Bill Stegemann (left) hands a $300 Give Grant check to Blue Mound Area Theater president Deb Aanenson recently. The Give Grant, through CenterPoint Energy, recognizes current and former employees’ volunteer service. Stegemann, a retired CenterPoint Energy employee, logged at least 40 volunteer hours including donating time at the Palace Theatre and with BMAT.

Hills-Beaver Creek sixth- through eighth-graders will focus on learning rather than winning at their first LEGO robotics competition Saturday.
The new team is called HELP, which is an acronym for Healthy Electronic Learning Playmate.
Heroes makes its debut after five months of organization, recruiting, building and practicing.
Lexi Moore, district media paraprofessional, is the team’s first coach.
“It is great to have the community supporting our robotics team,” she said.
“I feel this program benefits all types of thinkers — from the creative to the logical students. It really offers something for everyone.”
Moore’s daughter, Mazzi, an eighth-grader, wrote a $5,000 grant to the Frank Boon Trust to purchase the LEGO robotic equipment and potentially sustain the program for five years.
The duo used experience from working with the Rock County 4-H Robotics Team to organize a team based at H-BC Secondary.
The H-BC School Board approved the team’s organization a year ago.
“We want to thank the Frank Boon Trust and the H-BC School Board for giving our team the opportunity to try something new,” Lexi Moore said. “Their support has made an easy start to a new program.”
The First LEGO League competitions focus on three areas: the robotics games, a real-world project and the league’s core values of   discovery, innovation, impact, inclusion, teamwork and having fun.
“I tried really hard to keep the focus on these values,” Moore said.
“They help build better people and, regardless of our performance at the competition, these students have all experienced a great deal of growth and fun.”
The H-BC nine-member team began meeting in September three to four times a month with the number of practices increasing recently in preparation for Saturday’s event.
In addition to the robotics game, team members worked on a group project, which they will present to judges focusing on the theme: Play.
“This year’s focus was getting kids outside to play — regardless of their limitations,” Moore said. “Team members explored activities they could do in different spaces. The bottom line “Get out and PLAY.”
The H-BC students developed an application called “H.E.L.P. Heroes,” which encourages users to complete various physical or educational activities outdoors.
As activities are completed, app users are rewarded with points or badges of success. The app also connects with “friends” or other children using the app looking to “play.”
For the robotics game, H-BC students have programmed their LEGO robot named Pistachio to complete various tasks or missions. The more difficult the mission, the more points the team earns. Teams with the most points win the competition.
Moore said team members focus themselves in certain areas.
“They each bring something unique to the table and I notice they find joy in different areas,” she said.
Some students like the LEGO building aspect, others enjoy programming and setting up the missions, some work on the presentation and others organized the team building activities.
Team members for the 2020-21 school year include eighth-graders Mazzi Moore, Bailey Spykerboer, Gracie Fagerness, Rebekah Swenson, seventh-grader Gavin Voss, and sixth-graders Carielynne Merson, Ava Steinhoff, Tatyana Williams and AJ Foote.

I have just finished up my northern pike spearing season here in Minnesota.  From an opportunity perspective I had a pretty good year.  I made it out to the spearing house about 15 sits.
To me a sit is a spearing opportunity that lasts anywhere from about 3-5 hours. I spear-fished on four different bodies of water this winter. A few weekends were spent up in Crow Wing County near Brainerd and the other efforts were all in southwest Minnesota.
From a “how many fish did I get to eat” perspective, it was a terrible year. Of the 15 opportunities, I saw a northern pike on about 10 occasions. When spearing in the lakes county region, I saw pike and whitefish every time I was out. In the northern Minnesota’s pike zone, you can harvest up to nine or 10 fish, but they basically need to be little ones. 
There is a fish or two you can harvest in the slot, but they have a fisheries management plan that calls for the removal of the many hammer handles that really create an underwater environment that allows very few fish to grow to a large size. Up on Cross Lake I speared 2-3 little fish each outing.
Back closer to home the limit is two northerns per day, and they have a minimum size of 24 inches. Fish in these warmer water shallow lakes grow pretty fast, and the larger ones are easier to overfish, thus the very small daily limit. I only harvested about five pike in this area. This is not to say that I never saw any fish.
Over the course of the winter, I would estimate I saw 50 smaller pike in the hole. They were all just too small to harvest. I really don’t like to kill little fish anyway, kind of the way I was raised. There is a variety of reasons for my poor outcome for the 20-21 pike season.
Now is the time I start listing my excuses. First, the ice in my area really did not get suitable until about the first week of January. We had super warm temperatures and did not have 8 inches of travelable ice until mid-January. This cut the season about in half of a normal year.
The second excuse I am spouting is that our water quality was very poor most of the season. Of the 50 or so lakes within 60 miles of my house, there are fewer than 10 with water clear enough to spear in and with a measurable pike population. Water clarity is considered good in my book if you can see the bottom of the lake in 7 feet of water.
Due to the very dry fall, the lake I did my best in last season in 4 to 5 feet of water had only 15 inches of water under the ice this year, and it was so stirred up that you could not see your decoy in 6 inches of that water. I am surprised that the oxygen content of this lake was still very high last week when it was checked. It looks like the fish might survive this winter without a winter kill. This leaves hope for this lake next year.
The most interesting reason for poor water clarity this season was one I had never experienced. I called a guy who called a guy who is a fisheries biologist, and he explained that the reason the water was so dingy was as a result of winter time algae blooms.
We are familiar with a late summer algae bloom that covers the lake in green and blue slime and can kill your dog. It also smells really bad. I had never seen one in the winter. He explained that due to very late ice conditions and the fact that the ice was not very thick and had almost no snow cover, the sunlight was able to penetrate and cause an algae bloom.
It seemed like a very reasonable explanation. The question that remained with me though was how the lake could be clear one day, clear the next day and murky as all get out on the third day. This happened about five different times this season. We also had spots with clear water and only 300 yards away you could not see sikkim. These examples were all far away from the lakes’ aeration systems so it was not a factor that they might be stirring up sediment as they operated.
All in all, it was a pretty difficult year and I am not the only one who experienced this.  Spearers are not all that numerous in my neck of the woods, but most of my spearing mentors took their houses off several weeks ago and just cashed in the season waiting until next year.
The old saying that a bad day fishing is still better than a good day at work can be used here. Even though I did not spear many pike, it was cool to see a pike slide into the hole looking to see what I was offering. I also got to see lots of white fish, largemouth bass, walleyes, perch and bluegills and even a bullhead or two.
Looking down in the water at what looks like a 62-inch big screen TV of the underwater world will always be a way I want to spend my time when the pheasant hunting season is complete. In a month we will start our prescribed fire efforts, and that needs planning too. I think I will do that next.
 
Scott Rall, Worthington, is a habitat conservationist, avid hunting and fishing enthusiast and is president of Nobles County Pheasants Forever. He can be reached at scottarall@gmail.com or on Twitter @habitat champion.
 

The Hills-Beaver Creek girls’ basketball team went 3-0 this past week to improve to 13-2 overall.
H-BC opened the week with a 59-24 victory over Heron Lake-Okabena/Fulda on Friday, March 5, in Hills.
The next day the Patriots defeated Red Rock Central 45-42 in Lamberton.
On Monday, March 8, the Patriots ran away from Murray County Central, 63-27.
 
H-BC 59, HLOF 24
The Patriots outscored HLOF in the first half on Friday, 27-13. In the second half the Patriots kept their foot down on the gas and outscored HLOF 32-11 to pick up the 59-24 victory.
Taryn Rauk finished the game with 22 points, eight rebounds and four steals for the Patriots.
Abby Knobloch reached double figures with 11 points. The senior post player also grabbed nine rebounds.
 
H-BC 45, RRC 42
Red Rock Central defeated H-BC earlier this season in Hills, 60-57. The Patriots got a little revenge in Lamberton on Saturday by beating the Falcons 45-42.
The two Red Rock Conference rivals played to a 19-19 tie in the first half. In the second half the Patriots outscored RRC, 26-23 to secure the 45-42 road victory.
Kenadie Fick led the way for the Patriots with 19 points. Fick also grabbed seven rebounds.
Knobloch recorded a double-double for the Patriots, scoring 15 points and grabbed 10 rebounds.
 
H-BC 63, MCC 27
It was all H-BC all the time on Monday, March 8.
Rauk scored the first four points of the game for the Patriots and MCC didn’t score until the 14:40 mark of the first half.
Following MCC’s first basket, the Patriots went on a 8-0 run to open up a 12-2 lead.
With the Patriots holding an 18-4 lead, MCC went on a 8-0 run to trim H-BC’s lead to 18-12. Fick answered with a three-pointer that kickstarted a 14-0 run for the Patriots.
At the half the Patriots led MCC 38-15. Rauk led the Patriots with 20 points and six steals in the first 18 minutes.
“I thought we did a better job of getting movement offensively tonight,” H-BC head coach, Kale Wiertzema said.
“That opened up some outside shots and we were able to make five three-pointers in the first half. The girls did a nice job of finding Taryn in transition. Taryn also got a few easy ones on steals in our press.”
Rauk also reached a career milestone. The do-it-all senior reached 1,000 career points.
“Taryn has worked really hard to elevate her game to where she is now,” Wiertzema said.
“It was great to see her reach the Hills-Beaver Creek 1,000 point club. She’s also been blessed with great teammates that do a great job of encouraging and finding her when she’s open.”
In the second half H-BC outscored MCC 25-12 to pick up the 63-27 victory.
The Patriots will be back in action on Friday, March 12, when they host the Adrian/Ellsworth Dragons. H-BC defeated the Dragons earlier this season 50-33.
 
H-BC 27 32 59
HLOF 13 11 24
 
Scoring: Rauk 22; Knobloch 11; Deelstra 5; Elbers 5; Moser 5
Rebounds: Knobloch 9; Rauk 8; Bos 7
Assists: Knobloch 4
Steals: Rauk 4; Bos 3; Knobloch 3
Blocks: Elbers 3
 
H-BC 19 26 45
RRC 19 23 42
 
Scoring: Fick 19; Knobloch 15
Rebounds: Knobloch 10; Rauk 7; Fick 7
Assists: Bos 4
Steals: Moser 4; Bos 3; Rauk 3

The Luverne girls’ basketball team went 2-2 this week to bring their overall record to 7-9.
The Cardinals opened the week on the road with a 76-26 loss to Marshall on Tuesday, March 2.
Following their loss to Marshall, the Cardinals lost in overtime to Fairmont 29-27 on Thursday, March 4.
On Saturday, March 6, the Cardinals defeated Adrian/Ellsworth 66-39.
The Cardinals wrapped up the week with a dramatic 50-48 victory over Redwood Valley on Monday, March 8. An Emma Beyer three-point play put the Cardinals up 50-48 with 4.3 seconds left to play.
“This week was a grind,” Luverne head coach TJ Newgard said. “Starting at Marshall, against one of the best teams in class 3A. We just try to work on things and remain positive in a game like that.”
 
Marshall 76, LHS 26
The Cardinals ran into a buzzsaw on Tuesday, March 2, in Marshall when they fell to the Tigers 76-26.
The Cardinals trailed 42-15 at halftime and only scored nine points in the second half to fall to their Big South Conference foe.
Christina Wagner scored five points and grabbed six rebounds for the Cardinals.
 
Fairmont 29, LHS 27
Luverne lost the battle of the Cardinals on Thursday, March 4.
 Luverne and Fairmont were tied at 26-26 at the end of regulation. Fairmont outscored Luverne 3-1 in overtime to pick up the 29-27 victory.
“Fairmont was a big game for us,’ Newgard said. “They are a team that reminds me a lot of ourselves. They play good, hard defense, but struggle on offense from time to time. Holding a good team to less than 30 points should give you a chance to win a game. I thought we played well enough to win, but they just made one more play than we did.”
Kira John led the Cardinals with 13 points. John also grabbed seven rebounds.
 
LHS 66, A/E 39
The Cardinals defeated the Adrian/Ellsworth Dragons 66-39 on Saturday, March 6.
Elise Ferrell scored the first six points of the game for the Cardinals to give them an early 6-0 lead.
Averill Sehr hit back-to-back three-pointers to give the Cardinal a 14-0 lead.
The Dragons finally got on the board at the 12:50 mark to trim Luverne’s lead to 14-3.
Sehr hit her third three-pointer of the first half to put the Cardinals up 19-11.
The Cardinals closed out the first half on a 19-4 run to take a 36-21 lead into the locker room.
Luverne outscored the Dragons 30-18 to pick up the 66-39 victory.
“We knew we would have a little bit of an advantage over Adrian,” Newgard said. We wanted to set the tone early with our press. I thought we did a great job of doing that. We had a bit of a lull in the middle of the game, but we were able to find that spark again and really put them away with our pressure.”
Elizabeth Wagner scored a team-leading 20 points and recorded five steals.
Sehr scored 13 points. Emma Beyer scored 10 points. Ferrell scored 10 points and recorded four steals.
 
LHS 50, RV 48
Redwood Valley was at the free throw line clinging to a 48-47 lead. The visiting Cardinals missed the front end of a one-and-one free throw attempt.
Luverne gathered the rebound and passed the ball up court to Emma Beyer who made a layup through contact to put the Cardinals up 49-48 with 4.3 seconds left to play. Beyer knocked down the free throw to complete the three-point play to put Luverne up 50-48.
“Down one, we were just trying to create some pressure, get a trap and try for a steal,” Newgard said. “If we didn’t get it we had to foul. Luckily they missed the front end of two one-and-ones. From there it was just girls making a play. Averill (Sehr) hit Emma (Beyer) in stride and Emma did what she does. She finished through contact around the rim.”
Redwood Valley’s heave at the buzzer did not go through the basket and Luverne picked up the 50-48 victory.
The Cardinals will wrap up the regular season on Thursday, March 11 when they play host to the Pipestone Arrows. The Cardinals defeated the Arrows earlier this season 68-59.
 
Marshall 42 34 76
LHS 15 9 26
 
Points: Wagner 5
Rebounds: C. Wagner 6; E. Wagner 6
Blocks: C. Wagner 3
 
Fairmont 29
LHS 27
 
Points: John 13
Rebounds: C. Wagner 12; John 7; Sehr 6
Assists: Sehr 5; Ferrell 4
Steals: C. Wagner 3; Sehr 3
 
LHS 36 30 66
Adrian 21 18 39
 
Points: E. Wagner 20; Sehr 13; Beyer 10; Ferrell 10; C. Wagner 7
Rebounds: John 12; C. Wagner 5;
Assists: Sehr 3
Steals: E. Wagner 5; C. Wagner 4; Ferrell 4;
Blocks: C. Wagner 3

The Luverne Cardinal boys have lost three games all season, with two of those losses coming at the hands of the Marshall Tigers.
Marshall defeated Luverne on Tuesday, March 2, 69-50.
Luverne bounced back with an 83-50 win over Fairmont on Thursday, March 4.
On Monday, March 8, the Cardinals edged Redwood Valley 69-68.
 
Marshall 69, LHS 50
The Cardinals battled against Marshall on Tuesday, March 2, but ultimately were tripped up by the visiting Tigers 69-50.
A Bailey Cowell three-pointer put the Tigers up 3-2. Cowell hit another three-pointer to give the Cardinals a 10-5 lead.
A Gannon Ahrendt three-point play put the Cardinals up 13-8 lead.
An Ahrendt basket gave the Cardinals a 19-8 lead.
Following Ahrendt’s basket, the Tigers went on a 19-2 run to take a 27-21 lead.
At halftime, the Tigers led the Cardinals 30-26.
A Cowell three-point play trimmed Marshall’s lead to 32-29.
Unfortunately for the Cardinals the Tigers slowly pulled away from Luverne to pick up the 19-point victory.
Cowell finished the game with 19 points.
Ahrendt reached double figures with 14 points.
 
LHS 83, Fairmont 50
The Cardinals scored 41 points in the first half to build a 41-29 lead against Fairmont Thursday.
The Cardinals kept their foot on the gas to outscore Fairmont 42-21 to pick up the 83-50 victory.
Jayson Rop scored a team-leading 20 points and grabbed seven rebounds.
Ahrendt reached double figures with 18 points.
Nathaniel Cole-Kraty scored nine points. Cole-Kraty also grabbed eight rebounds and recorded three steals.
Cowell scored eight points and dished out eight assists and recorded four steals.
 
LHS 69, RV 68
Redwood Valley outscored Luverne 34-32 in the first half of Monday’s game.
Luverne outscored Redwood Valley 37-34 in the second half to edge Redwood Valley 69-68.
Ahrendt and Cowell both scored 20 points to lead the Cardinals.
Ethan Beyer reached double figures with 12 points.
With the win the Cardinals improved to 12-3 overall.
The Cardinals will wrap up the regular season on Thursday, March 11, when they head to Pipestone to take on the Arrows. Pipestone defeated Luverne earlier this season 64-51.
 
LHS          26 24 50
Marshall                    30 39 69
Points: Cowell 19; Ahrednt 14
 
LHS 41     42 83
Fairmont 29 21 50
Points: Rops 20; Ahrendt 18; Cole-Kraty 9; Cowell 8; McClaughlin 6; Beyer 5
Rebounds: Cole-Kraty 8; Rops 7
Assists: Cowell 8
Steals: Cowell 4; Cole-Kraty 3

The Hills-Beaver Creek boys’ basketball team went 3-0 this past week to bring the overall record to 7-7.
On Tuesday, March 2, the Patriots defeated Mountain Lake Area-Comfrey 68-63 in overtime.
The Patriots defeated Adrian/Ellsworth on Thursday, March 4, 66-52.
On Saturday the Patriots picked up their third straight win with a 72-52 victory over Red Rock Central.
The Patriots earned a hard-fought win over Edgerton on Monday, March 8. H-BC edged the Flying Dutchmen, 43-42 to pick up their eighth win of the season.
 
H-BC 68, MLA 63
The Patriots outscored MLA 32-25 in the first half on Tuesday, March 2.
In the second half the home team outscored H-BC 35-28.
In overtime, the Patriots outscored MLA 8-3 to pick up the 68-63 victory.
Cole Baker hit four three-pointers and scored a team-leading 35 points for the Patriots. Baker also grabbed five rebounds and recorded five steals.
Zander Wysong scored 17 points and grabbed eight rebounds.
Ty Bundesen scored eight points, grabbed seven rebounds, and recorded four steals.
 
H-BC 66, A/E 52
On Thursday, March 4, the Patriots built a 15-point halftime lead against Adrian/Ellsworth. That 15-point lead helped the Patriots defeat the Dragons 66-52.
Baker hit four three-pointers and scored a team-leading 25 points for the Patriots. Baker also grabbed five rebounds and recorded five steals.
Bundesen reached double figures with 11 points and grabbed five rebounds.
Wysong chipped in with nine points and recorded eight assists.
 
H-BC 72, RRC 52
The Hills-Beaver Creek defense shined through on Saturday against Red Rock Central. The Patriots recorded 17 steals and gave the Falcons’ offense fits all game en route to a 72-52 victory over their Red Rock Conference foe.
The Patriots outscored the visiting Falcons 47-31 in the first half. In the second half H-BC outscored RRC 25-21 to secure the 20-point victory.
Wysong scored 16 points and grabbed nine rebounds for the Patriots.
Baker scored 16 points and grabbed eight rebounds.
Oliver Deelstra scored 15 points and dished out five assists.
With the win over RRC, the Patriots picked up their third straight win and improved to 7-7 overall.
 
H-BC 43, Edgerton 42
The Patriots trailed 34-26 late in the second half against Edgerton on Monday, March 8. H-BC slowly chipped away at that lead, closing the game out on a 17-8 run to pick up the 43-42 victory over Edgerton.
With the win the Patriots extended their winning streak to four games and improved to 8-7 overall.
The Patriots will look to extend their winning streak to five games on Thursday when they play host to Heron Lake-Okabena/Fulda. H-BC lost to HLOF earlier this season 79-74.
 
H-BC        32 28 8 68
MLA          25 35 3 63
Points: Baker 35; Wysong 17; Bundesen 8
Rebounds: Leenderts 10; Wysong 8; Harris 7; Baker 5
Steals: Baker 5; Bundesen 4; Wysong 3
 
H-BC        35 31 66
A/E            20 32 52
Points: Baker 25; Bundesen 11; Wysong 9; Leenderts 7
Rebounds: Durst 7; Raymon 7; Harris 6; Baker 5; Bundesen 5
Assists: Wysong 8; Harris 4
Steals: Baker 5
 
H-BC        47 25 72
RRC         31 21 52
Points: Baker 16; Wysong 16; Deelstra 15; Durst 6; Harris 6; Leenderts 6
Rebounds: Wysong 9; Baker 8; Leenderts 5
Assists: Deelstra 5; Leenderts 5
Steals: Baker 4; Deelstra 4; Harris 3; Wysong 3

The Luverne gymnastics team competed against Redwood Valley on Friday, March 5. The Cardinals lost to Redwood Valley 127.255-125.25.
Ella Reisdorfer finished second in the vault with a score of 8.900.
Amira Cowell finished third with a score of 8.800.
Tiana Lais tied for fourth with a score of 8.700.
Reisdorfer finished second in the bars with a score of 8.100.
Cowell tied for third with a score of 7.400.
In the beam, Reisdorfer finished third with a score of 7.875.
In the floor exercise, Reisdorfer finished second with a score of 8.425.
Cowell finished third with a score of 8.300.
Kianna Woods finished fourth with a score of 8.050.
In the all-around Reisdorfer finished second with a score of 33.300.
Cowell finished fourth in the all-around with a score of 31.750.
The gymnastics team will be back in action on Thursday when they host Blue Earth Area.

The Luverne girls’ hockey team went 2-1 this past week to improve to 11-4 overall.
The Cardinals opened the week with a 4-3 loss to New Ulm in New Ulm on Tuesday, March 2.
Luverne bounced back from the loss to the Eagles with a pair of shutout victories. The Cardinals blanked Marshall 5-0 on Friday, March 5. They then defeated Fairmont 12-0 on Saturday, March 6.
 
New Ulm 4, LHS 3
The Eagles scored the first two goals of the game on Tuesday, March 2. Kamryn Van Batavia got the Cardinals on the board nine minutes into the first period to cut New Ulm’s lead to 2-1.
The Eagles added one more goal in the opening period to take a 3-1 lead into the second quarter.
Mallory Nelson opened the scoring in the second period to get the Cardinals back within one. Sophie Holmberg and Anika Boll both recorded assists on the goal.
Rylee Gee tied the game at 3-3 when the senior put one between the pipes in the second period. Peyton Behr and Van Batavia both recorded assists on the goal.
A New Ulm goal 11 minutes into the second period gave them a 4-3 lead. That one-goal lead would hold as neither team was able to score in the final period.
Cheyenne Schutz recorded 29 saves for the Cardinals.
 
LHS 5, Marshall 0
Luverne’s Reghan Bork scored the lone goal in the first period. Bork was set up by a beautiful pass off the stick of Van Batavia.
The Cardinals scored three goals in the second period to build a 4-0 lead.
Van Batavia opened the second period with a goal to put the Cardinals up 2-0.
Gee scored the team’s third goal of the game to put Luverne up 3-0. Brynn Thier recorded an assist on the goal.
Van Batavia wrapped up the scoring in the second period to put the Cardinals up 4-0.
Van Batavia scored her third goal of the game to open the third period to wrap up the scoring and give the Cardinals a 5-0 lead.
Mallory Von Tersch recorded 19 saves in the game.
 
LHS 12, Fairmont 0
The Cardinals scored two goals in the opening minute en route to a seven-goal first period on Saturday, March 6.
Van Batavia scored 27 seconds into the game to put the Cardinals up 1-0 before the fans could settle into their seats.
It took 30 seconds for the Cardinals to score their second goal of the game. Gee’s goal put the Cardinals up 2-0.
Bork scored the third goal of the period. Van Batavia recorded the assist on Bork’s goal.
Gee scored her second goal of the period to put the Cardinals up 4-0.
Thier scored the fifth goal of the first period to put Luverne up 5-0. Bork and Behr both notched assists on the goal.
Van Batavia scored her second goal of the first period to put the Cardinals up 6-0. Bork recorded the assist on Van Batavia’s goal.
Behr scored the seventh and final goal of the first period.
It was Behr opening the scoring in the second period to put the Cardinals up 8-0. Zariah Holmgren and Van Batavia both recorded assists on the goal.
Holmberg scored the ninth goal of the game. Van Batavia and Roz Oye both recorded assists on the goal.
Bork scored her second goal of the game to wrap up the scoring in the second period to put Luverne up 10-0.
Anika Boll opened the scoring in the third period to put Luverne up 11-0.
Behr scored her third goal of the game to wrap up the scoring. Van Batavia recorded the assist on the goal.
The Cardinals will play their final home game on Tuesday, March 9, against Fairmont.