Author Archives: Colton Hall

Jake Fischer of Swier Law Firm has been selected to the 2017 South Dakota “Rising Stars” list.

Each year, a small percent of the lawyers in South Dakota are selected by the research team at Super Lawyers to receive this honor. Super Lawyers is a rating service of outstanding lawyers from more than 70 practice areas who have attained a high degree of peer recognition and professional achievement. To be eligible for inclusion as a Rising Star, a lawyer must be either 40 years old or younger or in practice for 10 years or less.

“We are excited and proud that Jake has been selected to receive this honor,” said Scott Swier. “We congratulate and thank Jake for his commitment to his clients, which is evident with this well-deserved recognition.”

The annual selections are made using a multiphase process that includes a statewide survey of lawyers, an independent research evaluation of candidates and peer reviews by practice area. The result is a comprehensive and diverse listing of exceptional attorneys. The Super Lawyers lists are published nationwide in Super Lawyers Magazines and in leading city and regional magazines and newspapers across the country.

As construction is in full swing at the Winner Regional Healthcare Center there will be a change to the ambulance bay.

Kathie Cole, long time EMT and ambulance driver, commented on pulling into that ambulance bay.

She posted on Facebook: “Well, kind of a bittersweet moment as we back into this bay one last time this morning. For over 30 years I’ve walked into that bay never knowing who’s life will change in a moment. I’ve laughed, cried and shared many moments, good and bad with co-workers, families and friends in that bay. But with that being said I look forward to the future. Yes, things will be a little different for while but what’s to come will be bigger and better.”

There is now a new ambulance entrance that will be used during the construction of the new addition to the healthcare center.

Several guns were taken from vehicles in Winner on the opening weekend of pheasant hunting season.

The Winner Police Department reports shot guns and rifles were taken from vehicles.

The suspects are believed to be juveniles. The police department is actively continuing its investigation into this case.

It is believed all the guns have been recovered. The police department reminds persons to lock their vehicles and also to not leave guns inside a vehicle but take them inside.

Also, early Sunday morning the new Runnings in Winner was broken into. Items were taken from the store. The police department is continuing its investigation into this break-in.

Glen Hollenbeck of Clearfield won the 68 and over category championship in tie down calf roping at the national senior pro rodeo finals in Panguitch, Utah.

Hollenbeck, 75, had both knees replaced and has worked hard to get in shape and continue his passion for roping calves.

Hollenbeck has been a long time competitor in the senior tie down division.

Hollenbeck was awarded a gold buckle for winning the title.

Winner High School dance team placed third overall at the state Class A contest in Rapid City on Friday.

In individual categories, Winner hip hop placed second while pom and kick earned third place.

“During the season as our individual category scores kept improving we discussed the possibility of placing at state if we did our best and we did,” said coach Cyndy DeMers. “We performed well and the competition was close,” she said.

“This is a difficult sport and judged on choreography difficulty as well as performance, endurance and proficiency. Improving our skills was something we concentrated on this year. We hosted a team camp, attended a camp at USD and spent many mornings practicing. As a coach I am extremely proud of our placement and improvement over the year,” said DeMers.

Team captains Macy Olson- pom; Abby Marts- kick and Gracie Littau-hip hop have led the teams and provided both choreography and direction in all areas of this sport,” sad DeMers.

The coach recognized the two seniors Macy Olson and Maddy Hanson for their dedication and leadership.

The Warriorette pom team will be performing at the halftime of the second playoff football game on Oct. 26 at Warrior Field.

By Val Ewing
Winner Area cheer coach

The Winner Area Competitive Cheer team ended their season on Friday, Oct 19 in Rapid City at the State Cheer and Dance Competition. Here are the results and highlights of the last few competitions.

Oct. 14th we competed in Platte at the Platte-Geddes Cheer Pink Invitational. The girls all wore Pink Ribbon shirts in order to support all the people in our community that are currently fighting breast cancer. They were especially aiming though to support one of their fellow cheerleaders, Shelby Scott who’s mother is currently fighting this horrible disease. The girls wanted to give Shelby’s mom Kathy a gift to help her along her journey and they presented it at this competition. The girls did not have the best performance but it solidified the changes we needed to make and the parts of our routine that we needed to work on the week of state.

We traveled to Rapid on Thursday evening. We knew Friday was going to be a long day of hurry up and wait. We had practice scheduled at the Rapid City Gymnastics Gym at 10:00 Friday morning and then went to eat as a team. We arrived at Rapid City Stevens at about 1:30 which gave the girls time to get their hair done before we practiced at 2:15. The coaches had a meeting at 3:30 and then the competition started at 5:00. This year’s competition was unique because a Winner team started it and finished it. Winner Dance kicked it off, going first. We were the final team to compete Friday night. Our routine went really well and all our stunts and changes were great until the end when we had a small glitch in the pyramid. They regrouped though pretty fast and ended it strong. Winner placed 5th in the Large Stunting/Tumbling division and then overall tied for 7th place with Redfield/Doland. There were 20 teams competing. Our score was a 206

Overall I am completely happy with how our season ended. These girls worked super hard to finish the year strong and with bigger and better stunts. We changed things up more than once and there were never any complaints. We have 6 seniors that I am not sure how we are going to replace them. Maddy Hanson has been a competitive cheerleader for 5 years, Macy Olson and Hannah Hanson for 4 years and Macie Ferwerda for 3 years. Their leadership and knowledge really helped us be the team we were this year and next year’s seniors have big shoes to fill. Kaylee Bolton and Elisabeth Duffy were new this year, but both of them jumped right in and did an outstanding job. They both were kind of thrown into things they had little to no experience in, and both did so without complaining. I am super proud of all the girls work ethic and dedication. Some of them had at least 1 other sport they were competing in and they still managed to do a great job. We, as coaches are sad the season is over but are already looking to next year. I want to thank my 2 assistant coaches – Samantha Novotny and Kirstin Livermont for all their help this season. They make coaching a little easier and both have strengths that help make this squad as good as it is.