Wrestling preps for season

Carrie Moritz

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November 9, 2023

Garretson grapplers take part in pre-season hydration test to get ready for season start in 10 days

by Gracie Fiegen, GHS Blue Ink

There are many signs that winter is quickly coming up. The air is getting a bite; snow even began to fall last weekend, and Garretson’s fall sports came to an end.

With the start of winter comes the beginning of the season’s athletics. One of these is wrestling. This sport is estimated to have 20-25 athletes for the 2023-2024 season. Brady Schleuter returns for his third year as head coach with Jason Bohl, Nolan Johnson, and Oran Sorenson as assistant coaches.

Wrestling, like the other winter sports, are prepping for the season with preseason training. This Tuesday, the team had a hydration test. This is a newer requirement from the state. Garretson High School wrestlers, Levi Top and Danika Juhl, explained that this test is done to ensure the wrestlers are hydrated. Also, this assists in making a weight loss plan so wrestlers aren’t losing too much weight in a non-healthy way.

2023-2024 Wrestlers

Many of these athletes are returning to the mat from previous years. Although COVID cut her freshman season short after only having been to a week of practice, Hannah Frewaldt, a senior, has been in wrestling for two full seasons. This year will be her third and final season in high school wrestling.

There are a few newcomers to the mat, including foreign exchange student, Lucas Gonzalez. He decided to join because he wanted to try another sport in America that he has not played before, as he did with football. Gonzalez thinks the team will be good this year because he's noticed there are many good athletes.

Wrestlers have different reasons and motivations to join the team. For some, it is family influence; for others, it is because it is fun, and they wanted to try it.

Frewaldt stated, “I've been around and watched wrestling since I was really little, so I felt like I'd be able to catch on. Since my dad was a three-time state champ, I knew I had a solid person in my corner.”

Senior, Carsten Rozeboom, was also around wrestling since he was very young as he joined in first grade. He said while he enjoys wrestling now, his parents kind of just threw him into it at first.

Top, a sophomore on the team, explained, “I’ve always wanted to wrestle, but my brother finally convinced me to join the team.”

Other teammates decided to join solely because it is fun. These include Talon Miller, an eighth grader, and Juhl, a junior.

She said, “It's fun to throw people around and not get in trouble for it. It also helps me manage my anger issues.”

Women's Wrestling Team

Wrestling is very much a male dominated sport. Currently Garretson has three girls on the team: Frewaldt, Juhl, and senior Adair Hansich. Frewaldt and Juhl both hope that the girls wrestling program can grow into a full team.

“It would put us in the running to get more team points and more support at girls’ tournaments,” said Frewaldt.

Coach Schleuter stated, “We are actively trying to recruit more girls to the sport but also just more players in general.”

Both Frewaldt and Juhl expressed it was difficult at first being one of few girls.

Frewaldt stated, “It was somewhat hard, because I felt that I had to be good right away because I was so far behind all the boys. As a whole though, it wasn’t difficult to join because I knew I could do it. At the beginning I was just thinking about what people would think of me if I went out, but I got over that.”

Juhl mentioned some people made comments but overall she is used to playing male dominated sports.

“I would encourage other girls to join if they’re willing to work hard and be patient,” stated Frewaldt.

Juhl agreed but added, “It’s a great way to make friends from many different schools. They might look really mean at first but they’re actually nice.”

Weight Classes

There are multiple weight classes to ensure wrestlers and their opponents are appropriately matched. While Garretson has had many talented squads in recent years, they have struggled to fill all of the weight classes. This leaves openings, which hurts the overall score of the team.

Coach Schleuter said, “I would like to have a couple kids at the same weight class just in case of an injury or if an athlete isn't able to make a meet. We have one person at a weight class due to the fact we are trying to fill all 14 weight classes. I don't know if we will be able to fill all the weight classes this year, but we should be able to fill a decent amount of them.”

Goals

Both the athletes and coaches agreed that the team is going to be very competitive this year. They all have high hopes for the upcoming season.

Coach Schleuter said, “Our team's biggest assets would be upperclassmen and the leadership they will bring to this team.”

While the Blue Dragons are hoping to achieve great things as a team, wrestling is still an individual sport. Many of the athletes agree on their personal goals. The main two are personally improving their skills and the way they play and the second was to make it to state.

Last year, five wrestlers went to state. There were three boys and two girls. Frewaldt is the only person on this year's team that went to state because the other four graduated. This leaves multiple openings for other wrestlers to make their goals happen and keep the strong tradition of Garretson wrestling moving forward.

The official start of the season is marked with the first wrestling practice on November 13. The first meet is on December 2 at Flandreau High School.

Halloween trick from the Bulldogs bites Dragons

Carrie Moritz

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November 9, 2023

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Halloween trick from the Bulldogs bites Dragons

volleyball player in pink jumping to strike the ball while player in white jumps to block — Bryn Swatek goes in for a kill against Elaina Rhode of Colman-Egan in the annual Dig Pink game on Friday, October 20. At the Dig Pink game, $774 was raised for cancer research and awareness.

The Garretson Blue Dragon Volleyball team played its final game of the year last Tuesday, October 31 in the first round of region playoffs. The team was paired against Baltic, a group the Dragons had fought and lost to twice this last season.

While the Dragons put up a good fight, they were still unable to overcome the Bulldogs, and lost in three sets 20-25, 20-25, and 22-25.

Baltic went into the next round of region playoffs against Sioux Falls Christian on Thursday, November 2, and lost to that team in three sets.

Despite not getting to move far into postseason play, Garretson volleyball did well this year, winning 16 games out of 26. A good number of wins saw the team do it in three sets, and the athletes had fun and showed solid teamwork.

Community Happenings Nov 9, 2023

Carrie Moritz

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November 9, 2023

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AMERICAN LEGION AUXILIARY NOVEMBER, 2023

The American Legion Auxiliary met on November 2 with President, Cheryl opening the meeting . Chaplain, Sue led us in prayer and we did the Pledge of Allegiance, The Star Spangled Banner and the Preamble.

Roll call indicated that all officers were present. The secretary read the minutes and they were approved and placed on file. The treasurer gave her report and it was approved and placed on file for audit. Cheryl reported that our membership is now at 153 with more coming in. She also reported that many cards had been sent in October. Bingo was held at Palisade HealthCare in October with 16 residents participating as well as five volunteers. The secretary read the newsletter from Noel Bonjour reporting on district activities including the district meeting in Tea and recapping things from the Honor Flight.

There were no bills. Dictionaries were handed out at the school by Rhonda and Liz and the students were very appreciative. The American Red Cross Blood Drive was held at the Legion on October 20 and 22 donors gave blood. Lunch was served here by the auxiliary and the donors appreciated it.

“Be the One” is the theme of the Legion, Auxiliary and Sons of the American Legion. We all are encouraged to check on veterans often with friendliness and caring.

A trick or treat Halloween event was set up by the auxiliary on Halloween. DaNann offered them a game and they came around tables to collect treats from auxiliary and legion members. It was a fun and successful event with over 100 children participating.

Veterans Day will be on November 11 with a meal served at 6:00. Set up will be Saturday morning at 9:00. November 8 is Nursing Home Bingo and volunteers will be contacted. Education Week is November 13 and Judy has ordered apples for all school employees to show appreciation to them. Our next meeting is December 7 and we will have our party game as well as Christmas treats to share with everyone. There will be no January meeting and no January Bingo.

In Closing, chaplain, Sue led us in prayer and Rhonda Kirton won the door prize.

-Ethel Kurtz, Secretary

Splitrock Bowling:

The Splitrock Ladies bowled on October 31st, 2023, with the following results:

High Team Game & Series - Rock River Ag, LLC - 908 & 2563.

High Individual Game & Series - Jill Reindl - 187 & 518.

Julaine Walker picked up the 3-10 split. Jill Reindl picked up the 5-10 split. Bonnie Kramer picked up the 5-7 & 5-10 splits. Diane Fueston picked up the 3-10 & 5-10 splits. Marlene Blum picked up the 3-10 split.

City considers new web developer, old steakhouse to be demolished on Nov. 13

Carrie Moritz

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November 9, 2023

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City considers new web developer, old steakhouse to be demolished on Nov. 13

By Carrie Moritz, Gazette

UPDATE 11/13/23: In the initial printing of the Gazette we reported the city expected the “old steakhouse” building to come down on November 13. This has been moved to next week Monday, November 20 (tentative).

The Garretson City Council met in regular session on Monday, where they looked at the possibility of changing website providers for the second time in three years, approved all liquor license renewal requests, and changed the meeting times back to 6:30 p.m. for future meetings.

cement and brick facade missing from a building — A rooftop shot of the damage from the perspective of the Rainbow Delight store in July 2023. The "old steakhouse" building is scheduled to be demolished on November 13. //Garrick Moritz

In February 2021, the council had voted to move forward with a new website provider and host called MyGov, which was highly recommended at the time by municipalities such as Brandon and Baltic. While the new website did bring a needed refresh for city employees, the system was purchased by a software company named Catalyst, according to City Finance Officer Paetyn Dreckman, and will be increasing their fees substantially in 2024.

According to past records, the city was initially slated to pay $8,150 up front, then $500 per year. However, next year, that rate will be jumping to $3,500 with zero new features, and another 6% increase will be expected in 2025. This encouraged Dreckman and Economic Director Jessica Fueston to look into new options. They came upon Apptegy, the same website provider utilized by the Garretson School District. While Apptegy markets itself to schools, the software provider has also set up websites for small cities, such as Greer, South Carolina and Mustang, Oklahoma.

Apptegy sales representative Blake Meyer joined the meeting via Zoom, and gave the council a run-down of the features they offer. He pointed out several user-friendly options that would be available to the city such as one-spot posting to multiple sites. Two apps that can be downloaded to a phone are available, one for city employees to use for adding content to the website, and one for residents to use for viewing the content. The app would be similar to the one from the school district, and offers an event calendar identical to the one seen on the school website and app, which is highly utilized by parents and students. Push notifications would be an option for users, allowing the city to very quickly communicate any alerts.

Councilor Jackie Rotert pointed out that she uses the school app daily, and thought an app option would be more heavily utilized than the website, as most people likely don't visit the site on a regular basis.

Currently, city employees must post individually to Facebook, email, and text message to communicate with residents, and the calendar feature is not user-friendly, discouraging employees from posting events onto it.

While the features appealed highly to the council, councilors were taken aback by the price tag, which was twice the amount of the 2024 MyGov price, on top of an onboarding fee. Meyer stated they normally have a cost of $7,000 plus $0.10 per resident as a yearly cost, and an onboarding fee of $9,500, but as a November special to small towns, they were reducing the prices to a flat cost of $6,900 for a yearly subscription and $5,500 onboarding fee.

When asked by Mayor Greg Beaner if the price increase would be worth it, Dreckman pointed out that growth is Garretson's biggest goal right now.

"We have younger people moving into town... I think the app part of it, would be a really big deal. I think it would see more traffic than our website does right now. I'm all for it."

Councilor Bill Hoskins wondered if there was possibly something else available, that would provide some of the best features of the proposed system but wouldn't cost as much.

"I'm a little reluctant to spend that much," he stated.

While Dreckman agreed the cost was substantial, she pointed out that the city would be able to afford it, and that the customer service from Apptegy has, so far, been much better than what they've received from Catalyst. At the same time, she agreed to look into other options, especially since the software the city uses for accounting, utility billing, and payroll is also requiring users to upgrade their systems by 2025 to a cloud-based system rather than a desktop solution, at a much higher yearly price than the desktop software had been.

Later in the meeting, the council voted to have Dreckman upgrade the accounting software at a cost of $23,000 minus the $16,846 she had already paid for the 2024 subscription. The council decided, after some discussion, that the upgrade for the accounting software would be worthwhile, as it has streamlined quite a few processes in the office, which helps to save employees time and stress.

Liquor licenses renewed

Next on the agenda, the council considered the renewal of liquor licenses for The Gulch, Sports Cabin (listed as The Combine 2), Dollar General, Palisade's Oil, Annie's, and Jesse James Country Store/Mini Mart.

When asked about any compliance failures, there was chatter among the council that one had failed this past summer, but no proof was offered and no press release found by the Gazette on the Minnehaha County website. In the most recent sting conducted a week ago, all Garretson businesses surveyed, Dollar General, Jesse James, Palisades Oil, and Sports Cabin, passed.

Due to that, and after noting that it was the responsibility of the Department of Revenue to pull liquor licenses for failure to card, all applications were voted in for renewal.

Earlier meeting time re-examined

After two meetings at an earlier, 6:00 p.m. time, the council opted to move back to 6:30 p.m. Despite all councilors being in attendance, it was pointed out that the earlier time was causing issues for both councilors and any potential meeting attendees who may be traveling from Sioux Falls after work. However, meeting dates will stay on the first Mondays of the month.

Other areas of note in the meeting:

The "old steakhouse" building at 608/612 N Main is scheduled to be demolished next Monday, November 13. While it will be sad to see one of the oldest buildings in the community come down, it was determined to be a hazard to others when a piece of facade fell off this past summer, causing damage to the building next door. It has been cordoned off since that time.

"Coffee with a Cop" was held with the Minnehaha County Sheriff at Annie's last Saturday, November 4. The event was well-attended.

The next meeting of the Garretson City Council will be held on Monday, December 4 at 6:30 p.m. at the American Legion Dugout.

Blue Dragon Academy decorates snow plow

Carrie Moritz

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November 9, 2023

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children posing in front of painted snow plow blade — //photo submitted

At the end of October, the City of Garretson invited Blue Dragon Academy to decorate its snowplow blade, and is encouraging the community to help name it.

This is something done yearly by Sioux Falls, and had been "bandied about the office for some time," said Economic Development Director Jessica Fueston. Inviting the center to do the art work was suggested by City Maintenance Supervisor Jordan Doane.

School-aged youth were given cans of spray paint, and told to "make it look pretty," according to Fueston. They took the suggestion seriously, and gave the blade a solid makeover.

The plow now needs a name. Suggestions can be submitted at https://cityofgarretson.com/snow.

"We wanted to bring something positive to the snow plow," she said. "Nobody looks forward to this time of the year, but hopefully when we hear it at 4:00 a.m. now it'll bring up a happy thought."

The snow plow was unveiled just before the Trunk or Treat, and showcased at the event. A huge thank you to the youth of Blue Dragon Academy for their great work!

Garretson chosen as launch point for RASDAK bike tour

Carrie Moritz

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November 9, 2023

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Garretson chosen as launch point for RASDAK bike tour

By Carrie Moritz, Gazette

Garretson will be a large part of the Ride Across South Dakota (RASDAK) bike tour this summer. The route announcement was made this past weekend, and Volunteer Bicycle Tour Coordinator Kasey Abbott was excited to speak with the Gazette about the six-day event.

"We thought it would be the perfect spot to start and end the tour," he said, pointing out that the goal of RASDAK is to promote bicycle tourism. He noted the scenery and the three parks that Garretson is known for, with the most famous being Palisades State Park, was a huge draw for why they chose the community.

"We want to get people off I-90 and exploring the smaller towns," he added.

The Ride Across South Dakota is similar to the Tour de Kota, which was organized and sponsored by the Argus Leader starting in 2005.

"After Tour de Kota ended, we wanted something for cycle enthusiasts, and that's when RASDAK started," said Abbott.

people holding bicycles above their heads while standing in front of bike sculpture — //photo courtesy RASDAK Facebook Page

RASDAK began in 2012, with 2022 being its 10-year anniversary. Last year was the first year they tried the loop format, and organizers enjoyed it thoroughly, as it reduced the amount of logistics. Prior to 2022, routes had traveled across the state, similar to RAGBRAI.

While RASDAK could be compared to the Register's Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa, known as RAGBRAI, Abbott pointed out that the SD ride is much more intimate, with around 250-300 cyclists compared to the thousands that attend the Iowa ride.

Along with the week-long riders, Abbott expects there to be daily riders, companions, SAG drivers (relief drivers who help anyone in case of bike breakdown or injury), and mechanical support from Spoke-n-Sport arriving in Garretson on Saturday afternoon and evening. He expects approximately 20-25 different states to be represented, and for several cyclists from across South Dakota to visit Garretson for the first time.

"The average age of our attendees is 58-59," he said. And they aren't there just to party, a well-known aspect of RAGBRAI. "While we plan to have a good time, we view ourselves as a traveling fundraiser for the smaller communities along the route."

As the opening community, Garretson has a great opportunity to showcase its best features. Abbott said the attendees love community events such as a welcoming party, where residents can meet the cyclists and vice versa.

Cyclists, any companions, and volunteers will be arriving in Garretson on Saturday, June 1 in the afternoon, will be out of the community around 7:30 a.m. on Sunday, and will return on Friday, June 6 between 10:30 a.m. -1:00 p.m.

Attendees will be encouraged to arrive early on Saturday so they can see everything the area has to offer, not just in Garretson, but in nearby Pipestone and Sioux Falls, as well.

Abbott hopes most folks will come and stay the night in Garretson. He believes approximately half of the attendees will opt to stay in the school gym, which will also be a storm shelter and shower area. Another 30-40% will opt to camp in a green area such as the green near the softball fields, and the rest he expects will find a hotel or RV campground nearby. He was excited about the prospect of both campgrounds in the Garretson area.