Elk Point-Jefferson School Board members were honored by the Associated School Boards of South Dakota for their collective efforts to enhance their knowledge of school board work throughout the 2021-22 school year. The Elk Point-Jefferson School Board earned a Silver level award in ASBSD’s statewide board recognition program: ALL, which stands for Act, Learn, Lead and awards points for a board’s collective participation in activities and trainings related to school board work and for demonstrating leadership in public education at the local, state and national level, throughout the previous school year. To earn the Silver level award, the Elk Point-Jefferson School Board accumulated 445 points. “School boards take on different tasks and face new challenges every year and the Elk Point-Jefferson School Board members put in a lot of work to further their knowledge of and learn new things about school board work that will be a great benefit to their district,” ASBSD Executive Director Wade Pogany said. “They’ve put in time and effort to better themselves and deserve this recognition.” In 2021-22 a record 91 public school boards – more than 60 percent of the public boards in South Dakota – earned an ALL award. This is the Elk Point-Jefferson School Board’s fourth ALL award. “South Dakota public school boards do amazing work and put in a great deal of effort for their students, staff and community members and for more than 90 of them to earn this honor is a testament to that effort,” Pogany said. “That the Elk Point-Jefferson School Board has earned this award multiple times shows that year-in and year-out this group strives to excel in their work as school board members.”

It was a battle of the dogs on the Huskies home court Sept. 20. The Huskies prevailed winning their homecoming game against the Beresford Watchdogs – 25-22; 25-23; 25-12. Alyssa Chytka led the Huskies on defense with 18 digs. Bentlee Kollbaum and Danica Torrez each recorded 9 digs. Torrez added 6 kills and was closely followed by teammates Kollbaum (5), Ashley Brewer, Josie Curry and Natalie Heuertz (all with 4).

Much like on a game show where everyone wins a prize, it seemed like every Husky was going to get a touchdown during their Homecoming game Sept. 23 against the Flandreau Flyers. The Huskies had 6 different players break the plane and add to the Huskies victory, with successful passes and handoffs from Noah McDermott and Keaton Gale. Carson Timmins was 7/8 on PATs for the night. “[The] best part of the game for me was the fact that we had 6 different guys score touchdowns, and 2 different QB’s throw TD passes,” head coach Jake Terry said. “It’s great when we can get that many guys those opportunities.”

The EPJ Huskies Cross Country team competed in the Alcester-Hudson Invitational meet on Monday, Sept. 19. Teams participating included Canton, Dakota Valley, Vermillion, Garretson, Elk Point-Jefferson, Alcester-Hudson, West Sioux, Parker, Akron-Westfield and Irene-Wakonda. In the heart of the season, EPJ, along with other schools, chose to rest some of their athletes. In spite of this, the Huskies saw success at this meet in each of the four races.

The annua l Union County Quad cross-country meet was on Thursday, Sept. 22. Featuring top ranked runners from the four teams of Alcester-Hudson, Dakota Valley, Beresford, and Elk Point-Jefferson, the race promised some fast times.

It was a close contest under the Friday night lights for the Panthers on Sept. 23 as they squared off against the Madison Bulldogs. The fans were loud and the student section lit up the stands as the theme for the evening was “GLOW!”. This meant many high schoolers and middle schoolers came to the game ready to cheer in black attire with glow stick necklaces and bracelets.

A truly fabulous day of golf was had for the Panther varsity team Sept. 26. The Dakota Valley boys putted, chipped and drove for yards to earn a 3rd place finish at regions on the Hiawatha golf course in Canton, SD. This spectacular play punched the team’s ticket for state where they will go up against some of the finest golfers around in the South Dakota High School Athletic Association’s Class A championship.

The varsity boys golf team for Dakota Valley returned to Vermillion for the second time this season for the DAK12 conference meet. It was held at The Bluffs Golf Course. “Tough winds and some errand shots gave us several big numbers on the card today,” coach Rodd Slater said. “That’s to be expected with such a young team.” Windy and hot conditions were definitely present, but the Panthers were still able to post good scores and bring home a 5th place team finish as well as some individual medalists. Sophomore Logan Collette had an impressive round of golf to score a 79 and place 11th. “We end the regular season with a lot of valuable experience going into the state region qualifiers, as well as next season,” Slater commented.

The dancers of Dakota Valley showed strength and poise as they competed at yet another hard competition with fellow Class A schools, as well as larger districts in Class AA on Sept. 24 in Harrisburg, SD.

Saturday, Sept. 24 brought an exciting day of volleyball to the Panther varsity roster as the team was met with strong competition for all of their games at the Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls.