Ellen Gill, 92, of Dodge Center, passed away peacefully with family by her side on Dec. 19, 2019, at Fairview Care Center.

One year ago, several schools in the state of Minnesota started a movement to have boys volleyball sanctioned as a sport in the Minnesota State High School League (MSHSL). As with many sports in their infancy, last year served as a test run for the 23 schools that took part in it and as the season went along, the game started to grow within the teams that were taking the court last spring.

It didn’t looked good for the Dodge County boys’ hockey team as they trailed New Richmond 1-3 after the first period, but thanks to seven goals in the last two periods they secured a 8-5 win on Thursday, Dec. 26.

With 42 teams participating in this year’s Minnesota Christmas Tournament, there was plenty of competition for the Kasson-Mantorville wrestling team, but the crème rose to the top as the KoMets earned fifth place.

With 13:29 left in the game, the Kasson-Mantorville girls’ basketball team led Stewartville 48-29, but what looked like a blowout became a much closer contest when the Tigers went on a 22-7 run over the next six minutes to climb within four points.
However, the KoMets responded with five straight points to stop the Tigers’ momentum and held on for a 76-65 win on Friday, Dec. 20.

This wasn’t the way they drew it up, but the Kasson-Mantorville football team seemingly hasn’t missed a beat despite two team members suddenly taking over two of the most important positions on their team. 

Throughout his life Nate Bailey, of Dodge Center, has ran long distances.
Soon though, Bailey will have his longest race and run of his life, as he gets set to run in a 200-mile race this weekend in Illinois.
Aside from doing something that not many people can say they have done, Bailey will also be helping to raise money for Next Chapter Ministries in Rochester.

First Security Bank of Byron donated $425 to one of the Byron Intermediate School’s robotic teams participating in the First Lego League this year.
The check was used to pay for printing costs associated with the team’s project this year. The coach is Becky Gerdes.

When the clocks of the world strike midnight on Jan. 1, 2020, the 7.7 billion people of the world will celebrate. Samoa and Christmas Island/Kiribati will be the first to celebrate 2020 (it will be 4 a.m. in Dodge County).
From there it will click off the seconds, minutes and hours until it reaches Time Square. An hour later, the New Year will usher in the beginning of a new decade by the folks of Dodge County.