In this edition of Lots O’ Stuff, a Jackson County Central graduate gets a promotion from a pro baseball team, the spouse of an HLOL grad has a job with an WNBA team and a Heron Lake native has helped his team get into the NCAA men’s hockey tournament.
RC promoted
JCC grad Ryan Christopher has been promoted to Baseball Operations Assistant and Clubhouse Manager for the Sioux Falls Canaries of the American Association of Professional Baseball, an official Partner League of Major League Baseball.
Christopher was an intern with the Canaries during the 2023 season.
He’ll assist the team’s General Manager with a primary focus on overseeing both the home and visiting clubhouse.
The Canaries open their 2024 season on May 10 in Oconomowoc, Wis. vs. the Lake Country DockHounds. After three against the DockHounds it’s on to Geneva, Ill. for three games with the Kane County Cougars.
The home opener is Friday, May 17 vs. the Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks.
If you plan to attend a game in Sioux Falls this season, take note that the Canaries also announced the Birdcage is now a cashless facility. That includes the box office, team shop and concessions.
Moving to the WNBA
Heron Lake-Okabena-Lakefield graduate Lindsay (Voss) Wilber and her husband, Matt, have been head coaches at Dakota Wesleyan University in Mitchell, S.D. for about a decade. Lindsay started coaching the volleyball team one season after Matt became the men’s basketball coach.
That will be changing as Matt will step down on March 31 and will join the coaching staff of the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury.
Matt has coached the Tigers for 11 seasons, the third longest coaching stint in the history of the sport at DWU. His teams finished with an overall record of 224-115. Wesleyan made six appearances in NAIA national tournaments with a record of 7-5 in tournament play. The Tigers placed second in the 2015 tournament.
A native of Dell Rapids, S.D., Wilber will be part of a strong South Dakota connection in Phoenix.
Nate Tibbetts was named head coach of the Mercury in October. According to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, he will be the highest paid coach in WNBA history. His previous position was an assistant coach with the NBA’s Orlando Magic since 2021.
The two are longtime friends and are former co-owners of the Tibbetts Instructional Basketball School in Sioux Falls.
Another assistant coach on the Phoenix staff is former South Dakota State standout Megan Vogel, who is a native of St. Peter.
Lindsay will remain in Mitchell and keep her position with the volleyball team.
"Our family has grown up in Mitchell, and I am fortunate that this next step will allow us to remain in Mitchell,” Matt told the Daily Republic. “It will take some work, but we have great family and support in place to help. My kids have been blessed to grow up in a house with two athletic programs with the young men and women in our basketball and volleyball programs as role models."
Matt and Lindsay have four sons: twins A.J. and Ben, Nathan and Tyson, and a daughter, Lizzie.
Lindsay is the daughter of Tub and Amy Voss of Jackson.
On to the NCAA
Heron Lake native Hobie Hedquist is a freshman goalie with the North Dakota men’s hockey team that is headed to the NCAA tournament.
Hedquist started in goal for the Fighting Hawks during the National Collegiate Hockey Conference tournament.
Hedquist and UND swept Miami University in a best-of-three quarterfinal series and also got the start in the Fighting Hawks’ 6-3 loss to Omaha in the semifinals at the NCHC Frozen Four at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul.
North Dakota is a No. 2 seed in the Maryland Heights Regional with three teams from Michigan. Maryland Heights is a suburb of St. Louis.
The Fighting Hawks will play No. 3 seed Michigan at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Centene Community Ice Center. The game will be televised on ESPNU.
Michigan State plays Western Michigan at 4 p.m. Friday. The winners play at 5:30 p.m. Sunday.
One of the other regionals will be at Denny Sanford Premier Center in Sioux Falls. First-round matchups on Thursday there have Boston University playing Rochester Institute of Technology and Minnesota meeting Omaha. The winners will play on Saturday.
The introduction of dial phones in the mid-1950s required a number of public service videos like this one to provide instructions on how to use them.