Columns

Postseason football, volleyball and cross country is officially upon us in Clay Countyland, as the end of the Fall sports season is here.

Sandy Creek’s Madalyn Andersen will be the first Sandy Creek state cross country qualifier to hit the state meet course in Kearney since the early to mid 80’s, at least wearing a Cougar uniform that is, as she will take part in the Class D state meet at the Kearney Country Club this Friday afternoon at 2:30 p.m.

Meanwhile, the Sandy Creek football team, one year after qualifying for their first playoff session since 2011, as the Class D-1 13th seed in 2022, will wear a target this year, instead of being the “no-name” team so to speak as Cougar Nation into the postseason as the second seed in the west bracket of the first round in 2023.

Fall sports has been a whirlwind of action this season. I’ve witnessed an enourmous and vast improvement with the Sutton girls golf team over their inagural season of 2022. The Sandy Creek football team is and has served a strong notice to the Class D-1 football teams across the state that they are after more than just a berth in the playoffs this year.

Sutton’s volleyball team is battling strong in both conference and non-conference matches, all the while, the Fillies’ head coach Shelli Mohnike reached the 100-win milestone of her coaching career, while senior Reagan Robinson surpassed the 1,000 career digs plateau last week.

The Harvard football team, who started the year at 3-0, has taken a couple of tough ones “on the chin” the past two weeks, but will make every effort possible this week to ensure that the Cardinals finish with at least a .500 record with their fourth win over the Franklin Flyers this week, as Cardinal Nation celebrates Homecoming week.

Sutton is now just beginning its ninth week in dealing with the “leftover problems” and damages following an EF-1 tornado that left behind damaged homes and businesses in its wake. That damage can still be seen in some area homes, at the Fox Hollow Golf Course, and certainly in the north half of the Sutton downtown business district, along Saunders Avenue.

With each passing day, speaking clearly from my own personal perspective, our damaged building isn’t “healing,” if you will, on its own. No, it’s still sitting there with a large hole toward the front of the building, letting the elements of Mother Nature continue to add to the disarray of our building.

I’m certain that what I’m sharing can easily be said for so many other buildings and homes that are still waiting for some sort of resolution, so that we can begin returning our homes and buildings to what it was before July 29.

Seasons come and seasons go, but as I was walking off of the football field in Sutton Friday night, and off of the volleyball court Saturday afternoon in Geneva, it hit me that as fast as time flies in life, the reality of the regular season for fall sports activities has reached its halfway point this past week. The football, volleyball, and cross country seasons just finished up week four, and as time flies, we’re just a week-and-a-half away from the first district competition for Sutton’s girls golf team.

As a matter of fact, district competition for the Harvard and Sandy Creek cross country teams loom just two-and-a-half weeks down the road.

The Sandy Creek and Harvard football teams remain unbeaten after four weeks. The Cougars are at 4-0, following their 64-20 win in Sutton, while Harvard holds on to a 3-0 record following their hair-raising 34-32 win over Dorchester.

Rivalries can come in all sorts of ways, and in the case of this week’s big rivalry football game between the Sandy Creek Cougars and the Sutton Mustangs, the two teams are coming into Friday night’s contest in Sutton in different ways.

The Cougars are 3-0 and coming off an over-the-top thrilling triple overtime 64-62 win over Exeter-Milligan/ Friend. In contrast, Sutton hits the field this week with an 0-3 record, following a 56-30 loss to the Hi-Line Bulls, a cooperative team made up of student-athletes from Elwood and Eustis-Farnam High Schools.

Sandy Creek’s huge Class D-1 8-Man win over the EMF Bobcats was nothing short of a rare game that will stick in my mind like some of the big football games our Clay County Schools have had.

Old Trusty was back for the 41st year, this year featuring Avery steam engines, tractors, and equipment.

The fairgrounds was bustling with activity, and the morning weather was perfect—it did get a little warm in the afternoon, but that was OK too.

I did what I usually do, wandered around the grounds and taking photos of everything and anything. I was also on the lookout for potential stories I hadn’t done yet.

One thing I find fun is seeing people I’ve already written stories on because it reminds me of how fun it was to talk to them, and learn about their machine/ engine/tractor or their skill.

Or coming across areas that remind me of a certain photo, like the man who brings his trailer of a town that has a train going through it.

My first year at Old Trusty I captured a little boy enthralled with watching the train, and it’s still one of my favorite photos from the event.

Frustrations, they come and go in life, but I’m not sure if I’ve ever had a more frustrating five week stretch since the morning of Saturday, July 29, 2023. Outside of a few big personal losses, of course, these past 38 days, or a month and a week have been challenging, stressful, frustrating, and even angering.

I also know that I’m not the only one that, off and on, has felt these same feelings, and while things could have obviously been much worse, and thankfully they weren’t, it certainly doesn’t tone down the frustrations of what many of us are going through right now.

There’s been a lot of finger pointing, both outwardly, and behind the scenes, but from my perspective, I don’t understand why? I, and my staff, as one of the business buildings “locked down” by damages to our building, have heard and felt the finger point, related to peoples opinions on who’s doing right by helping out, and who they think needs to do more.

Masterpiece: It’s a word that should be used carefully. In my opinion, it can definitely be used when talking about the release of the year-long project by Sandy Creek’s 74 Creative team of videographers, designers, and planners, called “We are SC Football: A Season of Change.” I tip the biggest of 10-gallon hats to all who were involved in the production and direction of this first-ever piece, regarding the rise of the tradition- rich football program on the hill at Sandy Creek High School.

Sorry Mr. Borer, you’ll probably have to explain the 10-gallon hat comment, or I can as well.

I met with Borer and two of his mainstay production professionals, Mason Hinrichs and Hudson Devlin, last Thursday morning, not knowing what this documentary was going to be like. I was not privy to a pre-screening, nor was I able to attend their grand premiere this past Sunday night, but once it was released Monday morning, I was more than ready to soak it all in.

Sunday I learned that a supposed witch was buried in the Aurora Cemetery.

I learned this because I was looking up haunted places in the area, you know, like most normal people do on weekends.

Anyway, was the woman actually a witch? Doubtful, and there are quite a few old news articles stating it is just a rumor and legend probably started by some kids. Regardless, the fact that this legend is still known today is interesting.

The woman, Susan Gavan, was born April 11, 1842, in New York, and died Nov. 26, 1882, in Hamilton County.

An article in the Hamilton County News on Dec. 1, 1882, states, “It becomes the painful duty of THE NEWS to announce the death of Mrs. Gavan, wife of Mr. F. P. Gavan, Aurora, which occurred on Monday last at 9 o’clock a.m., after a short illness.

Even before I joined the fire and rescue department, I respected EMS/ police on the road by getting over and waiting for them to go by in moments of emergency.

However, it seems more often than not this sentiment is forgotten by drivers.

I recently drove the ambulance to Hastings for a medical call, and while a good majority of people got over when they saw us, there were more than I’d like to admit that did not.

In one instance, about four vehicles were pulled over on the westbound lane and a fifth driver decided to pass them, going into our lane—forcing us to slow down—before he finally got back into his lane and preceded on as if an ambulance with it’s lights on wasn’t driving by them.

This doesn’t and shouldn’t start and stop with an ambulance, fire trucks or police car driving by you, it should also be considered when there’s a road emergency and EMS are on-scene.