Vicki Gerdes
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Staff writer at Detroit Lakes Newspapers and editor of MN Boomers magazine for the past 13 years. Living in DL with my cat, Smokey.
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Recently, residents of the Detroit Lakes area may have noticed the white buses with the red Becker County Transit (BCT) logo have been a more frequent sight around town. According to BCT supervisor Rusty Haskins, that's because there has been a noticeable increase in the number of riders utilizing their services. "When I started in the summer of 2005, we were averaging 95-100 passengers a day," he said.
"We're not famous or perfect," said Ruby Kiihn, founder of the DL Cloggers, in a feature interview for Country Woman magazine.
Sometimes, persistence really does pay off. When Minnesota native Ted Manderfeld first auditioned for a spot in the Deuces Wild Dueling Pianos show, he didn't get the gig. But he didn't give up: Instead, he followed the performers on tour and gradually talked them into realizing that he was the right man for the job after all. "I was in a place in life where I could afford to do that," he said.
The Detroit Lakes girls' hockey team suffered a tough loss Tuesday at Fargo South, as the Bruins defeated the visiting Lakers 6-1. "Fargo South basically took control in the first period and held onto it throughout the game," said Laker head coach Dan Maloney. "I certainly feel we are a better hockey team than what we displayed that evening -- but you're going to have some evenings like that, when it's just not going to be your night.
There were 30 Detroit Lakes varsity and junior varsity skiers among the teams competing in the Otter Tail Nordic Classic 5k Invitational Tuesday at Spidahl's Ski Gard in Fergus Falls. DL's Jake Richards was the first Laker skier to cross the finish line in the varsity boys' event, finishing in 12th place with a time of 19:06. Freshman Dylan Ramstad Skoyles finished in 15th place with a time of 20:05, while sophomore Jeremy Quittschreiber was 24th with a time of 22:44.
The LP-A boys' basketball team had two solid wins in a row this past week, with road victories over Ulen-Hitterdal on Thursday and Barnesville on Friday, Jan. 4. The Raiders defeated Ulen-Hitterdal 79-63 Thursday, despite being down early against the Spartans. "We weren't playing very well," said LP-A head coach Lucas Isaacson. "Three or four minutes into the game, we were down seven points." But then, things started to turn around for the Raiders. "The kids started to play a lot harder, and started getting some turnovers," Isaacson said.
In their first meet of 2008, the Detroit Lakes gymnastics team suffered a narrow defeat at the hands of the Moorhead Spuds on Tuesday. In fact, the Spuds' margin of victory was less than a full point, as the home team chalked up 133.8 points to 133.175 for the visitors from DL. "We had a rough meet," said Laker head coach Karly Rusness.
The Detroit Lakes wrestling team had several good showings at the Barrel O'Fun Invitational tournament on Saturday, Jan. 5. In the first individual-format tournament to be held at Perham since 2001, senior heavyweight Jon Tolbert continued to impress, downing the No.
The Laker boys' hockey team played well Friday at Crookston, but was ultimately unable to slip the puck into the opponents' net, losing 2-0. Though it didn't show on the scoreboard, DL head coach Jason Vold was nonetheless encouraged by the team's improvement, as shown by the relatively even number of shots on goal -- 24 for DL to Crookston's 27. "I thought we played very well," Vold said. "We kept the shots very even -- we just didn't capitalize on our opportunities. "The boys played hard, but we just didn't come out of there with the win," Vold added.
Despite their relative inexperience, the Laker boys' swimming and diving team managed a strong showing Saturday, Jan. 5, at their home invitational in the BTD Aquatics Center. "Considering the inexperience of our team this year, the meet went very well," said DL head coach Rian Heimark. "The boys all swam hard, and we did manage to take home a few medals for the hard work. "Our divers definitely kept us in this meet," he continued.