Category Archives: Local

Vicki Condon, financial representative for Modern Woodmen, honored Judy Wilcox for her outstanding volunteer service in the community.
Wilcox received the Hometown Hero award.

Wilcox has spent countless hours working with veterans projects and the American Legion Auxiliary.

Wilcox was presented an appreciation award along with a donation to her selected charity. She has chosen the Winner American Legion Auxiliary, state president Melanie Martens project to receive her donation. The donation will go towards a PA system at the new vets home in Hot Springs.

As a fraternal financial services organization, Modern Woodmen is dedicated to improving the quality of life for families and their communities.

Gov. Dennis Daugaard announced that he will appoint Bobbi J. Rank as a circuit court judge in South Dakota’s Sixth Judicial Circuit.

“I thank Bobbi Rank for taking on this important responsibility,” said Gov. Daugaard. “I have personally witnessed Bobbi’s diligence, work ethic and commitment to the judicial system. I know she will be an excellent circuit judge.”

Rank and her family will relocate to her hometown of Winner to succeed Judge Kathleen Trandahl, who is retiring later this week. The Sixth Circuit includes Bennett, Gregory, Haakon, Hughes, Hyde, Jackson, Jones, Lyman, Mellette, Potter, Stanley, Sully, Todd and Tripp counties.
Rank is the daughter of Bob and Judy Benson of Winner.

“I thank Gov. Daugaard for his confidence in appointing me to this position,” said Rank. “I am thrilled and honored to be given the opportunity to serve as a judge in this circuit and in my home community. I will work hard to serve the people of South Dakota and to administer justice fairly.”

Rank grew up on her family’s ranch south of Winner and is a graduate of Winner High School. She earned her undergraduate degree from the University of South Dakota and her law degree from the University of Nebraska College of Law.

For the past five years, Rank has served as general counsel to the South Dakota Department of Education. Prior to that, she served for eight years as an assistant attorney general in the offices of Attorneys General Larry Long and Marty Jackley. Rank also spent three years in private practice at May, Adam, Gerdes & Thompson in Pierre, and was a law clerk for the Sixth Judicial Circuit.

Rank served as a commissioner of the South Dakota State Bar from 2009 to 2012 and is currently the vice president of the National Council of State Education Agency Attorneys. She served in 2012 on the Governor’s Open Government Task Force. Rank has also been active in Central South Dakota Teen Court, Junior Achievement, the United Way and the South Dakota Discovery Center.

Rank and her husband, Scott, have two children. They are members of the First United Methodist Church.

By Dan Bechtold, Editor

Nolan Benzing has a year under his belt to experience the thrill of pheasant hunting in Tripp County.  Benzing is the Pheasants Forever farm bill biologist who is stationed in Winner.  The Iowa native has settled into living in Winner and is busy helping farmers and ranchers with habitat issues.

Benzing says Game, Fish and Parks has estimated pheasant numbers will be down 20 percent in Tripp County.

By Dan Bechtold, Editor

The Rosebud Chapter of Pheasants Forever is making plans for its big Pheasants Forever banquet which will be held on Friday, Oct. 21 at St. Mary’s Hall in Winner.

The happy hour and raffles will be from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. with a prime rib dinner served at 7:30 p.m. An auction will follow.

Mike Scott, president of the local chapter, says persons attending the banquet will be able to see the newly remodeled St. Mary’s Hall. There will be more space this year to seat additional guests.

There will be over 70 guns raffled off during the banquet. There will be a variety of auction items including Pheasants Forever prints.

By Dan Bechtold, Editor

An informational meeting was held Sunday afternoon in Winner to discuss plans for a hands-on technical education program.

The group decided to begin with apprenticeship type training immediately at the local level.

Then, in a year, develop a post secondary technical entity with its own 501 (c) 3 non profit status and its own board of directors. Partnerships could be formed with technical schools with a satellite location in Winner.

Chuck Noble, who chaired the meeting, said this new adventure is all about choices. “What choices do we want in Winner” he asked.

Barry Grossenburg noted a director needs to be hired who will lead this effort and help write grants.

Some audience members asked if Winner wanted to provide community education or be a technical school, since both are two totally different educational avenues.

Freya Simpson of the Tripp County Library said persons should not forget senior citizens who would like to take classes. She noted there is special interest among senior citizens in taking computer classes.

Persons will work with the South Central Development Corporation to begin offering programs that would offer specific skill-based training.

Richard Papousek of Colome explained the consortium that teaches technical classes to high school students in Colome, Gregory, Burke and Bonesteel. Papousek teaches the building construction class which is building a house in Bonesteel. Last year this class built a home in Colome.

Doug Wiken explaind that the late Lowden Heller of Ideal served in the South Dakota Legislature when the vocational-technical schools were formed. Wiken added Gov. Dennis Daugaard is a big supporter of technical education.

Wiken said this is an education and economic opportunity for the area.

Persons at the meeting said as the group moves forward housing will be an issue.

In future meetings, persons from Yankton and Pierre will talk to the group to explain the logistics of setting up a program.

No date has been set for the next meeting.

Wade McClanahan, a Tripp County 4-H archery shooter, competed with the South Dakota Recurve Archery Team at the National 4-H Shooting Sports Championships in Grand Island, Nebraska from June 26 through July 1. The three competition days included Field Target Shooting, FITA Target Shooting and a competitive 3-D Course. The three person team was made up of Brandon Haber from Beadle County, Michael Beusch from Brown County and Wade McClanahan from Tripp County. The South Dakota Recurve Team was coached by Kevin Haber.

This year was the largest participation ever with 679 participants from 36 states. The boys had a very successful competition. Their team place 4th in the Field Competition with Haber in 12th place, Beusch in 13th place, and McClanahan in 16th place individually.

In the FITA Competition the South Dakota team placed 3rd. McClanahan was 8th individually with Beusch in 13th place and Haber in 19th place.

After a very challenging 3-D course on competition day three, they came in at 7th place as a team. McClanahan ended in 13th place, Haber in 27th place and Beusch in 28th place.

Overall for the week, South Dakota placed 6th as a team, McClanahan 11th Beusch 19th and Haber 21st individually.

The boys qualified for the national shoot by competing at the state shoot in Pierre last April doing both indoor targets and at the outdoor 3-D range. Tripp County 4-H Shooting Sports practices weekly from January through the state match in late April. For questions about 4-H Archery contact the Tripp County Extension Office at 605-842-2858.

The National FFA organization awarded a $2,000 MetLife Foundation scholarship to Sydnie Peters of the Winner High School FFA.

Peters is a graduate of Winner High School. The scholarship is sponsored by MetLife Foundation as a special project of the national FFA Foundation. Peters plans to use the funds to pursue a degree at South Dakota State University.

This scholarship is one of 1,820 awarded through the national FFA organization’s scholarship program this year.
The 2016 scholarship recipients were selected from 8,383 applications from across the country. Selections were made based on the applicant’s leadership, academic record, FFA and other school and community activities, supervised agricultural work or work experience in agricultural education and future goals.

The Winner competitive cheer team traveled to Mellette to compete in the Northwestern Invitational on Sept. 26.
Winner went up against four other teams, all from the northeast side of the state.

“It was great to have the chance to see schools that that we haven’t competed against this year but will see at state,” said coach Val Ewing.

“We have seen 12 of the teams that we will compete against at state and I feel we should be bringing home some hardware with the routines we have been working on. These girls are putting in the hours to perfect this routine and as long as we can stay healthy we will be a team to beat at state.”

The girls competed Oct. 1 at Dakota Valley, and will be at Faulkton on Oct. 10 and at Platte on Oct. 15. Ewing said these last three competitions will give Winner a more rounded idea of the teams they will see at state. “I am confident we will come out on top. The bad thing about cheerleading is you only get one chance—you can have stunts that go up 100 times perfect but all it takes is for it not to work once and that’s your score. We have a lot of difficulty in our stunting and tumbling and we need go keep working to perfect what we have,” said Ewing.

The Tripp County Range Robins JOAD students recently completed an 8 week summer session.

JOAD (Junior Olympic Archery Development) is a class that is designed to provide beginner instruction to archers ranging from age 8 to 20.

JOAD offers both recurve and compound archers the opportunity to learn range safety and proper shooting technique in an environment that also fosters focus, increased self confidence and team building skills.

Persons interested in joining the JOAD club contact Brad/Mary Whitley or Tim Pravecek.

Winner High School students have been selected for all-state chorus.

Students selected are sopranos: Mackenzie Irick and Sadie Woods (alternate Lilly Jelinek); alto: Mary Calhoon and Emmarie Kaiser (alternate Ronae Klein); tenor: Trace Larson and Izak Moleterno (alternate Atlas Willuweit); bass: Nick Blare and John Kludt (alternate Trace Larson).

The all-state concert will be Oct. 29 at 7 p.m. at the Denny Sanford Premier Center in Sioux Falls.

The guest conductors will be Dr. Jerry Blackstone from the University of Michigan (chorus) and Dr. Ruth Lin from Gustavus Adolphus College (orchestra).

The Winner High School students went though auditions before they were selected for all-state.

Danielle Catoe is the WHS choir director with the assistance of Vicky Covey.