youth sports - Marshall Independent

Transcription

youth sports - Marshall Independent
2009
S
P
YOUTH
O
R
T
S
w w w. m a r s h a l l i n d e p e n d e n t . c o m
2 • INDEPENDENT-MARSHALL, MINN. • FRIDAY, JULY 24, 2009
While high school varsity athletics garners most of the attention, there’s plenty to be said about
youth sports and all the work that’s put in to get little kids started in sports. This section takes
a look at those youth programs and some of the people behind them.
It starts with a ‘T’
Area towns offer kids many opportunities to develop baseball skills
By David Griswold
dgriswold@marshallindependent.com
A
long with being America’s, baseball
is also southwest Minnesota’s pastime as well.
Come spring and summertime, more and
more kids are leaving the house and hitting
the baseball fields, whether it be in T-ball,
coaches pitch or traveling leagues.
The area is seeing an abundance of interest throughout the communities.
“I’ve noticed our numbers are higher now
when they get to the junior high and senior
high,” said Canby youth sports director Perry
Fink. “We’re getting 10 kids or 12 kids a
grade instead of having five or six. So I think
it’s helped the baseball program in that way.”
The Canby area offers T-ball, a squirts
league and a midgets league, all to help
progressively develop skills as the kids get
older.
“It just helps getting to that next level,”
said Fink. “Each one of those things is a
step and it’s nice breaking it down into
three groups.”
In the area, the T-ball teams mainly
practice and learn the basics of the game,
while the squirts league competes against
four teams throughout the town. The
midgets league, which features players in
the fifth, sixth and seventh grades, travels
throughout the area and competes against
other towns.
The Tracy area also has a similar style
of progression throughout the town, carrying T-ball and numerous youth baseball
programs affiliated with the Tracy Area
Youth Baseball Association (TAYBA).
“It helps develop and helps get the interest involved in baseball,” said youth base-
Photos by David Griswold, top, Per Peterson, right
Above: Tracy Tornadoes pitcher Noah
Jones delivers a pitch during a 12-andunder tournament in Tyler.
Right: Caden Thordson, 8, of Marshall hits
from a tee during a recent practice in the
Park and Rec baseball league in Marshall.
Older kids often use a tee to help develop
their swing.
ball director and TMB head baseball coach
Bill Tauer. “It’s good for them to get
involved in the game. A lot of parents are
busy and don’t have the time to get out and
play catch anymore and have that much
interaction, so this is one opportunity to
have the kids some introduction to baseball
or softball.”
The T-ball program is open to both boys
and girls, so either gender will get the
opportunity to learn the skills involved
with baseball or softball as they age.
Following T-ball, kids advance to a
coaches pitch league, usually consisting of
first-, second- and third-graders.
“It’s more real gamelike situations,”
Tauer said. “They start understanding the
games a little more.”
There is a peanuts league (10 and
under), which plays in the Mini-Cam
Conference, that is composed of towns
whose high school competes in the Camden
Conference, including Lakeview, Tyler and
Minneota.
Tyler is a relatively new up-and-coming
baseball town. This was the first year
Russell-Tyler-Ruthton competed on its own
at the high school level, mainly as a result
of the youth programs in the area.
“It really helps us promote baseball to
the youth in our school district,” said youth
baseball director and RTR head baseball
coach Erik Frisvold. “It really helps us
build a program and gets them to play a lot
of baseball.”
Baseball PAGE 3
INDEPENDENT-MARSHALL, MINN. • FRIDAY, JULY 24, 2009 • 3
BASEBALL’S BACKBONE
VFW, American Legion have long been ardent supporters of area teams
Josh Hebrink
jhebrink@marshallindependent.com
T
‘‘
It’s such a tradition with baseball and veterans, and we want to
keep that going.
hanks to area VFWs and
American Legions, the
game of baseball continues
to be annual summertime tradition
for both their respective communities and
youth to enjoy.
Without funding and support from local
veterans, many youth likely wouldn’t be able
to feel the excitement of throwing on a fresh
uniform and running the bases.
Cottonwood Legion Commander Steve Alm
ber Ricky “Pooh Bear” Gagnon, “it also
gives them a chance to develop as an athlete and a person.”
Whether it’s paying for equipment, buying new baseballs or signing an umpire’s
paycheck, the cost of sponsoring is always
an issue.
But year in and year out, area posts
somehow seem to come through for the
sake of the community’s youth.
“Finding the funds is hard to do because
of the depleting membership,” said Alm,
“but we’re very fortunate to have generous
support.”
“That’s why we support these boys,”
said Cottonwood American Legion
Commander Steve Alm. “The satisfaction
is that they are having fun and that we’re
giving something back to the community.”
“Not only does baseball keep the kids
off the streets,” said Marshall VFW mem- Backbone PAGE 9
Photo by
Kelsey Duckett
Cottonwood
pitcher Tony
Ross delivers a
pitch during an
American Legion
baseball game
earlier this
season in
Cottonwood.
Baseball FROM PAGE 2
Marshall has developed an identity of
being a baseball town, with dozens of
youth teams, multiple VFW teams, a
Legion team and an amateur baseball team,
but it all begins at a young age.
“We have a kindergarten minor league
T-ball (league), which is really just practices,” said Marshall Community Services
Recreation Specialist Cam Bailey. “It gives
the kids their first taste of organized T-ball
and it’s always fun watching those little
ones for the first time out on a baseball
field.”
They graduate from there to the junior
T-ball program, which is first- and secondgraders, where kids get their first taste of
competition.
Marshall also has the Marshall Area
Youth Baseball Association (MAYBA),
which features college league baseball (9year-olds), American League baseball (1011-year-olds) and National League baseball
(12- 13-year-olds).
“Our numbers this year are as big as
they’ve ever been,” said MAYBA director
of operations Steve Fleck. “Our numbers
continue to grow and grow and it seems the
quality of baseball gets better and better.”
Fleck said one of the difficulties the area
is running into is having the playing facilities to accommodate all the baseball teams
throughout the area.
Baseball is a growing sport in the region
with youth programs being featured in all
these areas, plus Slayton, Minneota,
Cottonwood, Ivanhoe and Balaton.
“We look at it as a learning experience,
but also the fun aspect that we would like
to incorporate more with it and try to make
it a positive learning experience for them,”
summer rec director Connie Johnson said.
“Summer rec is more for the enjoyment for
the kids.”
In the Ivanhoe area, the sport is still
growing, and one of the reasons is Scott
Conner, who helped jump-start the summer
recreation program last year.
The area now has both T-ball and a
youth baseball team open to kids who are
too old for T-ball and not old enough for
VFW.
“It has kids from Hendricks, Ivanhoe —
the whole area,” Conner said. “It was mostly coaches pitch and there were a few kids
that we would let pitch to each other.”
Conner remains optimistic that the
growing interest will eventually turn into a
competitive VFW team in the next couple
of years.
“There’s quite a bit of interest with the
kids here,” said Conner. “So hopefully in
the next couple of years we’ll have a pretty
good VFW team with these younger kids.”
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4 • INDEPENDENT-MARSHALL, MINN. • FRIDAY, JULY 24, 2009
Offseason volleyball programs
growing beyond Junior Olympics
By Jenny Kirk
jkirk@marshallindependent.com
K
ids are picking up a volleyball at an earlier age, and not just during the traditional fall season.
Lakeview varsity volleyball coach Phil Lalim
believes it’s important to give kids an opportunity
to learn skills at a young age and during the offseason.
Lakeview School District youth were invited to
a week-long camp in early June, which was directed by Christine Sather.
“I think it’s good to give the kids options,” said
Lalim. “You don’t know what they’ll like, so it’s
good to have options.”
Kids in Minneota also have a chance to play
at night.
Minneota summer recreation director Connie
Johnson said they have organized volleyball
‘‘
One of the things you’ll
notice in volleyball is that
it gives kids direction. After
they’ve done it for a few years,
they have so much more confidence than new kids who
haven’t had that background.
Dan Westby
Photo by
Jenny Kirk
Cassandra
Hook, 12, of
Tracy, works
on her overhand serve
at a SMSU
volleyball
camp earlier
this month.
instruction on Monday nights.
“It’s for third-graders up to ninth-graders,”
said Johnson. “They work more on their passing
and setting.
“The past couple of weeks, they’ve worked
more on movement to the ball.”
The Junior Olympic volleyball program,
which draws many players from districts in the
region, has lowered its participant age to include
9- and 10-year-old players.
Volleyball PAGE 7
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INDEPENDENT-MARSHALL, MINN. • FRIDAY, JULY 24, 2009 • 5
HITTING THE MATS EARLY
COACHES CAN ATTEST TO THE BENEFITS OF YOUTH WRESTLING CAMPS
By Jenny Kirk
jkirk@marshallindependent.com
W
hile many area schools offer youth wrestling
programs in the winter, a good number of
coaches and community members are responding to the increased demand of providing summer wrestling
opportunities for kids aged 12-under.
Perry Fink said there were two wrestling camps offered
this year in Canby.
“We had St. Cloud State come in twice,” said Fink. “The
first time was in June and then July 6-7. You have to have
something to keep them interested. We start wrestling in
December, so it’s a long wait. We don’t go too crazy, but do
just enough to keep them busy.”
‘‘
Sports teaches life skills.
Athletics teaches kids to abide
by rules and about adversity,
pressure and self discipline.
They’re also not getting into
trouble elsewhere and they’re
with friends.
Karl Campbell
Minneota head coach Joel Skillings hasn’t offered
wrestling camps in Minneota for the past few years
because he travels around the county doing camps for
The SCSU assistant coach and current Canby native
University of Minnesota coach J. Robinson.
wrestlers Tad Merritt and Alex Kontz were in attendance.
“The kids have found different venues to attend when
“It’s kind of neat to have the kids come back,” Fink
we stopped having camps here,” said Skillings. “Twentysaid. “We also ran something for our first through third
one of our youth wrestlers went to the SMSU wrestling
graders on Monday and Tuesday. We do basic things with camp.”
them because athletic-wise, they can only do so much. But
The camp was June 22-24 and was under the direction
we let them roll around and teach them to stay off their
of SMSU head coach Jesse Nelson. Grades 1-4 attended
back.”
Youth softball groups, like those in Wabasso
and Tracy, benefit kids, high school programs
By Kelsey Duckett
Tracy has a similar program for its
youth, offering traveling fastpitch softball
for both the 10-and-under and 14-andThe Wabasso Rabbits have been a high under levels.
school softball powerhouse for the past
“As a softball association we would like
decade, but this is the first summer they
to get the same thing rolling for the girls as
have offered youth teams.
we have for the baseball program,” said
Jessica VanLoy, daughter of Rabbits
Karl Campbell, coach of the 14-and-under
head coach Jon VanLoy, is coaching 12team and member of the Tracy Softball
and-under and 15-and-under softball in
Association.
Wabasso.
“We would like to grow and have 10“This is actually the first year that we
and-under on up to an 18-and-under teams
have had any organized softball in the sum- for the girls to play on.”
mer in the form of fastpitch,” Jon VanLoy
Campbell said Community Recreation
said. “We have two teams, both coached by offers a lot to the youth of Tracy in all
my daughter and hopefully it is a trend that sports including softball, but when it
will continue.”
comes to competitive softball and getting
The 12-Under team has 15 players and
the girls to the next level, playing traveling
the 15-Under team has 12 players.
softball and playing ASA is a whole differVanLoy said if Wabasso continues to
ent level.
field teams in the offseason he can only
“We as parents and as members of the
imagine the benefits it would bring to the
softball association want to get the kids
high school team.
enough experience to be competitive at the
“I think if it continues it can only help,” high school level,” Campbell said. “We
Van Loy said. “Any time you get exposed
want them to have a chance to make a run
to fastpitch pitching and the mechanics of
at a state tournament, and it is just like any
the game it is going to help you, it is
other sport — you have to put the time in
important that the girls are exposed to the
with the younger kids to build a program.”
game.”
kduckett@marshallindependent.com
the camp from 6-7:15 p.m. Merritt was also in attendance.
“It’s not a necessity to start kids early,” said Skillings.
“But if you can teach kids to enjoy wrestling and they
learn as much as they can, it works out. You have to find a
balance and have teachable moments.”
Tracy-Milroy-Balaton head coach Karl Campbell
believes in the benefits of exposing kids to wrestling at a
young age.
“If you look at kids in the area that have success, they
typically have a strong youth program,” said Campbell. “If
you don’t get them going early, they seem to end up struggling to keep up. But there’s always controversy about
how hard to push kids. You have to keep it fun and find a
happy medium.”
Campbell is an advocate for participation in any sport,
not just wrestling.
“Sports teaches life skills,” he said. “Athletics teaches
kids to abide by rules and about adversity, pressure and
self discipline. They’re also not getting into trouble elsewhere and they’re with friends. You can teach them to
compete, but you have to keep it fun or they’ll lose
interest.”
Campbell said that TMB will try to slip in a one- or
Mats PAGE 10
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6 • INDEPENDENT-MARSHALL, MINN. • FRIDAY, JULY 24, 2009
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INDEPENDENT-MARSHALL, MINN. • FRIDAY, JULY 24, 2009 • 7
KIDS ON THE
COURT
BASKETBALL IS ONE OF THE MOST POPULAR
HIGH SCHOOL SPORTS, AND ONE THAT KIDS
CAN START TAKING PART IN AT A YOUNG AGE
— EVEN WHEN THEY’RE KINDERGARTNERS
By Kelsey Duckett
“I think the exposure of basketball to our youth is the main goal,”
ot only do youth basket- Hansen said. “Also, being coached
by current and former players
ball programs give kids
gives the girls someone to look up
to. The exposure of the girls that
more exposure to the
have gone through and are in the
sport, they also give the kids a
program is a big advantage to getchance to work with role models,
ting kids involved at a young age.”
Hansen and the Canby Girls
Canby head varsity girls basketball
Basketball Program put on an
coach Kevin Hansen said.
annual Lancer Legends Camp,
Canby, among other schools in
which started three years ago. The
the area, provides several options in camp has grown in its three years
of existence from 40 kids to about
girls basketball for youth.
75 preregistered kids. The camp is
Hansen said besides the summer open for girls in first through
eighth grade.
recreation program, Canby offers
summer and winter basketball
Court PAGE 10
camps.
kduckett@marshallindependent.com
N
Submitted photo
Members of the Canby girls basketball team, along with Canby High School alumni are shown with this
year’s Lancer Legend participants. Current and former high school basketball players work with Canby’s
youth to expose them to the fundamentals of the game. More than 75 kids in grades K-8 took part in the
three-day camp that stressed fundamentals.
Volleyball FROM PAGE 4
Many area schools or summer recreation programs
offered camps and clinics this summer for the 12-under
age group in keeping with the JO trend.
Marshall offers instructional volleyball for ages 10, 11
and 12 three times a week at Park Side Elementary.
“It’s through community services,” said Dan Westby.
“The youngest group goes Monday, Tuesday and Thursday
from 11:30-12:45. We just do basic skills and play. It’s like
an introduction to volleyball. We have about 35 kids and it
runs for six weeks.”
Westby believes that starting volleyball at this particular
age group has some definite advantages.
“One of the things you’ll notice in volleyball is that it
gives kids confidence,” said Westby. “After they’ve done it
for a few years, they have so much more confidence than
new kids who haven’t had that background. I think all kids
need to try things and this gives kids an idea if they want
to keep playing it or not. It’s a lot of fun.”
Southwest Minnesota State University also has summer
camps for younger players from kindergarten to sixth
grade.
“We had between 60 to 70 kids attend last year,” said
SMSU head coach Terry Culhane. “Whether people agree
with kids starting the whole sports thing at an earlier age,
it is what it is. We look at it as trying to provide a service
for young kids.”
Some communities, such as Marshall, have had similar
opportunities in the past, but kids from other area schools
may not have.
“Our camp give some younger kids from surrounding
areas the opportunity to get some instruction if they want
to play and learn some skills. We’re here to promote volleyball.”
The camp drew kids from in towns in the region including Balaton, Dawson, Boyd, Marshall, Minneota, Tracy
and Walnut Grove, Culhane said.
Culhane said the camps focus on basic skills such as
passing.
“So much in volleyball hinges on the ability to pass the
ball,” Culhane said. “So it’s tougher for younger kids. But
they’re playing at a much younger age now and many kids
can play at the upper elementary age. We have them use
the lighter ball so they have more success. But it’s not
about how good they are, it’s about the awareness and just
giving the kids an opportunity.”
View and purchase photos from select games at cu.marshallindependent.com
8 • INDEPENDENT-MARSHALL, MINN. • FRIDAY, JULY 24, 2009
Photo by Deb Gau
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Matt Knutson, a member of Minneota’s summer youth baseball team, takes a swing during an away game against Milroy recently at the Milroy baseball field.
PLACES TO PLAY
From schools and city parks to privately
maintained fields, the region has a variety
of facilities available for young athletes
By Deb Gau
recreation program, said a lot of youth
sporting events, like softball games, are
held at the athletic fields behind Canby
It could be a field complete with
Elementary School. There’s plenty of room
dugouts and bleachers full of fans. Or it
there to get spectators together, he said.
could be as close as the local school or city
“That’s what’s fun about it,” Hansen
park. Either way, there’s no shortage of
said. “You can get the family together and
places for area youth to participate in
hang out to watch a game.”
sports.
School facilities are also made to be
Many of the gyms and sports fields
flexible. When Chris Johnson of Tyler was
available to youth are city or school-main- looking for a place to start up a summer
tained. This gives the facilities the benefit
soccer camp for kids ages 5 to 8, he decidof being accessible to the public, and in the ed to go with the RTR High School athletic
case of schools, they’re often sized to
accommodate younger players.
Kevin Hansen, of Canby’s parks and
Places PAGE 11
dgau@marshallindependent.com
INDEPENDENT-MARSHALL, MINN. • FRIDAY, JULY 24, 2009 • 9
SHOWING HIS RANGE
WE ARE PROUD TO SPONSOR…
d
o
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w
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o
t
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YOUTH SPORTS
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507-423-6282
Photo by David Griswold
Marshall Cardinals Ben Jones makes a backhand grab during a youth baseball game at
Independence Park on Tuesday.
Backbone FROM PAGE 3
With the population of veterans from
World War II and Vietnam declining, membership has taken a dramatic fall.
“And new veterans from Iraq and
Afghanistan just have too much stuff going
on,” said Gagnon who has been VFW
member since 1981. “So we have to find
sponsorship.”
One way Marshall cuts the costs of
sporting a baseball team is by borrowing
equipment from the high school.
Cottonwood combines with the Wood
Lake American Legion and the Lakeview
Booster Club to raise money through charitable gambling in Wood Lake and special
events held by the boosters.
“We split the costs three ways and that
makes it easier to afford,” said Alm.
The Tracy and Milroy legions also
merge together to financially support their
team.
“It’s just something we need to do
because it’s a good thing for the kids,” said
Tracy Legion Commander Orwill Wigen,
who noted that his post typically donates
anywhere from $500 to $1,500 each year.
But for these posts and their members,
it’s not about how much work or money
goes into aiding a baseball team, it’s the
results that serve as a reward.
“I enjoy going to watch these kids play,”
said Gagnon, who routinely made it out as
a spectator last summer. “They’re very
competitive and play some amazing
games.”
“It’s such a tradition with baseball and
veterans,” Alm said, “and we want to keep
that going.”
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10 • INDEPENDENT-MARSHALL, MINN. • FRIDAY, JULY 24, 2009
Mats FROM PAGE 5
two-day wrestling camp for the younger
kids in August, sometime after summer
recreation is finished.
Yellow Medicine East head coach
David Wingert said that Granite Falls
area kids finished up a three-day clinic
on July 10.
“This was our first year putting on a
camp,” said Wingert. “We had about 15
to 20 kids that were 12 and under. We
tried to cater to the kids because they
don’t always have a lot of time to get to
camps elsewhere. Plus, we could do it at
a cheaper price with all profits going
back into the program.”
Wingert said they brought in clinicians like Zach Sanders from the U of M.
“We had a good turnout,” Wingert
said. “Kids had a fun time and learned a
lot from our clinicians. We covered a lot
of the basics. Sometimes you have to
take it down a notch with the younger
kids.”
Wingert said it varies from athlete to
athlete on whether there are benefits of
starting young.
“It depends on how much a kid puts
into it and how much they’ve wrestled
before,” said Wingert. “But I’ve seen
kids come out as juniors in high school
and do well, too.”
SAFE AT THIRD
Photo by
David Griswold
Xavier Towne of
the Marshall
Tigers 10- and 11year-old team
slides into third
base while
Marshall Angels
third baseman
Matt VanKuelen
attempts to make
a tag at a youth
baseball game at
Independence
Park in Marshall
on Monday.
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Court FROM PAGE 7
“Anyone who plays or has played in our
program here at Canby High School are
considered legends,” Hansen said. “The
camp is first off meant to be fun. We stress
fundamentals; we have games and contests
and we try to make everyone feel good
about themselves.”
Marshall Community Services offers a
winter basketball program for girls in
kindergarten through the fourth grade. The
program runs Saturday mornings in January
and February and is focused on the fundamentals of the game, said Cam Bailey of
Marshall Community Services.
“It is set up so that the first four
Saturdays are more directed towards the
fundamentals,” he said. “They are about
learning the game of basketball, learning he
basics and the rules. The last four
Saturdays are geared towards scrimmages
and games.”
Bailey said Marshall Community
Services works with the various sports
associations in town, including Marshall
girls basketball.
“It is a good collaboration,” he said.
“We work real close with all the different
associations, and our main goal is to target
kids K through 4, and then the associations
come in and target 5 through 8, and then
the kids get into high school and AAU and
‘‘
The camp is first
off meant to be fun.
We stress fundamentals; we have games
and contests and we
try to make everyone
feel good about
themselves.
Kevin Hansen
stuff like that.”
Marshall Community Services and
Marshall girls basketball association provide the opportunity to get involved at the
game at a very young age, 4- or 5-yearsold, and stay involved as long as one
chooses, Bailey said.
“You can play organized basketball as a
5-year-old or kindergartner,” he said. “And
then you can continue to play the game and
continue to be involved in the game all the
way through you senior year in high school
or beyond. We have a great turnout and we
get a lot of kids involved.”
INDEPENDENT-MARSHALL, MINN. • FRIDAY, JULY 24, 2009 • 11
Places FROM PAGE 8
field. Add some goals, he said, and it’s a
functioning soccer field.
“You can play soccer almost anywhere,
but the fields help for a level surface,”
Johnson said.
City athletic fields are often used by
both youth sports programs and local adult
teams. This gives kids a chance to play
with the benefit of lights, dugouts and other
resources and equipment, organizers and
coaches say.
“The kids can dream big,” Hansen said.
Hansen said the city of Canby was
recently able to update its athletic fields
through a Minnesota Twins grant.
Local youth teams make use of city
fields for T-ball, baseball and softball in
Hendricks and Ivanhoe, coaches said. In
Hendricks, youth softball coach Shari
Johnson said the city baseball field is a
center of activity in summer.
“It gets used a lot. Monday through
Thursday it’s really swamped,” Johnson
said.
In some cases, athletic facilities may be
privately owned. That’s the case in Milroy,
where kids in the city’s summer youth
baseball team play on the same field used
by the Milroy Yankees. The field is maintained by the Milroy baseball association.
“We usually have the younger kids play
at the (Milroy) school, which is understandable,” said Isaac Dolan, coach of the
Milroy youth baseball team. But for the
nine to twelve age bracket, playing on the
big field is both fun and feasible.
“I think the kids have a lot of fun,”
Dolan said.
No matter the arrangement, sports facilities are an asset for their communities,
coaches said. Not only do sports bring people into town to play, but after the games
are over, some fields are available for public use.
When the Hendricks field isn’t in use,
Shari Johnson said, “You’ll just see families or kids playing pick-up games.”
“As a parent, it’s just huge to know my
child has the opportunity to have fun, and
learn about a sport,” Hansen said.
We’re proud of our
Canby Athletes & all they
have acomplished!
Cleveland Chevrolet
1105 St Olaf Ave. N. • Canby, MN • 507-223-5550
D&K RV Sales
1906 180th Ave. • Canby, MN • 507-223-7518
Farmer’s Co-op Association
1204 St. Olaf Ave. N. • Canby, MN • 507-223-7241
First Security Bank
102 St. Olaf Ave. N. • Canby, MN • 507-223-7231
Minensota West Community &
Technical College Canby Campus
1011 1st St. W. • Canby, MN • 507-223-7252
Runnings Farm & Fleet
115 First St. E. • Canby, MN • 507-223-5446
Sanford Canby
112 St. Olaf Ave. • Canby, MN • 507-223-7277
Porter Elevator
Porter, MN • 507-296-4491
Sight Sound & Body
306 First St. E. • Canby, MN • 507-223-5622
Sturdevant’s Auto
214 St. Olaf Ave. N. • Canby, MN • 507-223-7234
Water Billboards
107 11th St. E. • Canby, MN • 507-223-7133
Heartland Eyecare
107 First St. E. • Canby, MN • 507-223-5818
State Bank of Taunton
Taunton, MN • 507-872-6136
Western Partner Technology
Members of the Milroy summer youth baseball team headed to the outfield for throwing practice recently. The summer program makes use of the same field where the Milroy
Yankees amateur baseball team plays.
Uptown Glamour
133 St. Olaf Ave N. • 507-223-7444
07249h04838db
www.westtechwb.com • 888-610-7665
Photo by Deb Gau
12 • INDEPENDENT-MARSHALL, MINN. • FRIDAY, JULY 24, 2009
Summit Place
Downtown Tracy • 629-8178
131 Third Street
Tracy, MN
507-629-3801
Tracy Four Seasons
Department Store for Women
Downtown Tracy ~ 629-4315
MURRAYLAND
AGENCY, INC.
130 3rd Street, Tracy • 507-212-6688
251 East 5th St.
Tracy, MN
507-629-3200
MARK PRIEGNITZ
125 4th Street • Tracy
507.629.3070
UNIQUELY YOURS/LIGHTS AND BEYOND
176 3rd St. • Tracy, MN • 507-212-2400
Greenwood
Nursery
168 Fourth Street • Tracy
507-629-4250 or 1-888-629-4250
611 S. 4th St. • Tracy
629-3485
07249h03826jm
154 3rd Street, Tracy, MN • (507) 629-3084