By KATHY PAULSEN

Staff Writer

For 15 years Blooming Prairie has been raising funds to fight cancer.

Two big nights, Sept. 11 and 12, have been set for this year’s, which will include several new, fun and exciting features under the big tent at the Blooming Prairie Cue Company.

The 15th annual cancer auction will again begin with a live auction Friday night starting at 7.

Registration for the 3rd Annual Cancer Memorial Walk will begin at 8:30 at the "Field of Flags" on Saturday morning. Pink flags will fly in grand array to promote the week and astonish onlookers for their beauty and availability. It is a sight you're not apt to see many places other than in Blooming Prairie.

To stay in style for the event, $5 haircuts will be offered, and don't be surprised at the crazy hair styles and face paintings that will be displayed. There will also be chair massages, manicures, games and many other fun events.

By KATHY PAULSEN

Staff Writer

The Ellendale Untied Methodist Church is busy making plans for a special Homecoming service on Sunday, Sept. 13 to celebrate the 113th anniversary of their church.

It’s a wonderful opportunity to join your friends and neighbors and reminisce about the many wonderful things this little church that could, and does, for its community.

No matter your choice of religion, the Ellendale United Methodist Church has been home to everyone who has desired to join it over the years. There is something about the atmosphere of this church that warms your heart. Going through the doors you are instantly aware you are not only welcome, but you can be a part of that special feeling, be it prayer, music, food or the fellowship of folks enjoying communing with the Lord and His people.

You are invited, as always, to be a part of the family of God, not just for this special service, but every day.

Watching a parade of people wearing various colored T-shirts with various types of logos is sort of like seeing a walking billboard. Seems like you can't do anything that doesn't involve advertising of one sort or another. People are strange. They will pay more for the privilege of advertising than they will pay for a plain old colored T-shirt. It really becomes two fold - when people wear T-shirts with a logo of some sort on it they are advertising an event or a "cause," as well as getting a great shirt to wear.

It is interesting how clothing has taken on the "knit look" and eliminated the use of irons. Quite a time saver. I do recall a cousin of mine who many years ago used to iron everything from socks and underwear, as well as put creases in her work blue jeans. What a gal. Her dresser drawers and closet were neater than star quality.

Don't ask me how often I use an iron. It might be embarrassing if I didn't know where to find it when I really need it.

I vaguely remember dressing up to go to town, to attend church, or for some other special events. Now it seems like anything goes. It is a good thing to be able to wear what you want — or it can be a bad thing if it takes away the respect you have for an occasion. It shouldn't really matter as long as what you are wearing is clean and “decent.”

I watched a mother and her kids walking across the parking lot one day. The kids were having a ball, running and jumping, doing gymnastics and skipping over short cement columns. Any wonder why their skinny little bodies are constantly moving? It will prove why exercise makes a body better.

And then there are those flip flops. It is a good idea to always wear a pair in the shower, especially if it is in a public shower like at school, gym, or wherever. It is interesting how those flimsy bits, which are usually rubber or plastic, have gone from dollar store dignity to high price and fashion. I've seen them on bare feet, nylon covered feet, anklets and even men’s wear. Good or bad for your feet — that is the question. At any rate they are popular and most people have at least one pair to step into. We all could take a lesson, especially from the Asian people who remove their shoes when they enter someone’s home. It isn't just visible dirt, but the kind that clings anonymously that spreads germs.

As I've said before, going barefoot on dirt and sand is good for the feet. It has something to do with the electrolytes that do a body good. Going barefoot, during the summer especially, was the thing to do years ago, but it seems to have made a comeback. It seems that feet aren't just made for walking. There's something sensory about your feel that makes a difference to your health. My mother says going barefoot is good because it keeps you from tripping and it helps you to know where you're going. (Especially if it is in a thistle patch or a field of stubble.)

Soaking your feet in epsom salt is an old-time cure for any number of things you wouldn't imagine had anything to do with your feet. Don't take them for granted — they come in handy for a great number of things.

Some of our Star Eagle readers have commented they like to read about events such as family and school reunions, birthdays and anniversaries, and birth and wedding announcements.  In order to read about these important things we need our faithful readers to pass along the information to us.  Also, if you have an idea for a story that you think would be of interest to our readers, please contact me.

If you have birthdays and anniversaries you would like to include, or news to share, contact me via e-mail, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.; or by postal mail, P.O. Box 192, Geneva, MN 56035; or by telephone, 507-256-4405.

This week’s birthdays and anniversaries:

• Thursday, September 3rd: Marie Carroll, Lori Ingvaldson, Tatum Wilson, Joanne & Mitch Wayne, Dick & Paulette Nelson

• Friday, September 4th: Cody Blouin, Marc Vanden Heuvel, Melissa Wayne, Erin Dobberstein, Daniel Pitcock, Holly Wangsness Dau, Rachel Arends, Melissa Engel, Melody & Tim Gassman

• Saturday, September 5th: Beckett Dane Rasmussen, Sydney Marie Schmidt, Jennifer Broskoff Dutton, Bruce Langlie, Beth Ann Seulter, Darren Hanson, Stacy Evenson, Grace Lorrain Kofstad, Rande Nelson, Dennis & Mary Jensen, Chuck & L'Myra Hoogland, Brian & Angie Dobberstein

• Sunday, September 6th: LeAnn Hjoberg, Cindy Sloan Scheevel, Jackson Kilian, Tina Thostenson, Luke Trumble

• Monday, September 7th: Tanner Ryan Green, Caleb Wacek, Janice Nelson, Charles Phagan, Allen Wacek, Jenny & Jed Popiel, Summer & Wayne Schultz, Erik & Gina Cooper, Brant & Rhiannon Boerner

• Tuesday, September 8th: Pastor Joel Xavier, Natalie Aaseth, Cindy Loberg Smolinski, Anna Lois Erickson, Brittani Hagen, Karen Briggs, Kelly Hagen, Amy Johnson Svoboda, Jennifer Johnson Popiel, Jimmie Olson Jr., Jamie Thompson, Brenda Dokken, Bob & Karen Vaith, Jessica & Jay Eidem

 • Wednesday, September 9th: Eva Lauren Wayne, Charlie Pence, Paul Aronson, Bruce Cerney, Corey Haddy, Steve Hanson, Roger Herbst, Jim & Mary Brocker, Randy & Deb Parks, Spencer & Suzanne Wayne

• Thursday, September 10th: Arnold Lund, his 97th; Taya RaeAnn Lembke, Emily Crabtree, Caden Jensen, Curtis Blouin, Craig Blouin, Pauline Fetterly, Steve Granowski, Kathy Knudson, Sally Utpadel Waknitz, Connie Kruesemark, Charlie & Diane Marlin

• Friday, September 11th: Geoffrey Stieglbauer, Andy Arends, Dawn Misgen Meier, Craig Torgerson, Matthew Mueller, Kathy Nelson, Mark Calverly, Paul & Jo Otto, Steve & Mary Bailey, Leanna & Jared Peterson, Tim & Angie Butler, Brian & Jodi Wayne, and Rich & Linda Weckwerth

Wishing you a day of joy...and a year of happiness.

It just doesn’t seem possible that the Freeborn County Fair is already in the books for another year and Labor Day weekend is looming on the horizon. In looking back a few years before we had our cabin up north, we had our camper at Best Point on Lake Tetonka near Waterville.

Once school starts it seems to send the message that the summer season is over for another year. I can recall many Labor Day weekends when the fishing on Tetonka was good to excellent on or after Labor Day. I can remember one particular time when I was fishing on Tetonka with my brother-in-law Mike and we caught a lot of nice bluegills and bass one Sunday afternoon in September. Mike had a bass boat that I believe was 20 feet long with a 215 hp motor. I used to tease about having that big fast boat just so he could be the first one to the spot where the sunnies were biting. In all reality I actually liked that boat and enjoyed fishing with Mike out of his big bass boat, although I can’t remember if I actually ever told him that.

Fishing Tetonka Lake in the fall could be very rewarding and it was actually my favorite time to spend time at the camper. I liked going there during the week when a person could very often find himself all alone on that big lake. Those were special times, little or no boat traffic, no water skiers or jet skis to contend with, just the peaceful challenge of finding fish on a fall day.

There was one particular day in October when I was at the camper alone and had decided to do a little fishing. When I arose earlier that morning I had spotted a bass boat passing by the campground heading west. Curiosity had gotten the best of me so once I was on the lake I scanned the horizon and soon discovered the boat was at the spot where the Cannon River flows into Lake Tetonka. I didn’t get all that close to it, but I could see that the fisherman was working that area for bass pretty hard. It was a couple of weeks later when I read in Outdoor News where the state record largemouth had come out of Tetonka on that day. I have a feeling that this is about as close as I will ever come to a state record.

Yes, those were good times with some great memories of time spent with good folks sitting around a campfire at night swapping fish tales. You couldn’t ask for nicer folks than Jerry and Linda Miller, the owners of Best Point resort where I had my camper for about eight years. Fall is probably about the only time of the year that I really miss having a camper there. When I reflect back and think about fishing that lake and having it almost all to myself, it brings back good memories. Now that I have a cabin up north I can experience those times of having a lake all to myself pretty much any time and I don’t even have to wait for fall.

Fall is by far my favorite time of the year to be on any lake; especially when the colors are changing. Picture this: a cool crisp morning sitting on a quiet little northern Minnesota lake with the colorful fall foliage reflecting off of the mirror-like surface of the lake. It just doesn’t get any better than that unless you throw in the bonus of catching a few fish.

Until next time, just keep in mind that although hunting may be foremost in your minds this time of year there is still plenty of fishing to be enjoyed.

Please remember to keep our troops in your thoughts and prayers because they are the reason we are able to enjoy all the freedoms that we have today.

Echoes from the Loafers' Club Meeting

I'm too tired to go anywhere today.

That's a shame.

It’s OK. I have nowhere to go.

Driving by the Bruces

I have two wonderful neighbors — both named Bruce — who live across the road from each other. Whenever I pass their driveways, thoughts occur to me, such as: I’m man enough to admit when others are wrong. If a hotel has bad curtains, it's a bad hotel. All shopping malls should be drive-throughs.

The cafe chronicles

I sat in a restaurant that offered vegetarian meals featuring meatless cookies. There was a fly that insisted on visiting my table regularly.

I thought about the schoolboys back in the day that attempted to catch a fly in hand and then pretend to eat it. There is a word, gobemouche [GO-buh-moosh], which refers to someone who swallows flies. It can also apply to someone whose mouth is always open.

Above the door of the eatery was a ziplock bag filled with water and containing a few pennies. It was supposed to act as a homemade fly repellent. The idea is that the water-filled bag created an optical illusion that scared flies away, that light refracted in the water confused the flies or the flies are frightened by their oversized reflections in the bag. None of these hold water. A TV show called "MythBusters" tested the bags and found them of no use in discouraging flies.

The fly landed on my knife. I growled at it and it flew off the handle.

Marsha, Marcia, Marzha

I taught some writing classes. The kids were amazing — nice, polite and smart. In this day and age when the name Portia has given way to Prius, I’m troubled that their names are becoming more difficult for me to get a handle on. The creative names of today’s children require a lot of spelling aloud.

It’s a dog’s life

I received a press release recently about dogs. When www.PoochPerks.com quizzed 1,000 American dog owners who were in relationships, 94 percent said it was important that their dogs liked their significant others, while 71 percent said that if their significant others disliked the dogs, it would cause problems in the relationships. Forty-three percent of respondents would end relationships if their partners couldn’t get along with the dogs. Nearly 80 percent of the dog owners said that their dogs were the first to greet them when they got home. One in five of those polled trusted their dogs more than their partners. Twenty-three percent said that their dogs loved them more than their significant others did, while nearly 20 percent thought that their partners loved their dogs more than them. On average, the respondents said that they would be more devastated if their dogs ran away than if their main squeezes broke up with them.

I’ve often said that every married man ought to have a dog. A harried husband arrives home on days when the entire world seems to be angry with him and his dog meets him at the door. It’s the family’s official greeter. The dog’s enthusiastic greeting says, "Why do you have to go away so often?" and "Promise me that you'll never change. You're perfect just the way you are," without requiring any words.

It gives a man the encouragement needed to become the kind of man that his dog thinks he is.

This week’s travelogue

I spoke at some things in Louisiana. While there, I visited the Tabasco Factory on Avery Island, a lovely spot surrounded by a southern bayou. Tabasco is a product that people use to spice up foods. Try it on your breakfast cereal. It will spice up your morning even if McIlhenny, the Tabasco maker, might not recommend doing it. Avery Island is also home to a 250-acre Jungle Gardens and Bird City, where visitors can see endless egrets, alligators and other local fauna and flora. The Tabasco tour chronicles the business, the people and the region while offering a culinary history lesson with tastings. I left with a lagniappe. My Christmas shopping was done.

Nature notes

After breeding is completed in midsummer, the male mallard undergoes a complete molt, resulting in a dull-colored and basic plumage, termed an eclipse plumage. Mallard drakes in eclipse plumage look like females, but their bills are a light olive green. A hen's bill is orange marked with black. It’s the hen that quacks.

Meeting adjourned

"No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted."– Aesop

On Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2015, I attended the funeral services for a great lady named Arlene Miller. She was most certainly an example of Minnesota nice. In fact, I wonder if the person that coined the phrase, “Minnesota Nice,” didn’t get the idea because of knowing Arlene.

At the service of celebration, Pastor Matt Griggs gave a children’s sermon from the book, “The Giving Tree.” It was an example of how Arlene was one great giving lady, as was the Giving Tree that was also a female. (I have never experienced a children’s sermon before at a funeral — it was just beautiful).

In my career as an AAL agent, I got to know most of Arlene’s immediate family. Many great memories were renewed at her funeral. One such great memory was when the Miller family would host Sunday morning church service at their Beaver Lake cabin.

Another great memory was the family of Terry and Cindy Vaith (her daughter) water skiing on Beaver Lake on the 15th of December in 1988. (This is the latest I am aware of. Santa Claus water skied on Fountain Lake Dec. 3, 1988).

Genie and I attended the August birthday party at Oak Park place in Albert Lea. Thanks to Phil and Neta Jensen for inviting us to Phil’s birthday party.

The entertainment was Jonny Bird from Geneva (The Man of Many Hats). He brings back your memories of famous singers as he sings their song while sounding like the famous singer.

We went to the annual senior summer picnic in Albert Lea. Once again Jonny Bird was excellent as the entertainment.

Genie and I attended the Steele County Fair in Owatonna. We danced the night away on the grass in front of the Fair Square Stage. After attending two county fairs, I think it would be fair to say, “August is fair month.” (By the way, Jonny Bird also entertained at the Owatonna fair).

A certain retired conservative banker from Geneva is concerned that I’m never home. I’ll leave the concerning to him.

Brian, our regular mailman, is very good. His replacement admits he is better, but she is prettier. On my morning walk I saw her walk into a ladies restroom in long pants and came out with shorts. She says, “Go ahead, make my day!” I did, with a wolf whistle!

Trivia question: Who has the best buns in New Richland? Nancy Jane’s Bakery, that’s who.

Short Shorts

A. Monday, Sept. 21 — The area social event of the year at Central Freeborn Lutheran Church (also known as “Soup and Pie Supper”)

B. Per our crystal ball, Genie and I will see snow on Tuesday, Sept. 8.

C. That same day (Sept. 8), we will see temperatures in the high 80s — per our crystal ball.

———

Bob is a retired AAL (Aid Association for Lutherans) agent, currently working on his master’s degree in Volunteering. His wife, Genie, is a retired RN, currently working on her doctor’s degree in Volunteering. They have two children, Deb in North Carolina, and Dan in Vermont. Bob says if you enjoy his column, let him know. If you don’t enjoy it, keep on reading, it can get worse. Words of wisdom: There is always room for God.

There’s a great episode of Seinfeld (really, they’re all great) where the character George declares he will have “The Summer of George,” doing only things he found worthwhile, such as sitting on the couch devouring cheese. That was, in part, my goal this summer. Not the cheese part, but as mentioned before in this space, it was a rather stressful school year last time around, and I needed to get my head clear before getting ready to welcome the new squirrels.

In addition to running my kids all across the area for sports, much of that involved reading. I didn’t keep track, but I’m sure I did more reading this summer than I have in some time. Granted, part of this involves reading books that I think might belong on my bookshelf in my classroom, but mostly I stayed out of the process at school.

And now I think I’m ready, or at least will be by September 8! My long-time readers are aware that I have worked with a different grading system the last two years, focusing more on meeting the English standards in place. This will be my third year of that, and I hope I have worked out the bugs over the first two years to give my students the best opportunity to show improvement in their skills.

One new element I am trying this year is a version of gamifying my classroom. I read about a junior high science teacher in Roseville who took some of these elements and found success in motivating students to complete their work at a high level. After touching base with him, he was kind enough to provide some details, and I, like any teacher, took some of what works for him and will try it myself.

Let’s face it. Kids today are largely enmeshed in a gaming culture. They play games like Call of Duty and Clash of Clans, which sometimes use working with others to solve a problem part of the basic game structure. They reach various experience levels and earn badges of honor to adorn their game and social media pages with. So why not take some of what works in their lives and use it in my classroom?

I will be randomly placing students in “clans.” It is the job of each clan to earn rolls of the dice through various tasks. These are as simple as turning an assignment in on time and as difficult as earning an “exceeds the standard” twice in a row. Students will earn badges for things such as turning ten assignments in on time in a row or redoing a paper and moving up a grade level. It’s hard to believe sometimes, but students seem to like it when you paste things on their lockers!

At the end of each quarter, my classroom may become quite loud as teams roll off to earn the highest score in the class and claim victory over the boss (me). This will earn them fabulous prizes that largely involve food, the best motivator for most kids this age!

Being my first go-around with this, I’m sure I’ll find things that work and things that don’t work. My main goal is to continue to motivate students to do their best. Sometimes we see that using bribery to a degree leads them to a path where intrinsic motivation takes hold and they don’t need that constant reinforcement to do their best.

Another educational item before I go. Lately we’ve all read numerous letters to the editor proffering the idea of letting our students choose what they want to learn. Let’s clear the air here at NRHEG – there is some of this happening already. Many teachers in our elementary will have students who have shown mastery of basic skills choose an area to research and learn about. In the secondary building, we have times where students have choices about topics to explore or choices about how best to learn something. True choice arrives in high school when students begin choosing elective classes, including our English department, which allows for many choices the last two years of high school.

However, to allow children to choose their entire curriculum is both unwieldy and incomprehensible. Public schools are at the whim of the government in many of the basic ideas we must present to our customers. How we do it is often up to us, but to just let Johnny learn about butterflies because he’s eight and thinks they’re pretty and then have Suzy check out asteroids because they’re big and cool doesn’t give ALL our students the basic skills they will need.

People who choose to home school their children are working only with those kids, and that works well for some folks. We have 20-30 kids at a time to teach and challenge. While the idea has some merit, it’s simply not the answer. Alternative learning environments are fine for those who want to go that route, but public education teaches everyone who walks through our doors. We’re not perfect, but we’re doing the best we can to create citizens for a global society!

Word of the Week: This week’s word is nescience, which means ignorance, as in, “The teachers all hoped to eradicate nescience by the end of the year.” Impress your friends and confuse your enemies!

With the Weather Eye firmly entrenched in their weather forecasting arsenal, the scurs have been right more often than not. They still have a hard time with predicting precip a week out. Maybe need to add the windshield washer bag from the Studebaker. Starting Wednesday, mostly sunny with a slight chance of an isolated shower or thunderstorm. Highs in the low 80’s with lows in the upper 60’s. Thursday, mostly sunny becoming partly cloudy with a slight chance for showers and thunderstorms by evening. Highs in the low 80’s with lows in the upper 60’s. Mostly sunny Friday with a slight chance of daytime showers and thunderstorms. Highs in the mid-80’s with lows in the upper 60’s. Saturday, partly sunny with a slight chance of a shower or thunderstorm. Highs in the mid-80’s with lows in the mid-60’s. Partly sunny on Sunday with an increasing chance of showers and thunderstorms. Highs in the mid-80’s with lows around 60. Monday, mostly sunny with an increasing chance for showers and thunderstorms by evening. Highs in the mid-70’s with lows in the low 50’s. Partly cloudy and cooler for Tuesday with highs in the mid-60’s and lows in the upper 40’s. The normal high for September 7th is 76 and the normal low is 54. The scurs will be having one last Pronto Pup to celebrate the end of another Great Minnesota Get Together. Fat lives matter!!!!

After a cooler week last week, Mother Nature turned summer back on to a sticky and uncomfortable setting. Heavy dews at the ranch have resulted in accumulations in the official rain gauge each night of around one hundredth of an inch. This is the kind of weather that is conducive to all kinds of leaf diseases. However, with the crop moving to maturity as quickly as it is, damage caused by late developing leaf disease should be minimal. Corn is R5 and already showing a milkline across much of the area. Early planted, early maturing soybeans on fast ground are showing R7 maturity, meaning that there is one normal sized pod on the main stem that is mature color already. Some of those will likely be ready to combine in a few weeks. Rainfall this past week was general and fell slowly, allowing it to soak in. There is plenty of soil moisture to finish the crop out and any leftover will go toward fall recharge, something we haven’t talked about over the past several years.

Another State Fair is in the books for us at the ranch. The Cheviots competed, but perhaps not at the level we would’ve liked. We managed a reserve champion, which is still something, although when one remembers some of the dominant groups we once brought to the show, it’s a little disappointing. It’s still the same amount of work raising them if not more now and the level of competition isn’t what it once was. Still, that’s not why we raise them and like everything else, success in the show ring is cyclical and can be fleeting. A wise shepherd once told me you have to raise what you like. Indeed, if one looks at the breed type on our flock, there are very few really ugly specimens. 

We seem to be perpetually mowing lawn at the ranch just like everybody else. There was another large hatch of toads again this year, though so I’ve tried to be as careful as possible not to hit the small amphibians as they struggle to get out of the long grass ahead of me. I’ll stop the mower and get off if I have to in order to move them to safety. These are the “good guys” when it comes to controlling things like flies and mosquitoes and I appreciate their efforts. Without them and other natural control agents we would be up to our necks in flying insects.

In the limited time I seem to have to drive it, discovering the subtle nuances of the Silver Hawk has become a favorite pastime. Having exposure to only one other Studebaker prior to this, it is an adventure each and every time out. I recently discovered how to operate the overdrive in the Silver Hawk more by accident than by design. The factory build sheet said it came equipped with overdrive, but there was no overdrive handle in evidence under the dash. I was uncertain if the overdrive was operational, if someone had disabled it or worse yet, totally removed it. The kind gentleman I had purchased the car from had no idea how it worked so I was on my own. Overdrives were popular options, especially on Ford and Studebaker automobiles and trucks. On the ’59 Silver Hawks, it was standard on the 3-speed transmission models. Quick shifting the car from 2nd to 3rd, it goes into 3rd regular drive. There is a technique to getting them into 3rd overdrive. One night coming home after a car club function, I happened to wind the car up in 2nd, let off on the gas allowing the RPMs to fall to idle then dropped it into 3rd. Letting the clutch out, the engine was instantly pulling hard and by the time I got it wound up to the speed limit, it was basically running at a fast idle with lots of gas pedal to spare! This was good news as checking the mileage recently, it was a less-than-stellar 12, about the same as my 4-wheel-drive pickup. 

Putting the car up on a hoist confirmed that the overdrive was still intact. The Borg-Warner unit was on the tail shaft of the T-96 transmission with the solenoid on one side and the governor on the other just like in the pictures I’d seen. The lockout cable was also still attached to the switch on the side of the unit and the switch was pushed back in the engaged position. The cable did not however go through the firewall to the bracket under the dash and there was no chrome plated handle in sight. Not totally surprising. The cables were prone to corrosion so many just left their cars in overdrive. This is OK except for one thing: Being able to lock it out of overdrive is advantageous under steep or hilly terrain. If you have the overdrive engaged and try to use the engine to help brake the car by shifting down, it freewheels until the engine catches up with the ground speed. In other words, you are relying totally on the brakes to slow the vehicle. The brakes are OK, but they are a far cry from what’s on today’s machines. Restoring that cable to its original function is probably a good idea from a safety standpoint, not to mention it returns the vehicle to its original condition. Unless of course I really want to live on the edge. At my age I find that’s becoming less of an option. Living to nap another day sounds like a better plan.

See you next week…real good then.

The games were close, but the NRHEG Panthers won them all.

NRHEG swept Alden-Conger in the 2015 volleyball season opener last Thursday, winning 25-23, 25-23, 25-22 at New Richland.

“The team fought hard in all three games, never giving up, playing as a team, with a lot of heart, hustle and intensity,” said NRHEG coach Onika Peterson. “For our first game of the year, I was very happy with what I saw. We had a great team effort with a lot of players stepping up.”

Peterson said the statistics are not completely accurate, with the process a learning experience for the younger athletes assigned to the task, but here’s what she had:

Maddie Wagner 3 kills, 1 ace block, 23 digs; Marnie Wagner 7 kills, 1 ace block, 24 digs, 1 ace; Abby Wacholz 7 kills, 6 ace blocks, 12 digs; Anna Lundberg 2 kills, 7 digs, 16 assists, 1 ace; Gretchen Ramaker 3 kills, 1 ace block, 1 dig; Hailey Schuller 3 kills, 4 ace blocks, 2 digs; Sophia Fischer 4 kills, 9 digs, 1 ace; Rachel Collins, 8 digs, 13 assists; Abby Christopherson 13 digs; Corrie Powell 15 digs.

The Panthers travel to Nicollet Sept. 1 and to Kenyon-Wanamingo Sept. 10.