A group formed in Black River Falls, the Jackson County Wiffle Ball League involves numerous students from the high school.

Crack! You hear a smack as you see a bright, yellow bat make contact with a white ball with holes in one half.

Can you guess what sport that is being described? If you guessed wiffleball, then you’re correct.

Jackson County has a wiffleball league, the Jackson County Wiffle Ball League. The league is made up of many high school students.

“I play wiffleball because it is just a great, fun time with your pals,” said junior Jordan Millis.

“You’re just swingin’ bats and hittin’ balls.” Senior Alex Johnson said, “[I play wiffleball] to win by dominating other teams. And to be the best that ever stepped on the field.”

“Why wouldn’t you want to play wiffleball,” junior Nathan Helstad said.

The league held strong in its  first years running, but the attendance of players during the recently past season decreased largely.

“It was a real downfall from the previous year,” said Millis.

Former Black River Falls High School student Eric Helstad was the commissioner of the JWL in the previous seasons. Now, with him going to college, the league has potential to fall apart.

Nathan Helstad says he plans to co-commission the league this year with senior Alex Johnson. “I plan to reinstate some rules about a player skipping a wiffle ball game to go and hang out with his girlfriend, so that we can have more dedication to the league,” said Helstad.

The JWL calls their field the  Paul Helstad Memorial Wiffleball Field, and it is located out at the Helstad household–in their backyard.

Alex Johnson doesn’t plan to on a new field go with the new commissioners with the upcoming season. “ Absolutely not. There is nothing wrong with the Paul Helstad Memorial Wiffleball Field.”

If you have any interest in joining the JWL, the next season will not be until spring/summer of 2012, but be sure to communicate with the commissioners Alex Johnson and Nathan Helstad.

Both started playing tennis at young age. Savannah’s mother was a tennis athlete and all of Hegna’s sisters played tennis, so it’s no surprise that the two would someday play tennis themselves.

They first started playing together at the start of this season, but have always been friends.

The girls spend a lot of time together and consider each other sisters.

“We do just about everything together,” Savannah said.

The two have really enjoyed their season together and only expect to go up from here.

“To State!” Hegna said.

The two had practice almost every day after school for the season, but besides that are very active in the school and community. Both participate in band, Savannah as a student director, and Hegna as section leader for the clarinets. Besides that, they are in other groups like Peer Educators, choir and are active in church groups. They also keep high grades in school and display leadership quailities.

Savannah and Hegna had subsectionals October 3. Like any game this was a challenge for the two but they both put in the practice for chance to compete. The two ultimately went down in three sets, but Savannah had only positive things to say about the season.

“The season was extremely fun,” said Savannah . “I love all the girls and will remember the memories we made for the rest of my life.”

Volleyball

The Black River Falls volleyball team is underway in their 2011 season. Most of these girls have been playing together for a long time and have a lot of good chemistry as a team.

“We started off to a rough start, but now were starting to put it all together,” said senior Jessica Bere.

Though the Tigers have a losing record, it isn’t stopping them from working hard and setting goals.

“Some of our goals are to beat GET, Luther and Viroqua,” said Bere. With some goals, the Tigers look to turn this season around and get ready for the postseason.

Football

The Black River Falls football team has been hitting hard since August and now they’re in the middle of the season. The Tigers lost some players from last year, so now it’s time for some young stars to show their talent on the field.

“There’s been a rough start to the games, but the team chemistry is very good and we’re improving,” said sophomore quarterback Ethan Young.

The Tigers are still winless on the year, but look to bounce back for the second half of the year, with conference play just around the corner. The players and coaches have some goals, but one big one will take a hard road to get.

“We want to be conference champs,” said Young. “You gotta believe.”

Cross Country

The Black River Falls cross country team is in mid-season form with some nice races under their belts. With the team losing some key runners, the Tigers have to rely more on the team aspect.

“Our guys’ team is having a pretty good season with a young team,” said senior Brady Gartner.

The Tiger runners are training hard and getting ready for conference and sectionals, which both are held in Black River at the Skyline Golf Course. Since both girls and guys teams have young teams, they are trying to focus on how to get their top five runners as close as possible for better points.

“We are trying to get our 1-5 split down to 30-45 seconds,” said sophomore Taylor Dalbec.

Tennis

The Black River Falls tennis team is already wrapping up their season soon. These girls have been playing since August and have had a good season.

“We have won all our conference meetings except one,” said senior Lindsey.

With the season winding down, they have a big tournament coming up this Saturday in Black River, it’s the conference tournament.

“We are hoping to do really well at conference,” said senior Emily Rodenberg.

The team also added a new assistant coach, which is Jenny Teeples.

“She is a really great asset to the team, she has a lot of knowledge of the game and she really helps us,” said Lindsey.

“I think these teams deserve to be in the championship games; they played tough teams to get there,” said freshman John Holty. 

The Pittsburg Steelers had a first round bye and then had to play the Baltimore Ravens. The New York Jets had to play Peyton Manning and the Colts, and then Tom Brady and the number one team, the New England Patriots–and they had to do it on the road.

“I was really happy to see the Jets beat the Patriots, they’re in the playoffs too often,” said junior Scott Acor.

The Chicago Bears were the two seed and got a first round bye then met the Seattle Seahawks in the divisional round. The Bears took care of the Seahawks to advance to the NFC championship game. The Green Bay Packers are the sixth seed and had to play two games on road to get to the championship game–the third seed Eagles and the top seed Atlanta Falcons. The Packers manhandled the Falcons with a 48-21 beat down.

“I was very happy that the Packers won so we get to face the Bears,” said freshman Dalton Shaw.

The playoffs are usually exciting anyway, but this year there have been some rival games in the divisional round. The Baltimore Ravens and the Pittsburg Steelers played each other for the third time when they met in the playoffs, which was a huge game for both teams. The New England Patriots and New York Jets played for the third time and there was mutual hatred for the teams. The Packers and the Bears will play for the third time for the right to go to the Super Bowl.

“I didn’t like all of the rival games, it was not as cool as all of the hype,” said Holty.

There has been a lot of predictions about who will get the right to play in Super Bowl XLV. Sports Illustrated said that the Packers and Patriots would square up in the Super Bowl, but since the Patriots got knocked out of the playoff, their prediction was wrong.

“I am hoping for a Jets/Packers Super Bowl, with the Packers winning it all,” said Acor.

ESPN at the beginning of the season said the Packers would face the Steelers for the Lombardi trophy. There prediction might be right.

“I think a Packer/Steeler Super Bowl would be sweet with the Packers winning it,” said Holty.

With the Super Bowl coming fast, it will be a dog fight to the trophy.

 The girls lost to Onalaska with a score of 2 to 10. Then they played New Richmond at New Richmond and lost in overtime with a score of 4 to 5. On Friday they played Eau Claire North on the road and lost again, 2 to 8.

For this being the first season for girls hockey, the road has been up and down at points for the girls. This is a down time for the girls but there is no reason that that couldn’t change.

It has to be tough for the girls because this is their first year playing together. With not playing together, it shows that the team is just trying to get on its feet and they are striving for the best.

 ”Were doing alright, but we have more losses than wins,” said sophomore Annisa Flick.

Despite their best efforts, they are still struggling.

“I thought we were going to do better than how we are doing,” said Flick.

Even though the team has a losing record, the season still goes on and the games keep on coming.

 This coming up week, the girls will face up against Viroqua at home on January 18 followed up with a game at Baraboo on Saturday. The girls then have three more games to finish their season after this week.

“As a team, we plan on working harder in practice and help each other out more,” said Flick.

Practice and team work are some important words to remember here. Practice makes you play better and team makes everything flow together while playing they game.

“To improve, we need to minimize the amount of turnovers in our zone, as well as better puck possession witch will lead us to more shots,” said sophomore Riley Smith.

As the season comes to an end, the girls have come to know one another and they have their own thoughts on how the season has went.

“I think the season has gone good so far. We have tough teams to play, and a very young team,” said Smith.

On January 6, the lady Tigers played Medford at home and won with a score of 6 to 0. The boys were on the road that night in Viroqua, winning 6 to 0 also.

This is the first year that Black River Falls has had a girls team and it seems like they are working well together and having some fun as the season goes on.

“Our season is going good, I guess. We have won four games in a row now,” said sophomore Natasha Hizer.

Winning four games in a row has been a big boost for the girls, and they’re ready to push through the rest of the season.

“The rest of the season depends on the attitude of the girls, but we have been working really well as a team so I think we will do good the rest of the season,” said Hizer.

The rest of the season look to be promising for the girls and it seems like they all like to work as a team and go to work when the games roll around.

Hizer, Lydia Cloud and Makenzie Hoeshchele all added to the score on the sixth. With multiple girls scoring for the Tigers, it creates a wide variety of people scoring and that gives the team depth for more scoring opportunities.

The next match up for the girls will be against New Richmond in New Richmond on Tuesday January 11.

 The boys were on the road in Viroqua on January 6, winning 6 to 0 also. Junior Dylan Hill is playing his first year of hockey and had an assist on a goal.

The boys will be playing La Cresent at home on Tuesday January 11. This will be the first time the boys face La Cresent this year.

The students were sponsored by the Ho-Chunk Nation under an initiative by Runners Against Drunk Driving (R.A.D.D.).

“They [Ho-Chunk Nation] paid for our plane tickets, hotel, food and the activities we did there,” said senior Jasmine. “We only had to bring spending money.”

Although the trip was paid for, it was by no means ‘free’. The students put in a lot of hard work prior to the trip.

“We [the other runners and I] started the last week in August. We ran Monday through Friday and on Saturday,” said Jasmine.

The runners started their training by beginning with shorter distances and gradually increasing as the weeks went on. The training program enforced by coaches Erwin Begay and Lani Blackdeer consisted of running 3-4-5 miles from Monday to Wednesday respectively. As the marathon date approached the distance the runners ran progressively got to be longer, in preparation for the 26-mile race.

“Thursday and Friday we ran on our own and Saturday was a long distance day,” said senior Tianna Pettibone.

On December 8, the runners departed for their trip to Hawaii. Despite their bus breaking down in Osseo and missing their first flight, they all made it there safely.

For Pettibone, it didn’t set in until she arrived in Hawaii.

“I wasn’t excited, but I couldn’t believe I was leaving. It didn’t hit me until we got to Hawaii,” said Pettibone.

When they landed, they took a bus to their hotel and got settled in. Later that night they went shopping and out to eat.

“It was so expensive!” said Pettibone in response to Hawaii’s high prices.

The night before the marathon the whole team went out for pasta. The following day, December 12, the Honolulu Marathon took place.

“We woke up at 2 a.m. and went to the starting area at 3:30 a.m.,” said Jasmine.

Prior to the start of the race, the runners needed to stretch, use the restroom and have a team meeting. The team consisted of 16 runners (3 from Wisconsin Dells, 13 from Black River Falls) aged 12-18.

The race started at 5 a.m. Just before the race, the runners were feeling nervous, anxious and scared, but they kept positive attitudes. Pettibone went into the race with a strategy.

“I kept a slow pace. I didn’t want to take off right away and get tired,” said Pettibone.

Pettibone also admitted to being lonely throughout the race. However, halfway through she tagged up with fellow runner Waverly Bird.

“My feet hurt really badly and I was so sore. Towards the end I would run, walk, run, walk,” said Pettibone.

But crossing the finish line was a great sense of accomplishment.

“I was happy. I feel like I accomplished something great,” said Jasmine.

It was a lot of hard work, but the runners say they would do it again.

“I won’t do it again soon, but in a couple years, maybe,” said Pettibone

Putter plays a lot of sports, including football, hockey and golf.

“My favorite out of these three would have to be hockey, because you can hit people and if you get in a fight, it’s not that big of a deal. It really relieves my stress,” said Putter.

Putter has been playing hockey for 13 years. He has a lot of good times in all of his sports, but there is only one favorite moment in hockey.

“My favorite moment was being under the almighty Joel Millis’s wing. He taught me some things that I’m surprised that I could live without. He is the greatest,” said Putter.

“Marylin School of Dance, it’s a dance studio in Black River Falls and Tomah, and they have different types of classes like ballet, jazz, and tap, and hip hop, and modern classes. I think they also have classes like ballroom and couples classes for adults,” said senior dancer Elizabeth Cook.

A few students from our high school are going to Tomah to learn unique types of dance. There are many types of dance the students can choose from in Tomah, students have different preferences in the type of dance.

“I like jazz, because ballet is just about your position and turn out and all about you, but in jazz you can just move,” said freshman dancer Sheena Voge.

Jazz and hip-hop are two common favorites among students from Black River Falls who go to the dance class in Tomah. The birthplace of jazz has many origins: New Orleans, St. Louis, Memphis and Kansas City are just a few. New Orleans remains the main influence on the origin of jazz. Jazz can be dated back to the 1900’s. Hip-hop on the other hand is fairly new and started around the 1970’s.

“They’re all fun, I like our lyrical jazz class because it is challenging and its things that I have never done before,” said Cook. “But our hip-hop class is fun because it’s a big workout class so its challenging as well, but in a different way.”

Students enjoy driving to Tomah to take dance class, but they have to be committed with the amount of hours and late nights they put into it.

“Emily Dunniesen, Micayla Cork, and I have three classes every Wednesday night. We leave at 5:30 and get home at 10:00,” said Cook.

The dancers have to learn how to balance their time due to the long trek to Tomah.

“I take classes in Tomah because in Black River Falls they only offer classes for little girls, and not upper level classes. In the classes that I’m taking its all high school students, we are the only three from Black River Falls; the rest are from Tomah High School,” said Cook.

For the dancers they have different reasons for why they got involved in dance class.

“Well I took a class in eighth grade. My friend Emily got me into it because she has been dancing many more years than I have,” said Cook.

“When I was little I always wanted to be a ballerina, and my mom took me to see Sleeping Beauty,” said Voge.

Voge not only attends class but also teaches youngsters dance on Mondays in Black River. She finds it fun to help the young girls learn to dance.