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!
Friday, April 18, 2025
Good Friday was busy (VIDEO)
Smilin' D Arena in Colfax Township hosted a ranch rodeo event tonight. A short video clip from the event was posted to the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper website, which you can find by clicking here: https://shorturl.at/Tglhi.
As luck would have it, the timing worked out to cover both that event at the arena as well as part of Good Friday worship at Crow River Lutheran Church. "As the crow flies" the two locations are just a couple miles apart.
Here's a short video recorded after the sorting competition was completed:
More to come. Additional video is uploading.
And for some actual church! Good Friday worship services were held at numerous area churches tonight. At the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper website is a video from worship at Crow River Lutheran tonight. Click on the following link to see that: https://shorturl.at/QreXI.
Monday afternoon update...
The B-B-E speech team will host the Sub-Section 5A-1 meet this Friday, April 4 at the high school. Round One begins at 3:45 p.m.
In other scheduling news, the varsity events for the fastpitch team have been cancelled/postponed for this week. The home game with Swanville has been rescheduled to April 25.
I'll get more in a new blog post coming on Tuesday. It looks like we'll have wind and snow creating miserable conditions on Tuesday evening by sundown.
Smilin' D Arena hosts Thrills and Spills night - National Anthem plays (VIDEO)
Note: this blog post was updated again on Friday afternoon; one late update included a link to view girls' basketball coverage. (See below)
From tonight in Colfax Township! The Smilin' D Arena was the site of the first of back-to-back nights of their Thrills and Spills dirt bike racing competition.
The playing of the National Anthem prior to tonight's show in Colfax Township:
More to come. This was a fun night! AND! They are going to do it all again tomorrow night beginning at 7 p.m. Admission is just $15 a person! Children age 12 and under are admitted free. You can't go wrong.
Another video from the evening at Smilin' D Arena was posted on Friday to the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper's website: https://shorturl.at/dYiUf. That web article also features a link to view the newspaper's photo gallery from tonight.
Let's change gears to college-level sports...
In college men's golf news
B-B-E Class of 2022 graduate Gannon Walsh is a junior for the Division II University of Minnesota-Crookston Golden Eagles golf team. At B-B-E, Walsh competed at the state tournament in boys' basketball, boys' golf and boys' tennis.
From Gannon Walsh's biography at the UM-C website: prior to joining the UM-C men's golf team, Walsh competed for two seasons at Alexandria Community and Technical College with the newly formed Legends men's golf team. Walsh shot rounds of 71, 76, and 74 at the North Central District Tournament...he carded an 80 at the Legends Spring Invite, as Alexandria College placed first...Walsh was named to the MCAC All-Academic Team...Walsh shot rounds of 78 and 77 at the Marauder Invite...he scored a 75 at the North Central District Fall Preview...and he helped his Legends squad to their first-ever ranking in the GCAA Bushnell/Golfweek NJCAA Division II Coaches' Poll...he tied for 20th with rounds of 73, 70, and 72 at the Minnesota Golf Classic...as a sophomore in 2023, Walsh shot rounds of 76, 80, 79, and 75 at Nationals...he carded rounds of 78 and 82 at the 2023 BSC Legends Classic...he scored a 78 at the Tatanka Spring Invite...and he carded rounds of 77 and 74 at the Maverick Desert Classic.
In high school sports news...
Part of Coach Anderson's season review speech for the B-B-E Jaguars girls' basketball team is posted in a video at the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper's website. This was during the team awards banquet that was held at the Padua Pub on March 11. You can find it by clicking on this short link: https://shorturl.at/ymlBD.
More from the draft horse competition at Smilin' D Arena (VIDEO)
As reported over the weekend, the Smilin D Arena had a full house on hand on Saturday for the "Here Come the Boom" draft horse competition.
Here's a video recorded near the end in one of the final pulls of the night:
More to come later tonight. Today is an incredibly busy day while working on additional robotics and speech team coverage plus the upcoming girls' basketball banquet tonight in Padua.
A packed house was on hand tonight at the Smilin' D Arena in Colfax Township for their second draft horse pull competition at this new venue. The same event was held last fall, and that also drew a full house for a crowd.
Here's a video featuring one of the pulls tonight:
I've got basketball scores to post from today's playoff action around the area.
And in basketball playoff news...
In a game that had many Jaguar fans paying attention, the West Central Area Knights boys' basketball team hammered No. 5-seeded Brandon-Evansville today by a 76-45 score.
In girls' basketball news, Sauk Centre will face Minnewaska Area at the Class 2A state tournament next Wednesday night with an 8 p.m. tip off at Williams Arena in Minneapolis. The state tournament seeds were released today. The Mainstreeters earned the No. 4 seed at state, while the Lakers are the No. 5 seed.
In the Class 1A state girls' basketball tournament, Walker-Hackensack-Akeley (25-4) earned the No. 8 seed. The Northwoods Conference-South champion Wolves won the Section 5A title on Friday night by defeating Braham 61-59 in overtime. This is W-H-A's second trip to state after going to state for the first time in school history last season, when they finished 6th with a 1-2 record at the big show. The Class 1A state tournament opens on Thursday at the U of M's Maturi Pavilion in Minneapolis.
And in more news posted on Sunday night this weekend...
A video from the worship service held on Ash Wednesday last week at Trinity Lutheran Church in Brooten has been posted to the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper website: https://shorturl.at/M5Q6a. This was a joint worship for the parish of Trinity Lutheran and West Lake Johanna Lutheran churches.
The Brooten city council's upcoming meeting agenda has been posted at the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper's editor's blog: https://lifeinbonanzavalley.blogspot.com.
Area boys' basketball playoff scores on March 8:
Upsala 68, Swanville 50
Albany 80, Osakis 40
Dawson-Boyd 81, Central MN Christian-Prinsburg 47
Holdingford 77, St. Cloud Cathedral 68
Henning 62, Park Christian 58
Sauk Centre 36, Melrose Area 30
Montevideo 65, Morris Area/Chokio-Alberta 59
Browerville 67, Walker-Hackensack-Akeley 54
Some sports updates...
The Section 2A dance meet will take place tonight instead of tomorrow at New London-Spicer high school. The weather was the driving factor behind the schedule adjustment.
At halftime...the B-B-E Jaguars girls' basketball team holds a 21-10 lead at Paynesville.
Update: with 6:45 left, the Bulldogs are ahead 37-35. More to come in a new blog post.
Last Friday night, I enjoyed time out at Smilin' D Arena in Colfax Township. The evening featured live music by the Hell Country Truckers band.
Here's a video of part of the concert:
Tonight is home cooking! For our girls' basketball team. More to come.
Also, looking ahead a bit...on Thursday this week, the boys' basketball team travels to Holdingford. That game will be aired on Smooth Magic 107 FM of Glenwood.
