A huge and hearty congratulations and a task well-done goes out to Okabena’s Jim Schneider, who completed the grueling 109-mile run — over eight days — down the George Mickelson Trail, through the Black Hills from Deadwood to Edgemont in western South Dakota.
Jim, who just turned 70, has been running — a lot — for the past 10 years. He does many marathons and just completed another Worthington King Turkey Day 10K last Saturday.
Jim’s 109-mile venture included lots of long and steep climbs in the early days before finishing with more easy, downhill runs. “The last days were easier than the first ones,” said Schneider who, as always, was accompanied by wife, Patti (who drove back and forth), while he was completing his mission to raise funds for the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Minnesota.
The long-time business education and social studies teacher in the Heron Lake-Okabena school district did so much for the re-tooling of HL-O in the late 1990s after the 10-year pairing arrangement with Lakefield ended. Always busy, the hard-working farm boy from northwestern Nebraska spent more than a week running trails chock full of hills as he strived to help children reach their “wishes” for a time of happiness while dealing with a critical illness.
Good work, Jim! Keep running and maintaining your positive attitude, along with your work ethic as you continue your quest to support others.
As anticipated the Adrian vs. Heron Lake-Okabena / Fulda volleyball match was great competition. The Dragons prevailed in five games, with each squad having its share of highlights. Without question, those were two very good teams playing each other in front of a large — and enthusiastic — crowd in Okabena last Thursday evening, September 12.
After losing two games in a row, at home, against the Washington Nationals last week, the Minnesota Twins rebounded nicely by sweeping a doubleheader at Cleveland Saturday (2-0 and 9-5) in different fashion. Those two victories put the Magic Number at 9 and the American League Central Division lead at 5.5 games. But a loss on Sunday (7-5) dropped the lead to 4.5 and kept the MN at 9. A seven-game home stand (three games against the White Sox and four against the Royals) wraps up the regular-season games at Target Field. Winning five of those seven would nearly clinch the division title.
Once again, I was not impressed with 84 million dollar quarterback Kirk Cousins as he was frequently ineffective — sometimes even very bad — in the Vikings 21-16 loss to the Packers at Lambeau Field in Green Bay Sunday. The Vikings seem to think that Cousins is the answer and Coach Mike Zimmer was certain that he (Cousins) would be much better in his second season in Minnesota’s system than he was last fall?
Sunday’s performance certainly did nothing to prove that Zimmer was right. I know that “Zim” never thought much of Case Keenum, who quarterbacked the Vikings to the NFC Championship Game two years ago.
I believe that I am not alone in wondering why Keenum was not given a second year. Could he, perhaps, been even better in his second season?
Congratulations to the combined Murray County Central and Fulda girls’ cross country team. Now known as the Warriors, the team has won three of its four meets this fall (finishing second the other time) and — after defeating top-ranked Luverne at Worthington last week — has moved into fourth place in the latest Class A ratings. Individually, ace runner Morgan Gehl is ranked second.
The Warriors have excellent depth and with Gehl always getting first, the team really only has to count four scores (plus one) and get a low total. MCC / Fulda hosts its own meet at the Slayton Country Club next Tuesday, September 24.
