By John Rittenhouse
The Hills-Beaver Creek girls capped a hectic five-day span by besting Edgerton 40-26 in a basketball game played in Hills Friday.

Playing their fourth game in five days, H-BC used the scoring of Erin Boeve and solid play on defense to secure third place in the Tri-County Conference with their 14-point win over the Flying Dutchmen.

Boeve, who had five rebounds and three blocked shots for H-BC, came up big for the Patriots in what proved to be a decisive fourth quarter.

The Patriots turned a five-point advantage heading into the period into a 14-point win by outscoring Edgerton 11-2. Boeve scored six of her team-high 18 points in the stanza.

H-BC led 10-4 after eight minutes of play before settling for five-point leads (21-16 and 29-24) at the next two quarter breaks.

The Patriots forced Edgerton to turn the ball over 28 times in the game, and Becky Broesder and LaDonna Sandstede led the way with three steals each. Broesder and Jody DeNoble had five rebounds each. Shanna Tilstra contributed four assists to the cause.

H-BC 40, Edgerton 26
The Patriots finished Tri-County Conference play with a 5-3 record after beating the Flying Dutchmen by 14 points in Hills Friday.

The game was close through three quarters before a strong defensive effort in the fourth quarter allowed the Patriots to pull away in the end.

H-BC took a 29-24 advantage into the final eight minutes of play, when it limited Edgerton to two points while scoring 11.

The scores stood at 10-4 and 21-16 at the first two quarter breaks.

"This was a very good finish to a long week for us," said Patriot coach Goehle. "We finished the week with a 3-1 record. We continue to get better as a team, which is what you are looking for at this time of year."

Erin Boeve, who scored six points in the second and fourth quarters, led the Patriots with 18 counters. She also had five rebounds and three blocked shots. Becky Broesder had five rebounds and three steals. Jody DeNoble added five rebounds, Shanna Tilstra four assists and LaDonna Sandstede three steals.

Box score
C.Tilstra 0 0 0-0 0, Olson 0 0 0-0 0, Sandstede 0 1 0-2 3, Rentschler 0 0 0-0 0, S.Tilstra 1 0 0-0 2, Broesder 2 0 2-4 6, DeNoble 4 0 1-2 9, Boeve 7 0 4-6 18, DeHaan 1 0 0-0 2, Arp 0 0 0-0 0.

Team statistics
H-BC: 16 of 40 field goals (40 percent), seven of 14 free throws (50 percent), 26 rebounds, 16 turnovers.
Edgerton: 11 of 39 field goals (28 percent), four of six free throws (67 percent), 23 rebounds, 28 turnovers.

By John Rittenhouse
A big game by Patriot Erin Boeve wasn't enough to keep the Hills-Beaver Creek girls' basketball team from ending the regular season on a sour note Tuesday in Worthington.

H-BC took on a strong and deep Trojan team and came up on the short end of a 67-33 tally.

Boeve played a solid game by scoring 18 points, collecting 13 rebounds and blocking two shots, but this game belonged to Worthington.

The loss capped a 10-12 regular season for the Patriots, who will open the South Section 3A Tournament by hosting Sioux Valley-Round Lake-Brewster at 7:30 p.m. tonight.

Worthington, a Class 3A team, used its strength and depth to best the Patriots by 34 points. Playing a relentless, physical style of game, the Trojans were able to outscore H-BC in every quarter.

"They were too physical for us," said Patriot coach Tom Goehle. "The style of game they let go on over there was just too physical for us. It took us out of our game."

The Patriots remained in contact with the Trojans when they faced 23-13 and 35-23 deficits at the first two quarter breaks, but Worthington outscored H-BC 32-10 in the second half to win handily.

The Trojans opened a 21-point lead (46-25) by the end of the third quarter before outscoring H-BC 21-8 in the final stanza.

Becky Broesder recorded four assists for H-BC.

Box score
C.Tilstra 0 0 0-0 0, Olson 2 0 0-0 4, Sandstede 0 1 0-0 3, Rentschler 0 0 0-0 0, S.Tilstra 1 0 0-0 2, Broesder 2 0 2-2 6, Rozeboom 0 0 0-0 0, DeNoble 0 0 0-0 0, Boeve 7 0 4-6 18, DeHaan 0 0 0-0 0, Arp 0 0 0-0 0.

Team statistics
H-BC: 13 of 48 field goals (27 percent), six of nine free throws (67 percent), 29 rebounds, 19 turnovers.
Worthington: 27 of 63 field goals (43 percent), nine of 12 free throws (75 percent), 46 rebounds, 14 turnovers.

By John Rittenhouse
A dominating performance on the boards led the Hills-Beaver Creek boys' basketball team to a 63-56 win in Adrian Friday.

Outrebounding the Dragons 40-16, H-BC was able to take the lead early and fought off a late charge by AHS to win by seven.

The H-BC win avenges a loss to the Dragons in Hills back in January, when Adrian turned in an impressive offensive performance during a 61-54 win.

"We rebounded really well and kept them off the boards," said Patriot coach Steve Wiertzema. "When we played them in Hills, they shot 61 percent from the field. If they were going to shoot like that, we wanted to limit them to one shot. We did a nice job of that and playing defense."

H-BC sported a 13-10 lead before going on a 12-0 run capped by a field goal by Chris Fransman with 28 seconds left in the first period to open a 25-10 lead. The quarter ended with the Patriots sporting a 25-13 lead.

The Patriots scored the first six points of the second quarter and led by as many as 19 points (36-17) as the period progressed, but Adrian countered with an 11-0 run to trim the difference to eight points (36-28) late in the stanza before facing a 37-28 deficit at halftime.

H-BC led by as many as 12 points (40-28) and as few as seven counters (47-40) during the fourth quarter before settling for a nine-point cushion (49-40) at periodÕs end.

After opening an 11-point cushion early in the fourth quarter, H-BC watched the Dragons pull to within three points (59-56) when Travis Rupp hit a field goal with 47 seconds remaining. H-BC, however, made a field goal and two free throws by Lance Crawford in the final 40 seconds to put the game away.

Crawford, who had nine rebounds and five assists, scored eight of his 14 points in the fourth quarter. Matt Buck, who had seven rebounds and six assists for H-BC, netted 10 of his 14 points in the first quarter. David Top led the winners with 17 points. Lyle DeBoer recorded seven rebounds and five assists, while Darin DeBoer contributed seven rebounds.

Adrian's Bryce Block led all scorers with 21 points. Brad Lonneman scored 11 points and collected 11 rebounds before leaving the game with a sprained ankle in the fourth quarter. Mark Kroon registered 11 points and nine assists for an AHS team that had no answer to H-BCÕs rebounding push.

"We were not aggressive on the boards," said Dragon coach Chris Rozell. "We were outrebounded by 24, When that happens, you are in trouble. This was our fourth game of the week, so we were down energy-wise."

Box score
H-BC
D.DeBoer 2 1 2-2 9, Fransman 1 0 0-0 2, Haak 1 0 2-3 4, L.DeBoer 1 0 0-0 2, Van Wyhe 0 0 1-2 1, Top 5 1 4-6 17, Crawford 6 0 2-2 14, Buck 6 0 2-6 14.
Adrian
Hohn 1 0 1-3 3, Kroon 4 1 0-0 11, Baartman 0 2 0-0 6, Block 2 5 2-2 21, Lonneman 3 1 2-6 11, Rupp 2 0 0-0 4.

Team statistics
H-BC: 24 of 58 field goals (41 percent), 13 of 21 free throws (62 percent), 40 rebounds, 17 turnovers.
Adrian: 21 of 56 field goals (38 percent), five of 11 free throws (45 percent), 16 rebounds, 11 turnovers.

By John Rittenhouse
The Hills-Beaver Creek girls avenged an early-season loss to Ellsworth by nipping the Panthers 48-45 in a Tri-County Conference game played in Hills Thursday.

A solid third quarter gave the Patriots an 11-point lead heading into the final eight minutes of play when they fought off a late challenge by Ellsworth to secure a three-point win.

"This was a good win for us," said Patriot coach Tom Goehle. "We were able to get a big lead in the third quarter by pressing them and creating some turnovers. We had to hang on a little bit in the end, but we managed."

H-BC, which led 10-7 and 20-19 at the first two quarter stops, went on an 18-10 run fueled by Erin Boeve in the third quarter to open a 38-29 lead.

Boeve, who led the Patriots with 18 points and nine rebounds, erupted for 13 counters in the third quarter.

Ellsworth battled back well in the fourth quarter and trailed 46-44 with 12 seconds remaining. Panther Jenna Groen went to the line with an opportunity to knot the score at that point, but she made one of two charity shots to make it a 46-45 game. Patriot Becky Broesder was fouled with two seconds left and drained a pair of free throws to cap the scoring.

According to Ellsworth coach Dean Schnaible, a defensive change he made in the third quarter opened the door for H-BC's run.

"We trailed 20-19 after playing a zone in the first half. I decided to go to a man-to-man defense in the third quarter thinking that it would help us to pick up the tempo, but it backfired on us. I was responsible for the loss," he said.

Holly Timmer had 13 points and nine rebounds for Ellsworth, while Connie Lewis added 13 points and eight rebounds. Groen netted 10 points and collected seven rebounds, while Janelle Jenniges charted seven rebounds.

Box score
Ellsworth
Deutsch 1 0 0-0 2, Boltjes 1 0 0-0 2, J.Jenniges 1 0 3-4 5, D.Jenniges 0 0 0-0 0, Lewis 4 0 5-10 13, Ja.Leuthold 0 0 0-0 0, Groen 2 1 3-4 10, Timmer 2 0 9-12 13.
H-BC
C.Tilstra 1 0 0-0 2, Olson 1 0 0-1 2, Sandstede 1 1 1-2 6, Rentschler 0 0 0-0 0, S.Tilstra 1 1 0-2 5, Broesder 2 0 2-3 6, DeNoble 1 0 3-6 5, Boeve 7 0 4-6 18, DeHaan 1 0 0-0 2, Arp 1 0 0-0 2.

Team statistics
Ellsworth: 12 of 36 field goals (33 percent), 20 of 30 free throws (67 percent), 31 rebounds, 16 turnovers.
H-BC: 18 of 45 field goals (40 percent), 10 of 20 free throws (50 percent), 25 rebounds, 10 turnovers.

By Sara Quam
Nancy Sandager finds herself comfortable at her new job as 4-H Extension Educator. She's settled into her surroundings for about a month at the part-time job. Her responsibilities include organizing the county's eight community clubs and being a liaison between state and local entities.

Before this, Sandager, who has a business degree, worked in both Luverne and Hills-Beaver Creek school systems. "I've got the business background for the organizational aspects, and I've worked with kids for the past few years, so I'm covered."

Sandager said her biggest challenge and the highlight of her job will be the Rock County Fair in August. "So many families are helpful. 4-H is a great youth development organization, and there's something for everybody, not just the farm kids," she said. Sandager lives in rural Hills with her husband, Mike, and their three children.

Amy Christensen's fifth-grade class had the highest total with 2,332 Pepsi Notes collected.

By Jolene Farley
Hills-Beaver Creek Elementary students blew the lid off their goal of 2,000 by collecting 11,270 Pepsi Notes in the Share the Joy with Music Program sponsored by Pepsi.

It was "just incredible," according to Elementary Music Instructor Jodi Ackerman.

"Monetary value is over $1,000 in equipment for the music program," said Ackerman. "We would never, never have been able to get these items on our own."

Share the Joy with Music is a new program created to help schools receive free, new instruments, sheet music, equipment, music-related software or any item to enhance a music education program.

Pepsi sets no limit on the number of "Pepsi Notes" that can be redeemed by each school. Pepsi partners with The National Association for Music Education and Internet retailer Music 123.com for the program.

Information about the program was available for Ackerman on the first day of school. "I asked Mr. [Superintendent Tom] Knoll if we could implement the program. We were leery at first to do the project because the school supports Coke products."

They then remembered the soup labels and box tops collected by students, according to Ackerman. These collections have helped the Elementary earn other items.

H-BC Elementary students began collecting "Pepsi Notes" from Pepsi products in November and continued collecting through the winter.

Ackerman set an original goal of 700 Pepsi Notes, hoping to be able to trade the notes for two music-orientated computer programs.

It soon became clear this goal would be surpassed so she raised the goal to 2,000 Pepsi Notes. "Of course we blew that out of the water," said Ackerman.

"I told my students to get their family involved," said Ackerman. "Call Grandma and Grandpa."

Students did just that. Parents enlisted the help of friends and relatives. A sixth-grade student's aunt and uncle saved notes at their lake resort.

When Worthington High School decided not to participate in the program but had already begun collecting notes, Sean Goedtel's father, John, who teaches in Worthington, brought more than 1,000 notes over to H-BC to add to the fifth-grade total. Cargill made a contribution and so did the South Dakota State Penitentiary.

Drop boxes were placed at Orv’s Station, Hills, and Rauk’s Market, Beaver Creek. Bonnie Sundem at Orv's Station played an instrumental part in the drop box total, according to Ackerman. She would ask customers who purchased Pepsi products if they wanted their notes. If they didn’t she would cut them off and deposit them in the drop box.

It is obvious everyone's hard work paid off by the total of 1,883 12-pack notes collected, 282 24-pack notes collected and 918 singles collected.

Notes must be sent in by Feb. 28, 2001. After Ackerman receives confirmation of the count she can order products from the catalog. The items will be delivered four to six weeks later.

An electronic keyboard, Music Ace 1 and 2 software packages, 25 boomwackers, two sets of small classroom cymbals, a set of bongo drums, a Cabesa, a Music Maker, a rhythm band kit with 10 elementary percussion instruments, three electric metronomes and a trumpet mute for the high school will be ordered because of the Share the Joy with Music Program.

"There are so many other things we could do, it is hard making a decision," Ackerman stated.

Ackerman had planned a popcorn party with the class that collected the most points, but when the donation came from Worthington High School upping the fifth-grade total substantially, Ackerman decided to include the top two classes instead of just the top class.

The fifth grade, with 2,332 notes, and sixth grade, with 1,944 notes, are invited to the party.

The kindergarten collected 856 notes, first grade, 860 notes, second grade, 1,075 notes, third grade, 1,555 notes, fourth grade, 947 notes, and the drop box total was 1,701.

"I want to thank everyone. They just really blew me out of the water," Ackerman said. "It was just incredible."

By Jolene Farley
The Hills-Beaver Creek Board of Education continued discussion Monday about building new locker rooms and a community fitness center at Hills-Beaver Creek High School.

The board directed Superintendent Tom Knoll to arrange tours of the Edgerton and Heron Lake-Okabena locker room facilities.

Building committee members Dave Roozenboom, Ann Boeve and Lloyd DeBoer will tour the two facilities and note positives and negatives at each location.

Knoll was also asked to arrange board interviews with three architect firms.

"The committee needs architects to find out exact costs," said Boeve. Public meetings will not be scheduled until cost figures are gathered on the project, according to Boeve.

The city has verbally committed to help with the project. "They are really enthusiastic about it but they want to see some figures," said Boeve.

In other board business:

oDue to extra snow days, the board passed a motion adding Tuesday, Feb. 20, to the class calendar. Tuesday was not originally scheduled as a duty day for teachers or students. The district has used five full school days this winter. If any more snow days are needed, the district will also add Easter Monday.

oThe board passed a motion requiring a fund balance of $500 per pupil unit at all times. There were no previous fund balance requirements. Superintendent Knoll expressed concern about the uncertainty of state contributions for education in the future. "If Ventura continues, funding could come to a screeching halt," said Knoll.

oThe board decided not to hire an immediate replacement for full-time high school social studies and English instructor Leon Pick after his retirement at the end of the school year. The board may add a half-time position later, according to Knoll.

Knoll suggested reorganization of high school classes and dropping a section of English and science. The senior class size this year is reduced 20 kids from last year. "No curriculum would be dropped. It would be just a modification of sections," Knoll said. "Curriculum isn't being hurt."

Photo by Jolene Farley

Cody Scholler stops to fill the tank of his 1991 Ski-Doo Mach I snowmobile at Orv's Station in Hills Monday. With no classes at Hills-Beaver Creek Schools, Cody and his friends could spend the President's Day holiday riding their snowmobiles.

By Lori Ehde
This is the time of year local hunting enthusiasts pay attention to feeding habits and overall health of deer and pheasant.

The numbers of deer and pheasant available during fall hunting seasons depend on how they survive the winter months of January and February.

According to Blue Mounds State Park and DNR officials, deer appear to be weathering the cold, hard winter in good health.

"I think the deer are in better shape than one would expect them to be," said park manager Rick White.

"They're not standing with hunched backs, which would indicate they're not in good health. They're alert and moving around."

He said the park is monitoring a herd of about 150 deer, but he said he's not sure if it's the same herd of 200 or more that residents have reported seeing along the Rock River east of Luverne.

"On nice days they'll wander quite far, but on cold, windy days they stay close by," White said.

He said the park herd is most often spotted in the northwest corner of the park feeding along the creek.

Despite heavy snow cover this year, he said they're managing to stay fed on brushes and young trees - including those in his yard.

"Well, the deer gotta eat, too," he said.

Pheasants may not be faring as well as deer this winter, if their feeding habits are any indication.

"Normally pheasants get out in the early morning hours to feed and then go back to their nesting areas for cover," he said.

Residents have reported seeing birds pecking in open areas of snow in the late morning hours and in the afternoon.

"When you see them out and about on cold winter days after the hours of dawn, you know they're in trouble," White said.

"A tough winter like this is kinda hard on them, and I'm sure pickings are lean."

DNR information officer Tom Conroy said a January thaw provided a reprieve for pheasants in southwest Minnesota, but spring is still a long way away.

"Pheasants are remarkably resilient when it comes to finding food and rarely die from starvation," Conroy said.

"However, when conditions become severe and they have to leave protective cover to find food, they expose themselves to the dangers of both predators and the elements."

The early part of this winter was one of the coldest and snowiest in recent history. According to local Pheasants Forever member Chuck Van Wyhe, this winterÕs snow, is starting to wear on the wildlife.

"I've seen a lot of dead pheasants, and I've seen big groups of pheasants that aren't big groups anymore," said Van Wyhe, habitat chairman.

He said local wildlife enthusiasts have been feeding the deer and birds this winter.

A wagon of shelled corn is parked in the M-M Distributing parking lot, and nearly 200 bushels have made their way to snowy feeding areas around the county.

The DNR supplies the corn, but local Pheasants Forever members pick it up from Cargill elevator in Hills.

Van Wyhe said he's been telling people to bring along a bucket of sand with the corn so pheasants don't have to scratch along roadsides for grit.

The DNR doesn't advocate feeding as a population management technique, but it does offer guidelines for groups like Pheasants Forever that want to help wildlife through the winter.

oCorn should be placed within small openings of winter cover or in a wind-swept area near a good winter cover where pheasants have been observed feeding.

oAvoid placing corn in open areas next to deciduous trees where predators can perch.

oThe idea is to keep pheasants in areas with good winter cover, such as cattail marshes or large shelter belts. Placing corn in areas where there is only marginal cover can actually be counterproductive.

oOnce started, it is imperative that feeding be done consistently and continue until spring melt.

It's important to remember that deer also make use of feeder cribs and consume a lot of corn.