B-B-E schools two hours late on Wednesday (VIDEO)

Due to the impending snowstorm that this area is currently experiencing, B-B-E schools are set to open 2 hours late on Wednesday, April 2. No fooling around out there! As of 9 p.m. tonight (Tuesday), we have 32 degrees and snow falling in Brooten.

Let's go back about a week...here's more from the health speaker's presentation at Olson Auditorium on March 24.

Creating a proper diet for student athletes:


Part II for the story on Danielle Rancourt's presentation will be published in this week's Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper.

Some things are just too outlandish to believe! Here's a nugget I found in the Brooten Review newspaper archives while researching Brooten high school football history. This was published in the November 9, 1939 issue of The Review.

"Not all drivers are blind: many just act that way"
Re-printed from the Grand Rapids newspaper
It is estimated that a third of the automobiles upon the highways are unsafe for many causes. Sometimes the trouble results from defective tires or brakes, but many times the difficulty is with the driver. A citizen of Grand Rapids tells the case where a car was being driven by a man, upon whose lap sat his child, about 12 years old. The man was blind or virtually so. He worked the clutch, brakes and throttle. The child steered the car, and right into an accident.

Wednesday afternoon update: B-B-E schools is closing at 2 p.m. today. The snow is becoming relentless! This was after I saw "1 to 3 inches" in the forecast earlier today.

At the Belgrade Library this Saturday afternoon...
A puzzle tournament is taking place! Gather a group of friends to form a team and get signed up! (You need to select a team name, too.) Each team receives the same puzzle, and the goal is to put the puzzle together in the shortest amount of time. This is coming on Saturday, April 5 from 1 to 3 p.m. at the Belgrade Library. Six team limit, and participants can be from ages 12 to adult. Register your team by calling the library at 320-254-8842.

Such GREAT entertainment! (VIDEO)

A rodeo is SO worth the price of admission! Tonight's show at Smilin' D Arena was NO exception to that rule!

Here's a couple tries at the Lucky Buck Bull Riding show tonight:


Smilin' D Arena in Colfax Township hosted a packed house for their second bull riding show of 2025.

Do you want to know what's coming up at the arena? Click here for their events page: https://smilindarena.com/events.

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.

This has been an interesting week!

We've seen some nice glimpses of spring this week. For the most part, it's been seasonable weather for late March with temperatures during the day in the 40s and 50s. The most pleasant day was Thursday, when Coach Matt Goodwin had the golf teams directed to Prairie View Community Golf Course in Brooten, where they spent time on the driving range. It was a rare feat to have the golfers on the outdoor range in March! The golf teams have also spent practice time at Lucky Shots Bowling Alley on the golf simulators.

At the elementary fastpitch facilities, the B-B-E Jaguars fastpitch team held outdoor practices all week. For the B-B-E Jaguars baseball team, they've been able to hold a large portion of their preseason practices so far on the high school JV diamond.

As it stands, it appears that the first outdoor meet for the B-B-E Jaguars track and field teams will be on Tuesday, April 8 at the home facilities in Belgrade.

Here's Coach Funk working with fly ball practice today:


As it stands, the fastpitch team's season opener for next Thursday, April 3 is "questionable" - it all depends what amounts of snow we get early next week. Snow is dominating the forecast for April 1 and April 2. Yikes!

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.

Busy Saturday includes speech in Melrose

The B-B-E speech team is in their final regular season competition of the season today at Melrose Area high school. The awards ceremony is set to begin at about 3:30 p.m. at the Marit Elliott Performing Arts Center.

Update: the high finisher for the speech team was senior Tia Nelson, who took fifth place in Storytelling.

Before it becomes too distant of a memory...here's some boys' basketball coverage. Their postseason awards will be published next week.

Here's action late in the 1st half in the playoff game on March 6 in Brandon:


With under 4 minutes to go, Luke Illies knocked down a three-pointer to extend the lead for the Jaguars to 15-6. Illies had scored 10 points by that point. His team was on fire, but the Chargers fought back to cut the deficit to 15-12. At halftime, the Jaguars led 21-15.

In other news...
Today! The Elrosa Bar and Lounge holds their Grand Opening with a complimentary lunch from 4 to 9 p.m. They have a Deejay playing music from 8 p.m. to 1 a.m.

Smilin' D Arena in Colfax Township has a full day of action going on as well with the Wild Henky Youth Show. Busy, busy, busy!!!

On top of all that, Lucky Shots Bowling Alley in Brooten is hosting the annual Rick Thonvold Memorial Battle of the Businesses. They actually began their bowling competitions yesterday, and it continues today. Main Street in Brooten is jam packed with cars! Rick, a Brooten high school 1987 graduate. would be proud. It's been over 9 years since he passed away. His presence in the Brooten and Sunburg areas continues to be greatly missed. He passed away on March 1, 2016 at the young age of 47.

The Brooten city council's meeting agenda has been posted to the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper's editor's blog, which you can find by clicking here: https://shorturl.at/7PaOI.

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.

For the full set of details on tomorrow (Friday) night, you can click here: https://smilindarena.com/events/?event=229542.

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.

The Brooten city council agenda for next Monday can be found at the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper's editor's blog: https://lifeinbonanzavalley.blogspot.com.

BBE high school Box Score sports podcast looks ahead to spring (VIDEOS)

The B-B-E high school broadcasting room has hosted Box Score sports during the 2024-2025 school year. They released their latest podcast recording today.

Fastpitch head coach Logan Funk is part of this recording:


The B-B-E Jaguars fastpitch team was able to split practice between indoor drills in the elementary gymnasium and also their softball diamond outside. Temperatures hovered in the low 40s today with little, if any, sunshine to speak of. Tomorrow looks colder and windier, but then it appears to moderate as the weekend approaches. The fastpitch team's varsity season opener is set for April 1 at MACCRAY in Clara City. I doubt that will take place, but it could happen if the last week of March warms considerably. The home opener on the schedule is on Thursday, April 3 against Swanville, the defending Prairie Conference co-champions.

Changing gears to this past weekend...
And now for a switch of the gears down to youth basketball. The Class of 2032 girls' basketball 5th graders competed at the Pacesetter region tournament on Sunday in St. Joseph. They lost the opener 14-2 to Fergus Falls, won the consolation semifinals 27-6 against Sauk Rapids-Rice and then lost a harsh heartbreaker 11-10 in overtime to Red Rock Central.

Here's a video from the consolation championship at CSB's Haehn Campus Center fieldhouse with the last 14 seconds of regulation play:


Right away in the video clip, you can see Adi Deters waving her arms and causing havoc for RRC's girl that was inbounding the ball. She did a terrific job of it, as she caused a turnover, and then you can watch her try to pass the ball in on the baseline right under B-B-E's basket. Deters got the ball in, and seconds later, she was fouled in the corner as time expired. The foul situation warranted bonus free throws, and you can see how it played out in the video.