Updates from Sartell

Game updates will be posted here this afternoon from the basketball games at Sartell-St. Stephen high school.

Also, let's keep enjoying more Christmas music!

Here's a video from Sunburg Free Lutheran Church this past Sunday morning:


Pastor Ron Knutson is the preacher at the Sunburg Free church. He is a 1958 Brooten high school graduate who was a fullback for the Brooten Buccaneers football team. In his senior year, he was a co-captain of the Buccaneers with Gary Howard. He was also on Brooten's track and field team in the spring season. On top of all that, he was an accomplished singer in Brooten's choir and boys' octette and glee club.

UPDATE! From the Granite City Classic...the girls' basketball team pulled off a huge, huge upset win by a 52-50 score against Cass Lake-Bena. It was an incredible win where the Jaguars limited the high-octane Panthers to just 19 points in the first half. Kacey Fischer led the Jaguars (5-5) with 15 points. More to come later.

Against state-ranked Heritage Christian Academy today at Sartell-St. Stephen high school, the boys' basketball team lost 90-54. They face Cass Lake-Bena tomorrow at 11:30 a.m. at St. Cloud Tech in a game that directly follows our girls' basketball team's game.

The Voice Fall Sports Show No. 10 - Let's Make Travel Plans and support our Jaguars! (VIDEO)

Right after returning home from the Bonanza Valley Royal Strutters Gun Blast last night at the Padua Pub, I went straight to the recording studio with the camera equipment. Instead of drawing up an intricate outline and speech for this 10th Fall Sports show of the season, I wanted to record it right away and get it done. With football and volleyball fresh on my mind last night, I figured I'd get most of what I wanted to say included.

Here's what I did not stress in the podcast: the trip to Fergus Falls on Tuesday night to cheer on our volleyball team is crucial! They will be playing on Tuesday without the support of the football team, who will be remaining home and just about wrapping up with their practice while the volleyball team is running pre-match drills. Let me be very clear on this: the match against West Central Area will be essentially a home game for the Knights. Their school district is neighbors right to the south of Fergus Falls. It's more or less a 20 to 30 minute drive for WCA Knights fans. For B-B-E fans, it's about a 1 1/2 hour drive. This is a HUGE hurdle to overcome! Please spread the word and fill up the car pools! Fan support goes a long way in the playoffs!

Without further ado...here's the latest installment of The Voice sports department's fall sports show:


Today I thoroughly enjoyed having lunch at the Sunburg Free Lutheran church! They had an old-fashioned and delicious Lutheran potluck meal. They are hard to beat! Yah, sure, you betcha!

I looked ahead on the forecast, and it appears that our family garden vegetables will not make it into November. On the night of Halloween, a hard frost will take out what we have left growing with a low of 28 degrees. It is unclear if blankets will help. I may try a sleeping bag over a couple of our tomato plants. We'll see how the week goes.

Looking ahead to a few section football championship games...
Section 6AAA: Minnewaska Area faces Albany in that section final at 7 p.m. on Friday, November 1 at Rocori high school in Cold Spring.
Section 5A: BOLD faces Minneota on Friday, November 1 at 3 p.m. at Southwest Minnesota State University in Marshall.
Section 5AA: Kimball Area faces Holdingford on Friday, November 1 at 7 p.m. at St. John's University.
Section 6AA: Staples-Motley faces Osakis on Friday, November 1 at the FargoDome at 3 p.m.
Section 6A: West Central Area faces Parkers Prairie on Friday, November 1 at the FargoDome at 12:30 p.m.
Section 4 9-man: Hancock faces Border West on Thursday, October 31 at the FargoDome at 11:30 a.m.

Let's go to church (VIDEO) and some basketball notes

Here's video from worship service on the final Sunday before Lent began...Sunday, February 27. This is at Sunburg Free Lutheran church, where Pastor Ron Knutson leads worship every Sunday. A dairy farm boy from the Norway Lake area, in his younger days, he was a bruising fullback for the Brooten Buccaneers football team in the late 1950s.

VIDEO:


The video begins with B-B-E Class of 2022 member Ben Thonvold providing the reading of the lessons.

I've had a lot of people ask me about Sleepy Eye St. Mary's and how good they are. I answer every time: they are very good! They are tough as nails! They played a tough schedule and won most of their games. On paper, they are underdogs in the upcoming match up with our B-B-E Jaguars boys' basketball team, but that doesn't mean it won't be the fight of our lives to get past the state quarterfinals. The game is not played on a stat sheet! I'm still compiling information on them. Stay tuned.

I'm still going over New York Mills statistics. One of their big guns is Noah Noffsinger, who scored just five points. B-B-E survived the game in part because of Noffsinger's shooting performance: 1 of 6 on two-pointers and 1 of 6 on three-pointers, plus he didn't get to the free throw line. Another big gun is Jack Peeters, who scored just four points on perfect 2-for-2 on field goals with no three-point shots and no free throws attempted. A third big gun for NYM is Jonah Johnson, who scored just two points on 1-of-5 field goal shooting with no three-point or free throw attempts. I've got other insights to the New York Mills game, but they will be saved for the print edition of the Bonanza Valley Voice to prevent any possible intel falling into SESM's hands.

More to come.

Let's go to church (VIDEO)

A sermon by Pastor Ron Knutson always delivers! He's an outstanding country preacher who lives and works right among us. A feature article on his ministry was published a year ago in the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper.

Here's Pastor Knutson preaching at Sunburg Free Lutheran church last Sunday, September 26:


Pastor Knutson is a 1958 graduate of Brooten high school. He was a powerful fullback and team captain for the Brooten Buccaneers football team.

Just how out of it was I this weekend? I never got around to posting the big news that the B-B-E Jaguars volleyball team earned second place at Alexandria yesterday. They lost in a third-set tiebreaker to Alexandria by a 21-19 score (in a 15-point game). The Jaguars take a 16-7 record into this Tuesday's home section match with Hancock.  

**Don't forget about today's FREE harp/cello concert at Olson Auditorium, B-B-E high school! It starts at 2 p.m. And yes, it's FREE!

That's all for today. I'm still kicking my "Homecoming Hangover" - I could barely walk out of the stadium after Friday's game - I definitely over-did it last week, and I really shouldn't be doing that. Tomorrow is a pretty big day, too, with B-B-E's students holding their first digital learning day (at home) plus the last home tennis match of the fall season.