenged the Jaguars, but their youth showed as unforced errors hurt them badly in the first and last sets of the match.
What's next?
No rest for the restless! The Jaguars have a big task ahead as they travel to Marshall tomorrow for the two-day, 32-team Southwest Minnesota Challenge Invitational. Their first match is at 6:15 p.m. at Marshall Area high school against Class 4A Wayzata. Wayzata is tough! They were 19-11 overall last year and took second place in the Lake Conference behind St. Michael-Albertville.
Between now and Homecoming week, the Jaguars have just one match at home. That home match is next Thursday, September 11 against Holdingford. The Jaguars have best-of-five road matches on the following dates: September 8, September 16 and September 18. They also have a long road trip on Saturday, September 13 to the Crosby-Ironton Invitational.
Unfortunately, the next time I can watch the volleyball team is not until September 18 in Grove City.
Central MN Conference volleyball opener scores on September 4:
Royalton 3, Maple Lake 0 (the Royals are for real this fall; they are 6-1 overall after tonight's win)
Paynesville Area 3, Eden Valley-Watkins 1
Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City 3, Holdingford 1
Area volleyball scores on Sept. 4:
Sauk Centre 3, Morris Area/Chokio-Alberta 0
Norwood Young-America 3, New London-Spicer 2
Minnewaska Area 3, Melrose Area 1
MACCRAY 3, Renville County West 0
Sauk Rapids-Rice 3, Willmar 0
Litchfield 3, Rockford Area 0
Benson 3, Browerville 1
The B-B-E Jaguars volleyball team is hosting Kimball Area tonight. In one of the preliminary matches, the JV Jaguars defeated the Cubs. K-M-S played our C-squad, as Kimball Area does not currently have one at that level.
The Cubs are 3-3 overall; they just won a huge 5-set match against Dassel-Cokato on Tuesday night in Kimball. Both Kimball and D-C are Section 5AA teams, and the Chargers entered that match with a 7-0 record; they opened the season on August 23 by winning the Simley Invitational. D-C earned 3-0 sweeps against Maple Lake and Paynesville Area on August 26 and 28.
Varsity updates:
The Jaguars won the first set by a 25-14 score. The Cubs turned the tables, though, and won game 2 by a 25-23 score after the Jaguars fought back from a 20-16 deficit to force a 22-22 tie.
Game 3 final score: B-B-E 25, Kimball Area 17. More to come in a NEW blog post.
This was Labor Day, Monday, September 1. I hope you got a chance to get some rest. I did not! No rest for small business owners. I don't even know what rest means!
I want you to take special care to consider attending the Bluegrass Festival this Sunday, September 7 in Terrace. It will be well worth the small price of admission! Just $20. You can read more here: https://shorturl.at/tDy00. This was also advertised on page 10 of the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper's August 28 issue.
Here's a video from the early units of the Belgrade August Fest parade on Saturday:
In this video, you can see the outgoing Belgrade Royal Ambassadors nearing the end of their final parade.
Here's a video featuring a glimpse of the Stearns County Fair last Friday afternoon:
The weather featured sweltering, muggy heat on Friday at the fair. It was pretty gross all day and into the evening.
And back to Belgrade's August Fest...
Here's a video from the Friday night street dance just after Mid Flight began playing:
I heard that the Belgrade VFW had a "pretty good" weekend overall at August Fest. I'll speak a little on their behalf and say "Thank You" to all those who came out and supported the VFW through the chicken feed, Friday's street dance and Saturday's Belgrade Brawl.
I'm far too busy tonight with the newspaper to write much here, but I'm pleased to report that a really great activities meeting was held tonight at Olson Auditorium. Activities Director Chris Anderson guided parents and student-athletes through a half-hour presentation on what I'll just call the "rules of the road" for those who participate in extra-curricular activities at B-B-E. Tomorrow, I hope to share some video from tonight.
I have been amazed...
With a front-row seat to the workings of the tennis team, I have been amazed at the work that the captains of an athletic team put in to manage what's known as "Captains Practice Week." I had a section of my newspaper column written up about this, but lack of space led me to cut it out before publishing. I'll try to re-write it here. I've never actually gotten a good look at captains practice for any athletic team in the 22+ years I've been a sports reporter. It's just never crossed my radar. The closest I've gotten was tennis captains practice in 2024 for my oldest daughter. Even that amounted to no more than dropping her off and picking her up.
This year, I was asked to help with recruiting. Oh, boy! That's a job I take very, very seriously! That's a job we all should take seriously! I jumped right into it. You learn quite a bit about the inner workings of a team as they try to build numbers and run practices/drills without the guidance of coaches. I cannot be more impressed by what I'm seeing from the tennis captains. The role is not easy, but any role that has great value is going to come with hard work!
The "no contact" week for coaches doesn't really have the same pop here as it would in a bigger school. The no-contact rule was put in place years ago by the MSHSL in order to prevent burnout in student athletes. To me, it's more than that: it presents the opportunity for the captains of a high school team to step up and show leadership. Huge, HUGE skills they need in life!
I'm not aware of volleyball numbers, but they're not hurting. The varsity team is "loaded for bear" for the 2025 season with big goals to achieve. As for cross country, the graduation of Taylor Nelson leaves a huge void. I'll catch up to our A.D. this week and find out if there's any cross country prospects for the paired B-B-E/Paynesville team. This is available for boys and girls athletes at B-B-E.
Did you know? While we can always do better, Minnesota has really outstanding participation rates for students in high school-level activities. The Minnesota State High School League ranks in the Top 10 in the United States for participation with over 240,000 students being active in athletic teams. After adding in the Fine Arts of speech, debate, one-act play, music, cheerleading and visual arts - and that figure jumps past 320,000 students.
In other news...
The Stearns County Fair in Sauk Centre and the Kandiyohi County Fair in Willmar both open up today. Time to promote, promote, promote! I've gotten a small start on that. Here's a link to read about the Stearns County Fair: https://shorturl.at/v5l7v. The full schedule for what's happening in Sauk Centre this week was published in the July 31 and August 7 issues of the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper.
Some additional Region 8C amateur baseball coverage is posted at the newspaper website. You can find that by clicking here: https://shorturl.at/U57LS.
Finally, here's a link to read up on the Kandiyohi County Fair in Willmar: https://shorturl.at/5ZgEZ.
B-B-E fastpitch 17-U Jaguars heading to the 'Ship!
The exciting news continues pouring our way at the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper's sports department.
In the American Legion playoffs today, the B-B-E Jaguars 17-U fastpitch team trounced Albany 9-2 in the West Central Sub-Region playoffs. The Jaguars built a 3-1 lead going into the fifth inning.
Next: the Jaguars face neighboring rival Melrose Area tomorrow, Friday, at Minnewaska Area in the West Central Sub-Region championship game. First pitch at MAHS is at 6 p.m. Please spread the word!
Here's a video featuring the final out being recorded in the fastpitch game:
The Jaguars hold a 6-2 record going into tomorrow's championship game.
Before this event, or during this event, don't miss out on the Brooten Farmers Market. You can read more on that here: https://shorturl.at/yPtdA. That runs 4 to 7 p.m., so you can take in both events in each town. Yes, you can!
Let's go back to Bonanza Valley Days! This event featured in the video was sponsored and hosted by the B-B-E Jaguars Wrestling Club.
Here's a video from the finish line of the Bonanza Valley Days Walk-Run event:
Tonight! The B-B-E Jaguars fastpitch 17-U American Legion team will play in the West Central Sub-Region playoffs. Their first game is at 5 p.m. at Minnewaska Area. It is a two-game evening. Depending on the outcome of the 5 o'clock game, the Jaguars will play for third place or for first place in the second game this evening.
In the 5 p.m. game, the Jaguars face No. 3-seeded Albany. It's a HUGE game! More to come later tonight.
West Central Sub-Region fastpitch seeding:
1. Melrose Area
2. B-B-E
3. Albany
4. Glenwood-Lowry
5. Sauk Centre
In Urbank in state tournament pool play action today, the B-B-E Jaguars Babe Ruth team defeated Frazee 10-0. They have one more pool play game tonight, when they face Ottertail Central in Urbank.
UPDATE! Good grief! Don't look now, but the Jaguars are 2-0 at the state tournament! They defeated the OTC Black team 13-3 tonight. Now the rest of the pool play state games have to be played tomorrow, and then the state tournament will be seeded for Saturday. That's all I know right now. The B-B-E Babe Ruth team is 16-2 overall this summer! Amazing.
The Babe Ruth state tournament games on Saturday and Sunday will be played in Henning at Tony Kawlewski Field. Based on the state bracket I have, B-B-E is the No. 1 seed from the tournament's National pool. This means they would play at 1 p.m. on Saturday in a state quarterfinal game. The state quarterfinal games are single elimination, and the Final Four features third-place and championship games. (I confirmed all that...the Jaguars play at 1 o'clock in what will be the third game in Henning that day.)
Another update to this information is posted to the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper website. Click here: https://shorturl.at/PVU4V.
In business news...
Lincoln's Restaurant is open this weekend on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. You can read more by clicking over to the newspaper website: https://shorturl.at/ffQJx. My family enjoyed time there on Friday and Saturday last weekend during Bonanza Valley Days. Please come out and enjoy what they have to offer! Here's their website: https://lincolnsseafoodsteak.com.
The Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper's community calendar has been updated and edited...click here to see that and stay in the know! https://shorturl.at/uy0yu.
Here's a shout out to Earthy Elements of Brooten, one of our newest locally-owned businesses and a new advertiser in the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper. Here's Ashley's business website: https://earthyelementsmn.com. She was featured on page 10 in a business article in the July 10 issue.
Bonanza Valley Days grand parade and Babe Ruth baseball heading to state (VIDEOS)
As reported in the July 10 issue of the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper, Brooten Electric LLC was the grand marshal of the BVD grand parade on Sunday. Brooten Electric, LLC, is owned by two B-B-E graduates: Adam Imdieke (Class of 2001) and Adam Heinze (Class of 2013).
Here's a rough video on a hand-held camera of the Brooten Electric parade unit:
It was a simply outstanding day that we had to wrap up the BVD "Feeling Alive in 2025" yesterday. Day IV included a pancake feed, Catholic Mass, the grand parade and then the Miss Brooten pageant.
Here's another video from the grand parade in Brooten yesterday:
Unfortunately for me, I took over 1,000 pictures across the four days of Bonanza Valley Days. This will create a challenge to go through and pick the best ones for the printed newspaper! Yikes! You think I would learn?
After tonight, my daughter's fastpitch softball summer season is over. This will free up time for more sports blogging and to focus on the newspaper. We'll see how this week goes and what comes of the July 17 issue of the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper. Fingers crossed!
In sports news...
The B-B-E Babe Ruth (7th-8th grade) team qualified for their state tournament by winning the region tournament last weekend in Paynesville. This is a first for the program. They open state at Urbank at 2:30 p.m. on Thursday this week with pool play games. The state tournament playoffs run on Saturday. B-B-E's Kaden DeRoo, a 2024 graduate, is their coach.
Another update:
The Brooten city council meets on Monday night, and the agenda can be found here at the newspaper's editor's blog: https://shorturl.at/2ywwy. Also, the B-B-E school board meets on Monday night at the elementary school. It will be just the 2nd school board meeting in 10 years that I won't be attending. I'll be in Osakis on Monday night with the 11-U Jaguars fastpitch team for their playoff games.
On the home diamond today in a battle of teams tied for second place in the Stearns County League North, the Elrosa Saints amateur baseball team prevailed 4-3 in 10 innings against New Munich. The Silverstreaks held an early 2-0 lead before the Saints cut the deficit in half with one run in the 5th inning.
Elrosa then pulled ahead 3-2 in the eighth inning. New Munich tied the game with one run in the top of the 9th inning. A sacrifice fly-RBI by Peyton Winter drove home Derek Wiener for the walk-off win in the bottom of the 10th.
To close out the regular season, the Saints host Meire Grove on Friday, July 11 with first pitch at 8 p.m. New Munich hosts Greenwald on Sunday, July 12 for their last regular season game. The SCL division playoffs start on Saturday, July 19 at the high seeds. Richmond will be the SCL-South's top seed, and Spring Hill is the No. 1 seed in the SCL-North.
Here's a video from the bottom of the 5th inning:
The Region 15C tournament coming in August will be hosted by Spring Hill.
In Bonanza Valley Days news...
I finally have Clay City posted at the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper website. You can read all the details for this exciting event (for all ages - especially children age 10 and younger)...by clicking here: https://shorturl.at/Tfrjc.
And in other news...this morning, our home garage received garage door repairs from Excel Overhead Door of Willmar. I was super impressed by their work! So here's my shout out to their company. Their website is https://www.exceloverhead.com.
Regulation-inning game, but another tough loss to the Chargers
The Elrosa Saints amateur baseball team hosted Spring Hill and suffered a 3-2 loss in regulation innings. The Chargers pushed the game-winning run across in the top of the 8th inning. For the game, a whopping 30 baserunners were left stranded: 13 by Spring Hill and 17 by Elrosa.
Elrosa scored once in both the first and second innings and rode the early 2-0 lead into the fifth inning. In the top of the fifth, the Chargers tied the game at 2-2. In the top of the 8th, Luke Dehmer hit a one-out single for Spring Hill. He made it a 3-2 lead for the visitors on Ethan Meyer's grounder to shortstop.
Next: the Saints travel to Greenwald for a Stearns County League North division border battle on Sunday with first pitch at 1:30 p.m.
On a cloudy, cool Father's Day afternoon, the Elrosa Saints amateur baseball team came away with a 4-3 extra-inning win at Roscoe.
It was a battle from start to finish, with Roscoe scoring 3 runs during the bottom of the first inning. The Saints scratched one across in the fourth inning before scoring once in both the eighth and ninth innings. In the top of the 10th inning, Luke Dingmann led off with a double and later scored the game-winning run on a successful suicide squeeze bunt by Will VanBeck. In the bottom of the 10th, Elrosa closer Ashton Dingmann got a ground ball and two strikeouts to close out the win.
Next: the Saints (8-5) host the Elite 8 tournament on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, June 20, 21 and 22. Elrosa's first game is Friday night at 6:30 p.m. against the Royalton Riverdogs. That evening's action at Saints Field concludes with the New London-Spicer Twins facing the Waterville Indians.
A steady rainfall begin a little after 11 a.m. today across the area. If nothing else, it's a good day to travel to a garage sale! As luck would have it, a garage sale is taking place starting today in rural Brooten. Here's the details:
Where:21368 102nd Avenue, Brooten, which is near the town of Grove Lake; located southeast of Grove Lake. Days/Times: Thursday, Friday, Saturday, June 12, 13, 14; from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. all three days; Here's a summary of what's available: working tools, flower pots, gardening tools, picture frames, bikes, plants, quilts/blankets, movies/games/puzzles, bed frames, furniture, outdoor decorations, sport equipment.
In entertainment news...
Tomorrow night! In Terrace...click over to the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper to read about live music entertainment coming to the Terrace Mill tomorrow night, Friday...link: https://shorturl.at/nUi6g. This is a super exciting and family-friendly event! I hope you can make it.
The Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper has been updated with local and regional news and more. Here's the link: https://www.bonanzavalleyvoice.com.
Curd Fest is on the horizon at Redhead Creamery, and more news
The annual Redhead Creamery Curd Fest is coming soon! It's less than a week away. You can get all the details by clicking here to the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper website: https://shorturl.at/b6Zbx. This was also advertised in the June 5 issue of the newspaper.
In other news...
Related to Bonanza Valley Days...the BVD Men's 3-on-3 tournament at the elementary school in Brooten is coming on Friday, July 11. Organizer Chris Anderson highly recommends that teams get their registration mailed in ahead of that week so the games can begin at 6 p.m. sharp that night. If registering on site, he asked that teams arrive by 5 p.m. Registration is $40 for teams pre-registered by July 3 and $50 after that. He can be contacted by email: canderson@bbejaguars.org, and further information on registration will be posted in the coming week.
Coming on Tuesday this week to the Belgrade library! This is exciting stuff! "Sustainable Safari" - Tuesday, June 10 from 10:00 to 10:45 a.m. Learn about safari wildlife with this live-animal show! See the animals up close and learn about natural history, sustainability practices, and team building. For all ages. This program was made possible with Arts & Cultural Heritage Funds from Minnesota’s Clean Water, Land, and Legacy Amendment.
A new business in Willmar is graciously advertising in the June 12, June 19 and June 26 issues of the Bonanza Valley Voice. The business is called Serene Willow Psychiatry, and you can find their website at https://www.serenewillowpsychiatry.org. Thank you, to Steffanie Smith, APRN, CNP, PMHNP-BC, for reaching out to the newspaper and asking us to help promote your valuable services.
