Monday was the first day of practice for fall activities in Minnesota.
At Jackson County Central and Martin County West that means volleyball, cross country, football and cheerleading.
I made stops at JCC volleyball and football Monday evening. With my schedule right now I wasn't able to get to the others, but I hope to visit with those coaches soon.
The Huskies' volleyball team has a scrimmage with Pipestone scheduled at the end of its first week of practice on Saturday. The JCC football team will scrimmage at Maple River on Saturday, Aug. 28.
Here are the dates for the first events for JCC and MCW:
Jackson County Central
Cross country - Aug. 27 at Fairmont
Volleyball - Aug. 28 at St. James Area
Football - Sept. 2 vs. Maple River
Martin County West
Cross country - Aug. 27 at Beresford
Volleyball - Aug. 28 at Adrian/Ellsworth tourney
Football - Sept. 3 at St. James Area
Area graduates
For a number of years, I've tracked the progress of area graduates competing at the collegiate level (and in some cases beyond) on Twitter. The plan is to transition that to these Substack newsletters.
Here's a list of college athletes from JCC, MCW and Fairmont that I'm aware of. I'm sure there are a few more, but not all schools have updated information on their website. If you know of someone, let me know.
Listed are name, high school and college they're attending.
Cross country
Jessica Christoffer, JCC, South Dakota State
Hannah Neusch, Fairmont, South Dakota State
Volleyball
Molly Brinkman, JCC, Mount Marty
Grace Brinkman, JCC, Briar Cliff
Alaina Wolff, JCC, Wayne State
Also in volleyball, HLOL graduate Lindsey Wilber is the head coach at Dakota Wesleyan and JCC grad Michelle Aggen is an assistant coach at Augustana.
Football
Rudy Voss, JCC, South Dakota State
Nico Feroni, JCC, Dakota State
Connor Tordsen, Fairmont, Dakota State