SPORTS WRAP
Panther volleyball is on the prowl. NRHEG brings back most of the lineup that flirted with a .500 record last season and is winning plenty more than they’re losing this fall. They face a new challenge ahead with the move to Class A come section time.
Senior Chloe Stork says they’re all close friends. “A lot of us have been playing together since we were really young. It’s kind of special that we have 10 seniors on the team. It’s been us since little kid camps.” Five of them are queen finalists during homecoming this week.
Second-year head coach Bethany Tennis told the Owatonna Live Coaches Show, “It’s rare to have that many seniors in a group. And they’re 10 players that want to get better, and show up to everything, and make each other better.”
The Panthers have multiple weapons. “Gabby Schlaak and Camryn VanMaldeghem are my outsides. They both are power hitters. Gabby’s got a high volleyball IQ. So, we can trust her to put the ball down wherever there’s an opening.” Schlaak recently got her 500th career kill. Each plays all the way around and has 500 career digs.
Addy Stadheim sets. “She puts in the work to get a ball up to our offense. She’s a huge component,” says Tennis. “She does a very good job reading the other team. You want your setter to be looking at their blockers. Where to set the ball. Making decisions. As well as knowing who on your team is a hot hitter at the moment.”
Stadheim says, “I think that we’re really fast paced. We keep their defense on their toes. And the blockers, they’re hard to keep up with us because of how fast of an offense that we run.”
She has “confidence in my teammates to just throw the ball up and have them put it in play. Just a lot of options for me.”
Schlaak states, “We just connect. Her sets are good. We quick-pace things so we can put it away.”
Communication is key. “A lot of talk. I feel like sometimes I scream at Addy, my calls of what I want. I like to run quicker plays. So, we just say before the play that we need to do this. And when it’s up we call it out.”
Tennis adds, “Chloe Riewer is our returning libero. She brings a lot of composure to this team as well as excitement. She’s a kid that you will never see get down on herself. She pops right back up. She misses a dig, she comes right back.”
She believes NRHEG can make a deep playoff run by being consistent. “Maintaining our composure when we make a mistake or we get a kill, just making sure we’re playing our best ball.”
Top-10 ranked Fillmore Central, Mabel-Canton and Kenyon-Wanamingo make it a challenging section. Their final home regular season match is on Friday, Oct. 10.
Mock turns real
Owatonna High School mock trial students will get a taste of the real thing when the Minnesota Supreme Court brings its Traveling Oral Arguments to the Wenger Performing Arts Center on Wednesday, Oct. 8.
“Students will actually be the assistants to the justices on that day,” high school principal Kory Kath told Owatonna Live. “They will give them a tour. They will connect with them about the case. Be able to hear from them and dialogue back and forth about their experience within the Supreme Court as well as anything else within the legal profession that they have done. And so, for our students, what an amazing opportunity to make that connection and to form that relationship that could then help inform them for their career later on too.”
He says mock trial is strong at OHS. “Kudos to our community that supports the team and Sam Ashton as our coach. It’s just amazing the work that they do and the commitment they make.” He believes this experience will offer learning opportunities to help them this season.
The Minnesota Supreme Court will hear arguments related to a murder case at 9:30 a.m. Select students and faculty from OHS, Blooming Prairie and Medford will be in attendance. The proceedings will be streamed on OwatonnaLive.com so the public at large can watch. Justices will meet with the public during a dinner at Torey’s Restaurant on Tuesday, Oct. 7.
Blades home opener
The Steele County Blades welcome fans to attend their home opener on Friday, Oct. 3 for no charge. The junior hockey club entertains Hudson at the Four Seasons Centre at 7 p.m. They also play the Minnesota Blue Ox at home the next night. The Blades opened their season with back-to-back 6-3 wins at the Minnesota Mullets on Sept. 20-21.
Director of Hockey Operations Chase Crenshaw said in a Facebook post that the team is ready to go. “We have a strong core with lots of talent and an impressive work ethic. Through our three weeks leading up to our first games, our group has bonded quicker than any other group I have had.”
Coach Logan Wilt likes his home rink. “The set-up we have here at the Four Seasons is second to none. Not only the ice sheet we have, but the facilities we have access to on a daily basis is a real breeding ground for success.” The rink has an extensive dryland training area alongside a weightroom, all just outside the Blades’ locker room.
Pool improvements
Defending home pool advantage has taken on a new level of pride for the OHS girls’ swimmers and divers at the middle school.
After a couple years of renovations, it’s almost like a new pool proclaims coach Isaiah Fuller. “It looks fantastic. Got a big facelift. Looks great in there. I don’t know if water could look bluer, but it looks bluer. They’ve got brand new LED lights underneath. So, it lights up really well. It’s nice for the divers, to help them spot their dives. They ripped all the tile out of the pool deck and in the pool itself. They cut back where the gutter system is. They dropped in a stainless-steel gutter system. We’ve got a state-of-the-art pump now. They cut into the pool deck for lane line storage. So, now we don’t have to have that big reel taking up space. They really brightened it up. They painted it last year. It looks really nice.”
Fuller says the starting blocks are only about five years old.
Junior diver Kate Karsten is excited too. “We just got some new boards. Those are pretty great. They’ve got nice, new railings. Whole new boards. It’s nice and rough. So, you don’t slip when it’s all wet.”
Even with the changes, it remains a comfortable place to be, according to senior captain Lainey Steckelberg. “You’re just so used to swimming here that everything feels normal and it’s just like, ‘OK, now you have to perform, and you don’t have to worry about the extra things of how things work around the pool.’”
Fans can get a look at the upgrades on Saturday, Oct. 4 when the Huskies host a diving invitational at 10 a.m. They also have home meets on Thursday, Oct. 9 against Mankato East and Tuesday, Oct. 14 with Northfield. Each starts at 6 p.m.
50th anniversary
A reminder that 50 years of girls cross-country will be recognized on Thursday, Oct. 2 during the Ev Berg Invitational. Members of the first OHS team including Becky Kirchgasler, Becky Ringhofer, Regina McGoff and Andrea Johnson are expected to be there to hand out awards to this year’s runners. The meet is at 3:30 p.m. at Brooktree Golf Course.
OwatonnaLive.com play-by-play schedule
Thursday, Oct. 2:
OHS girls soccer vs. Northfield, at OHS, 7 p.m.
OHS volleyball vs. Rochester Mayo, 7 p.m.
Friday, Oct. 3:
OHS football at Northfield, 7 p.m. (simulcast on The FAN-Owatonna, 1170AM/106.3FM)
Blooming Prairie football at WEM, 7 p.m.