Luverne defenseman Marissa Frakes (10) dives to tip a shot by Windom’s Kari Schwecke during Thursday’s girls’ hockey game at the Blue Mound Ice Arena. The Cardinals beat the Eagles 9-2 to win the Southwest Conference championship.By John RittenhouseThe Luverne girls’ hockey team ran its record to 13-2-1 after reeling off three consecutive home victories since last Thursday.The Cardinals won the Southwest Conference championship by defeating Windom by seven goals in Thursday. Luverne nipped Mankato West by one goal Saturday before routing Fairmont by eight goals Tuesday.Luverne will play for an undefeated SWC season in Worthington Tuesday.Luverne 8, Fairmont 0Sarah Schneekloth recorded a shutout in net and Natalie Domagala and Sadie Dietrich both registered hat tricks during Tuesday’s home win over Fairmont.Schneekloth stopped all 15 shots she faced in goal for the Cards. Domagala and Dietrich scored three goals each to highlight a 32-shot-on-goal offensive performance by the hosts.Stephanie Steensma scored an unassisted goal during a short-handed situation to give the Cards a 1-0 lead in the first period before Dietrich scored after being set up by Domagala to make it 2-0 as the period progressed.Luverne iced the game with a five-goal second period.Dietrich scored her second goal of the game, an unassisted effort during a short-handed situation, to open the scoring spree in the second stanza.Taylor Nelson made it 4-0 after being set up by Chessa Ossefoort, and Domagala followed with three unassisted goals to make it a 7-0 game at period’s end.Dietrich capped the scoring with an unassisted goal in the third period.Luverne 3, MW 2The LHS girls never trailed during a one-goal victory over Mankato West during Saturday’s game in Luverne.Domagala netted a pair of short-handed goals at the 14:48 and 3:06 marks of the first period to give the Cards a 2-0 lead they would never relinquish.MW cut Luverne’s lead in half (2-1) when Amber Umhoefer scored 1:28 into the second period, but Luverne’s Natalie Morgan netted a power-play goal at 16:13 of the third period after being set up by Nelson and Jenny Braa to make it 3-1.West’s Emily Ramus capped the scoring with 1:16 left to play.Schneekloth stopped 12 of 14 shots in net for LHS. Luverne had 22 shots on goal.Luverne 9, Windom 2The Cardinals clinched the SWC championship after rolling to a seven-goal victory over the Eagles in Luverne Thursday.With one league loss entering the game, Windom was the only team that could have taken the title away from LHS. Luverne, however, improved its league mark to 5-0 while the Eagles slipped to 2-2 at game’s end.The scoring punch provided by Domagala and Dietrich led LHS to victory. Domagala scored three goals and notched three assists in the contest. Dietrich added three goals and two assists to the cause.Luverne’s Braa (Domagala received an assist) and Windom’s Katie MacRae exchanged goals in the first 8:01 of the game before the Cardinals reeled off eight straight goals to take control of the contest.First-period counters by Domagala (Ossefoort received an assist), Dietrich (Braa receives an assist), and Domagala (Dietrich received an assist) in a span of 2:58 gave the Cards a 4-1 lead.Luverne added four more goals in the second period to make it an 8-1 difference.Domagala set up the first goal of the stanza scored by Stephanie Steensma at 11:20, and Dietrich found the net at 6:53 with assists going to Ossefoort and Nelson. Dietrich set up a goal by Abby DeWispelaere at 5:42 before completing her hat trick with a power-play goal at 2:10. Braa and Domagala set up Dietrich’s third goal of the game.Domagala made it a 9-1 game with an unassisted effort with 13:53 left in the third period. Alex Potter countered for Windom with 2:48 remaining.Schneekloth stopped 11 of 13 shots in net for LHS. Luverne had 23 shots on goal.

Red Arrow surpasses goalThe 2003 Red Arrow fund drive has met and exceeded its goal.The drive, which was concluded in November, surpassed their $35,000 goal and ended the campaign with a total collection of $39,384.The campaign theme for 2003 was "A Gift of Hope & Comfort."This year the funds will be distributed between 23 agencies, many of them local.This year’s event chairman was Brian Wohnoutka.Magnus to host economic development meetingRepresentative Doug Magnus, along with the chairman of the Minnesota House of Representative’s Commerce Committee will be in Luverne next Monday, Jan. 26, for an economic development "listening session" at the Community Library at 1 p.m.The Luverne Chamber is trying to encourage local business leaders, along with elected officials and general citizens, to attend the meeting and exchange development ideas with the two legislators as well as everyone else in attendance.Rep. Greg Davids, (R-Preston), the House Commerce Committee chairman, is accompanying Magnus on this trip.Representatives from the Minnesota Department of Economic Development will also be on hand to discuss the JOB zones initiative.Rock County businesses can now file onlineIf you’re running a business in Rock County, or anywhere else in the state of Minnesota for that matter, you can now complete your annual registration online.According to Secretary of State, Mary Kiffmeyer, companies doing business in Minnesota, are required to file annually with the Secretary of State’s office.In the past, this required completing a paper form and mailing it.Once it arrived at the SOS office, staff would have to enter the information manually into the database.When you file online, the process takes only a few minutes and provides immediate confirmation that you have met the legal filing deadline and that the information filed was exactly what they wanted it, at no cost.Are you the next Dairy Princess?The American Dairy Association of Rock County is seeking candidates to participate in this year’s Dairy Princess program.Rock County’s representative will serve as a goodwill ambassador for the Rock County dairy industry, which will include appearances in various parades and other promotional events.To qualify for the contest, you must be between the ages of 16 and 24 by July 1, 2004.If you would like to participate in the regional contest in May, you must be a high school graduate by July 1st.The contest is only for young women, whose parents are "actively engaged in the production of milk for sale to a licensed plant during the current year."Employment of your parents on a dairy farm or related capacity also qualifies you.If you want to know more about it, contact Philip or Theresa Raak, by Feb. 15 at (507) 348-4850.Tangeman continues push for ‘Living Stones’ projectJeanette Tangeman’s push to raise money for a family’s new home in El Salvador is continuing.To date she has raised more than $1,498 of the $3,500 that is needed to build one of the homes.Two local church groups have been very generous, according to Tangeman, Luverne, as have the Senior Citizens and children that have contributed to her "big jar."Currently, 115 of the 232 planned homes are under construction Two "Living Stones" communities have already been built since the earthquake in the ‘90s in Mexico.The Catholic World Mission is raising the funds for the project as well as coordinating the construction of the clinics, schools and transportation infrastructure.If you would like to contribute, contact Jeanette Tangeman at 500 Phyleon Drive in Luverne or call her at 283-8830.Publisher Roger Tollefson can be reached by e-mail at tolly@star-herald.com

Veterans Home cameto town throughspirit of cooperationThe Minnesota Veterans Home, Luverne, will mark its 10-year anniversary Sunday. Open houses and speeches aren’t all that thrilling, but what is thrilling is to see what can happen when a dedicated group of individuals sets out to make big things happen.I started here at the Star Herald just in time to see the final touches added to the beautiful Veterans Home facility.In researching information for this week’s story on the 10-year anniversary, the bigger story is the spirit of cooperation it took to bring a veterans home to Luverne.The bright spot in the background on the facility is that local government agencies — primarily the city and county — worked together to make it happen.In addition, local Democrats and Republicans lobbied side by side in St. Paul to convince the legislature to locate southwest Minnesota’s veterans home in Luverne.As the story is told to me, everyone rolled up their sleeves and tackled this monumental task without worrying about who did more work or who would get the credit.Ahhh … Those were the days.It might behoove our current government officials to revisit those times … perhaps retrace their roots to the values this community was founded on.Perseverance pays offIn case there was ever doubt about how far a little perseverance will go, consider the following:oIn his first year in the automobile business, Henry Ford went bankrupt. Two years later, his second company also failed. His third corporation has done rather well, however.oApple microcomputer was turned down by both Hewlett-Packard and Atari, but had first-year sales of $2.5 millionoDr. Seuss’s first children’s book was rejected by 23 publishers. The 24th publisher sold 6 million copies of it.oHoward Hughes Sr. was forced to abandon his first oil well because he couldn’t drill through the hard rock. He then founded Hughes Tool Co. and invented a rock drill that became the foundation for the family fortune.oR.H. Macy went broke with his first three dry goods stores.oAfter Paul Gavin’s storage battery business failed for the second time in 1928, he borrowed $750, bought back part of it and went into business again as Motorola.We can learn a number of things from these individuals, but the important thing to know is that they didn’t possess anything that isn’t available to all of us.Our only limitations are the ones we impose on ourselves.

Deb Bowman, Tuff Village Activities Coordinator (and volunteer librarian), checks out a book to resident Vivienne Tatge Tuesday at the new library facility located in the Community Room at Tuff Village.By Jolene FarleyAfter the demise of the Rock County Bookmobile, readers in the Hills area wondered if they would have to drive to Luverne to check out a book. The Bookmobile, one of the items cut from the Rock County budget last fall because of funding constraints, no longer operated after the first of the year. Rock County Commissioner Richard Bakken began looking for alternatives to keep library services available in Hills, according to Tuff Village Administrator Bonnie Hengeveld.Bakken approached Hengeveld about using Tuff Village as the location for a satellite branch to the Rock County Library. Bakken, Hengeveld and Rock County librarian Glenda Bremer worked out the details and the branch opened Thursday, Jan. 8. More than 100 children or adult books are on hand at the location, including some large-print books. Books on tape are also available.Readers will also be able to request books from the Rock County Library and the in-stock selection will continually rotate."They are just kind of in the process of setting up the whole system," said Hengeveld. February hours for the branch are 9 to 11 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 7, and Saturday, Feb. 21, and 6 to 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 10.The hours may change in March, depending on the amount of people who use the service. Organizers tried to stay as close to the Bookmobile schedule as possible.The whole project costs taxpayers very little, according to Hengeveld. Tuff Village employees transport residents to Luverne for appointments or other purposes daily so books can be picked up or dropped off while the employees are in town. No rent is charged for the space and Tuff Village Activities Director Deb Bowman will work at the library on Tuesday evenings."In a sense, we are volunteering some of our staff time," Hengeveld said.On Saturdays, Hills-Beaver Creek High School Librarian Marilyn Nelson will work in the library.Hills Christian School Principal Wendell Buys said the new facility can’t offer the selection of the Bookmobile where his students had hundreds of books to choose from. Hills Christian School students and staff are disappointed that the Bookmobile no longer stops at their school. "Our kids really enjoyed going in there," said Buys. "The ladies were very cooperative, we could ask for all sorts of things."Buys said Bakken and the other volunteers are "doing a great service," but there is no way the Tuff Village branch library can compare to the Bookmobile."We appreciate that they are willing to work with us and try to lessen the blow of losing the Bookmobile," he said.

By Jolene FarleyMost of the paraprofessionals currently working in area schools don’t meet federal requirements. Local school districts are working to meet those requirements mandated by the federal No Child Left Behind legislation.No Child Left Behind legislation mandates all newly hired paraprofessionals must have completed at least two years of study at an institution of higher education, obtained an associate’s degree or higher, or met a rigorous standard of quality, demonstrated through a local state or local academic assessment.Paraprofessionals (teachers’ aides) who are currently working in school districts must meet the same requirements by 2006.All paraprofessionals, whether a current employee or newly hired, must possess a high school diploma or its equivalent. Only paraprofessionals working as translators or exclusively on parental involvement activities are exempt.Administrators at Hills-Beaver Creek Elementary School are working with paraprofessionals in their district to meet the criteria, according to Elementary Principal Todd Holthous. If school districts don’t comply by 2006, they risk losing Title I and Title II funding, according to Holthaus. "They (government) said that we need leadership and training for paraprofessionals," Holthaus said. "They need to document skills."Seven paraprofessionals in H-BC are attending workshops and taking on-line courses to meet the requirements. "There are nine competencies and they have to demonstrate proficiencies in these competencies," Holthaus said. He doesn’t anticipate losing any of the paraprofessionals currently on staff because of the new requirements.The paraprofessionals in the district have already mastered many of the skills required by the new legislation, according to Holthaus. "It’s just the documentation; that’s where the difficulties come in," Holthaus said.The employees are working an average of two to three hours a week toward their certification. Holthaus worries the new requirements could lead to a shortage of paraprofessionals."I think the problems are going to come with a shortage of licensed paraprofessionals in 2006," he said.The new certification could also increase wages because of the education requirements. "It’s probably going to have a roll in compensation for paras," Holthaus said. Despite a possible shortage and increased wages, Holthaus doesn’t think the mandates were a bad idea. In larger districts, where administrators don’t work side by side with their employees, the quality of paraprofessionals may not be monitored as closely as smaller districts."In a small district it’s not a huge necessity, but some may fall through the cracks in an urban school district," he said. Mavis Schmidt, who has been a paraprofessional at Hills-Beaver Creek for seven years, supports the new requirements."Some of the stuff is just common sense," she said. Paraprofessionals in the Hills-Beaver Creek district have always attended workshops and learned new ways to help students, according to Schmidt.The difference now is that paraprofessionals must document what they learn.

By John RittenhouseThe Luverne boys’ hockey team had a successful week that featured winning two games in a six-day span.The Cardinals posted a six-goal win in Sleepy Eye Thursday and beat the same team by seven goals in Luverne Tuesday. Luverne lost a six-goal home decision to Fairmont Saturday.The 3-11 Cards host Wadena-Deer Creek Saturday before playing in Worthington Tuesday.Luverne 9, SE 2Matt Reverts and Tyler Elbers scored a combined seven goals during a seven-goal home victory over Sleepy Eye Tuesday.Reverts netted four goals and passed for one assist in the game and Elbers scored three times as well as charting one assist during the lopsided win.Reverts opened the scoring 23 seconds into the game after being set up by Andre Landtwing, who contributed five assists and one goal to the winning cuase.Landtwing set up goals by Elbers and Reverts at the 2:39 and 2:32 marks of the first period, and Elbers scored again at 1:30 with assists going to Landtwing and Tim Drost to make it 4-0.SE’s Brandon Havemeier scored at 9:18 of the second period to make it 4-1 before Luverne’s Reverts (assists going to Elbers and Steve Berghorst) and Elbers (assist going to Landtwing) found the net in the final eight minutes of the stanza to make it 6-1.Bryan Tauer scored for SE early in the third period. Luverne countered with goals by Landtwing (assists going to Reverts and Jordan Siebenahler) and Andres Wellig (assists going to Siebenahler and Drost) to cap the scoring.Luverne outshot SE 51-17 in the game. Brad Van Santen made 15 saves for LHS.Fairmont 7, Luverne 1A six-goal run by Fairmont in the final two periods of the game provided the margin of victory during Saturday’s game in Luverne.The teams skated to a draw at one in the first period, but Fairmont scored five goals in a span of 10:22 minutes of the second period before Matt Harris capped the scoring with the lone goal of the third period.Pete Bissen, Jordan Meyer, Matt Sieg, Brian Hinrichsen and Jake Kot all scored one goal during the 12:31 and 2:09 marks of the second period for the visitors.Hinrichsen opened the scoring at the 6:39 mark of the first period before Luverne’s Dan Schneekloth tied the game at one after being set up by Tyler Elbers with 29 seconds left in the opening stanza.Luverne outshot Fairmont 39-29 in the game. Van Santen and Pat Bennett played in net for LHS.Luverne 8, SE 2The Cardinals posted their first conference win of the season when they bested the Indians by six goals in Sleepy Eye Thursday.Nick Otten and Justin Arndt combined efforts to score five goals and Steve Berghorst registered five assists for an LHS team that outshot SE 52-9 in the game.Luverne, which scored the first five goals of the game, received goals 19 seconds apart from Brad Deutsch and Otten to gain a 2-0 lead in the first period. Deutsch scored at 7:26 after being set up by Andreas Wellig and Dan Schneekloth. Matt Reverts and Berghorst received assists for Otten’s goal at 7:07.Berghorst set up Otten’s second goal of the game at 10:29 of the second period to make it 3-0. Arndt found the net 1:16 late with an assist going to Tyler Elbers. Otten completed a hat trick at 8:36 with an assist going to Cody Dietrich.SE’s Justin Sellner snapped Luverne’s five-goal run with a counter at the 7:37 mark of the second period. Arndt got the goal back for the Cards two minutes later to make it a 6-1 game. Andrew Landtwing set up Arndt’s second goal.Berghorst capped his three-assist performance by setting up a goal by Landtwing with 4:04 left in the third period. Jordan Siebenahler scored 1:19 later with an assist going to Otten to make the difference 8-1.SE’s Travis Niedecker capped the scoring with a goal at the 1:30 mark of the final stanza.Bennett made seven saves in goal for the Cards.

By John RittenhouseThe Hills-Beaver Creek boys drew the tough task of playing a state-ranked team on the road Friday.Mountain Lake-Butterfield-Odin, the state’s fifth-ranked Class 1A squad, ran its record to 11-0 by upending the Patriots 67-45 in Mountain Lake.The hosts rolled to a 24-13 lead in the first quarter before H-BC battled back to trim the difference to seven (30-23) by outscoring the Wolverines 10-6 in the second quarter.ML-B-O took control of the contest by going on a 20-4 scoring run in the fourth quarter to open a 50-27 lead that was trimmed to 22 points when H-BC sported an 18-17 scoring edge in the fourth quarter.Tom LeBoutillier and Trey Van Wyhe netted 14 and 10 points respectively to lead the Patriots in scoring.Tyler Bush snared seven rebounds and passed for three assists for the Patriots. Zach Wysong added five rebounds and three assists to the cause. Kale Wiertzema pulled down five rebounds.H-BC, 8-5 overall and 3-3 in the Red Rock Conference, hosts Sioux Valley-Round Lake-Brewster tonight, West Lyon Saturday and Edgerton Tuesday.Box scoreBush 2 0 0-0 4, Elbers 0 0 0-0 0, Wysong 0 2 0-0 6, Jackson 1 0 0-0 2, Broesder 0 0 0-0 0, Wiertzema 3 0 3-3 9, Van Wyhe 5 0 0-0 10, Spykerboer 0 0 0-0 0, LeBoutillier 6 0 2-5 14.Team statisticsH-BC: 19 of 54 field goals (35 percent), five of eight free throws (63 percent), 29 rebounds, nine turnovers.ML-B-O: 28 of 57 field goals (49 percent), two of four free throws (50 percent), 33 rebounds, six turnovers.

Hills-Beaver Creek High School sophomore Kerry Fink had a .500 day during the annual Cardinal Wrestling Tournament in Luverne Saturday. Fink went 2-2 for the Luverne squad.By John RittenhouseHills-Beaver Creek sophomore Kerry Fink posted a pair of wins as a member of the Luverne High School wrestling squad since the weekend.Fink went 2-2 during the Cardinal Tournament in Luverne Saturday.He lost a decision during a match against Tracy-Milroy-Balaton in Luverne Tuesday.Fink wrestled at 140 pounds during both events.The H-BC grappler took on T-M-B’s James Prairie Tuesday night and came up on the short end of a 16-4 major decision.Luverne lost the match by a 73-6 tally.Fink experienced a .500 day during the Cardinal Tournament in Luverne Saturday.Luverne’s 140-pounder won his first two matches in pool competition before dropping two battles to end the day.Fink opened the tournament by pinning Brandon Valley’s Nick Langer 28 seconds into the third period of their match.Fink drew a forfeit to score six team points against Lac Qui Parle Valley, but he was pinned by Wabasso’s Justin Irlbeck in 3:12 and lost an 8-1 decision to Worthington’s Cody Schmidt to end the day.Luverne lost all four of its dual matches during the tournament.BV (48-21), LQPV (42-24), Wabasso (84-0) and Worthington (48-21) all upended the Cardinals.Luverne, 0-12 overall, hosts Adrian Tuesday.

By John RittenhouseBasketball fans who attended Thursday’s girls’ basketball game between Comfrey and Hills-Beaver Creek in Hills were treated to two memorable occurrences during the course of the game.Not only did the spectators get to witness H-BC senior Erin Boeve collect her 1,000th career rebound, they also got to see the Patriots put together a spectacular comeback in the second half that ended with H-BC pulling out a 54-51 victory.After falling behind by 11 points in the third quarter, H-BC rallied to outscore the Rockets by 14 points the rest of the night to win the game.Boeve, who needed eight rebounds to become the first H-BC player to ever compile 1,000 points and 1,000 caroms in her career entering the game, got it at the beginning of H-BC’s second-half rally.She finished the game with 12 rebounds, eight blocked shots and 29 points during a dominating performance that was not overlooked by H-BC coach Tom Goehle."I’m really happy for Erin,"he said. "The nice thing about it was her 1,000th rebound came at a good time, because we were making a run at Comfrey in the third quarter when it happened.""I think having 1,000 career rebounds is a much greater accomplishment than scoring 1,000 career points (Boeve surpassed the 1,000-point barrier last season) because you accomplish that by yourself in essence. There’s no one setting screens for you, and there’s no one feeding you with assists when you’re rebounding," he added.H-BC, which led 15-9 after eight minutes of play, found itself facing a 29-23 halftime deficit after being outscored 20-8 in the second quarter by Comfrey.The situation looked bleak for the Patriots when Comfrey increased its lead to 11 points early in the third quarter, but H-BC gained some momentum when Boeve corralled her 1,000th rebound and trimmed the difference to six points (41-35) by period’s end.Boeve pumped in 13 points to help H-BC outscore the Rockets 19-10 in the fourth quarter and win the game by three points.Amanda Olson and Brittney Rozeboom added 10 and nine rebounds to the winning effort, while Stacy Bush contributed four assists.Cassi Tilstra netted 13 points and passed for five assists for the Patriots.Box scoreRozeboom 0 0 1-4 1, Bush 0 1 0-0 3, Sandstede 1 0 0-0 2, C.Tilstra 6 0 1-2 13, Hoyme 0 0 0-0 0, Boeve 13 0 3-3 29, Olson 3 0 0-1 6, Mulder 0 0 0-2 0, Fransman 0 0 0-0 0.Team statisticsH-BC: 24 of 62 field goals (39 percent), five of 12 free throws (42 percent), 47 rebounds, 13 turnovers.Comfrey: 20 of 50 field goals (40 percent), four of eight free throws (50 percent), 33 rebounds, 15 turnovers.