A number of topics are covered in this edition of Lots O’ Stuff.
You’ll have to read all the way through to find out what they are.
Football player rankings
Two players from Jackson County Central, one from Martin County West and three from Fairmont are listed in the latest high school football player rankings by the website prepredzone.com.
JCC’s Roman Voss (6-foot-4, 240 pounds) is listed as the No. 2 overall player in state for the Class of 2026. He had been first in the previous ratings in January.
Voss is already a two-year starter at QB and did see playing time at wide receiver on offense and safety on defense for the Huskies last season. He helped JCC to a 12-1 record and a trip to the state Class 2A semifinals, where they lost to eventual champion Barnesville.
Voss threw for 1,486 yards and 16 touchdowns last season. For his career he has 2,522 passing yards and 21 touchdowns.
Number one overall in the ratings for sophomores is Forest Lake defensive lineman Howie Johnson (6-4, 240).
Also from JCC, Seth Stai (5-10, 180) is rated 184th for the Class of 2024. He was first being noticed for his play at linebacker, receiving a couple of offers from MIAC schools, but is also getting notice as a running back.
Stai had seven rushing touchdowns last season.
Here’s the report on Stai:
Also in the Class of 2024, MCW defensive lineman Riley Allen (6-0, 190) is listed as 224th.
Fairmont has three players ranked.
One is among this year’s seniors as offensive lineman Jake Singleton (6-2, 280) is 182nd.
In the Class of 2025, defensive lineman Hank Artz (6-0, 225) is 21st and running back Elijah Johnson (5-9, 190) is 36th.
Maverick Golf Classic
Registration is open for the 36th annual Maverick Golf Classic on Saturday, Aug. 12 at Fox Lake Golf Course.
There will be an 11:01 a.m. shotgun start that day. The tournament is 18 holes, with an 8-inch cup on the green. You must be 21 to golf.
Golf and the meal is $50 with cart included. A ticket for the meal only (pork chop, baked potato and vegetable) is $20. The price also includes a chance in the Maverick raffle.
For more information, you can contact Mike Ringnell at 507-236-3159 or go to the website:
https://martin-county-west-golf-classic.perfectgolfevent.com/
MCW CC
Practice for fall sport teams in Minnesota starts two weeks from today (Aug. 14). We’ve been looking at the fall schedules for local teams.
Martin County West’s cross country team will open its season Friday, Sept. 1 at Mountain Lake for the Paul Metcalf Invitational.
The Valley Conference meet is at Madelia on Monday, Oct. 16 and the Mavericks will compete in the Section 3A meet at Blue Earth on Thursday, Oct 26.
MCW cross country schedule
Fri., Sept. 1: at Mountain Lake, 10 a.m.
Sat., Sept. 9: at Luverne, 9:30 a.m.
Tues., Sept. 12: at Norwood Young America, 4 p.m.
Fri., Sept. 15: at Loyola, 4 p.m.
Thurs., Oct. 5: at Fairmont, 4:30 p.m.
Thurs, Oct. 12: at Madelia, 4 p.m.
Mon., Oct. 16: Valley Conference, Madelia, 4 p.m.
Olson joins Stampede staff
Jackson County Central graduate Carter Olson has accepted a position as a member of the sales team with the Sioux Falls Stampede of the United States Hockey League.
Olson, the son of Tim and LeAnn Olson, attended Minnesota State University. He was a Sport Operations intern at MSU.
This summer Carter is a Gameday Operations intern with the Sioux Falls Canaries of the American Association, which is an official partner league of Major League Baseball.
BTW, the Stampede open their season with a pair of games at the USHL Fall Classic Sept. 20-21 in Cranberry Township, Penn.
The home opener at is Saturday, Oct. 7 at Denny Sanford PREMIER Center vs. Waterloo but don’t hit him up for tickets.
Featured in tweet
Molly Boyum is another JCC grad living and working in Sioux Falls. She is the Social Media Specialist at Midco and Midco Sports.
Molly was featured in this tweet this week:
https://twitter.com/i/status/1683499960161927170
And here she is as part of a panel on a segment previewing last spring’s Howard Wood Dakota Relays:
Academic all-American
Staying in the family, Andrew Boyum earned second-team honors on the National Junior College Athletic Association all-academic team.
Andrew was a freshman competing in cross country, half marathon, indoor track and field as well as outdoor track and field at Iowa Central Community College.
To earn academic all-American honors, student-athletes needed to achieve an overall grade-point average of 3.80-3.99 for the 2022-23 academic year.
Members of the cross country/half marathon teams for the Tritons are moving today (Monday) so you won’t see Andrew working when you go to Sunshine Foods for a while.
Molly and Andrew’s parents are Kevin and Mary Boyum. Now we’ve mentioned the entire family.
Fall athletes
With the calendar turning to August tomorrow, college fall sports teams are starting to gather for the 2023-24 school year.
I’m starting to assemble a list of area graduates who will be competing in volleyball, cross country and football.
If there’s someone from JCC, MCW or Fairmont you want to make sure I’m aware of, go ahead and send that name to me at sportsdr44@hotmail.com. A lot of schools don’t have their websites updated for the fall season yet.
We’ll have updates on those student-athletes here on Substack and on Twitter (sportsdr44).
One quick item I did notice when glancing at some schedules is that a pair of JCC grads will be at the same site earlier in the season, one playing and the other beginning a new role at a new school.
Alaina Wolff will be a junior defensive specialist at South Dakota. It will be her second year with the Coyotes.
Last year she helped USD win the Summit League regular season and tournament championships in the same season for the first time in school history.
After an exhibition match at Kansas on Saturday, Aug. 19, USD opens its regular-season schedule at the Cardinal and Gold Challenge hosted by Iowa State Ames on Friday, Aug. 25.
New to Ames is Michelle (VanEpps) Aggen, who was named Director of Volleyball Operations for the Cyclones this spring. She assists with team travel, community outreach and facility and camp coordination for ISU.
That’s also the regular-season opener for Iowa State, which has an exhibition match at Missouri on Aug. 19.
This time around we use this section to pay tribute to Tony Bennett, who recently passed away.
Frank Sinatra praised Bennett in an interview in 1965.
"For my money, Tony Bennett is the best singer in the business," Sinatra said.
Sinatra was a huge influence on Bennett, who was 96. The pair had become firm friends and went on to perform together several times over the years.
Bennett was the younger singer. Sinatra died in May 1998 at the age of 82.
But as they both matured, Sinatra always continued to call Bennett "kid" - even into old age. Bennett said his idol's words in that 1965 article changed his career.
Two years earlier, a then 36-year-old Bennett had picked up his first Grammy for his signature song I Left My Heart In San Francisco.
In 2022, almost 60 years later, the pop and jazz singer was awarded his 20th, sharing the honor with his superstar collaborator Lady Gaga at the tender age of 95.
Here are Frank and Tony performing together: