New Prague High School announced their Snoball king and queen candidates on Friday, Jan. 28. Queen candidates are (left to right, front row) Madi Josephson, Addie Hartshorn, Kenna Huber, Libby Olson, Hannah Robasse, Annie Glomski, Sammie Kotek, Brynn Sticha; King candidates are (left to right, back row) Josh Miller, Cam Prochaska, Matt Friedges, Jaxon Short, Joe Maxa, Tom McBroom, Ben Schmitz and Eddie Sirek. A coronation ceremony will be held at the Snoball Pep Fest at 1:50 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 4, at the high school. For more see an upcoming print issue of The New Prague Times.

The New Prague boys swimming and diving team picked up four individual wins and two relay wins in a close loss to St. Louis Park Thursday, Jan. 20.
Seniors Ryan Foust and Jonathan Sayler, and freshmen Jacob Bisek and Tucker Connolly each claimed wins in the 92- 86 loss to STL Park.
Foust placed first in the diving competition. Seventh grader Brody Dvorak placed second and junior Ethan Schultz finished third.
Sayler won the 100 yard breaststroke (1:18.11). Junior Jack Anderson placed second (1:30.04).

The next step toward the 2022 election will take place Tuesday, Feb. 1 at its most grassroots level.
It's caucus time.
Le Sueur and Rice County Republicans and DFLers will meet in separate locations to gear up for the election by passing resolutions, electing delegates to send to the local and state conventions and – most likely – talking about the 2022 race for the governor's office. The delegates sent to those conventions will then endorse candidates for State and National offices.

Tabatha (Tab) Vohnoutka passed away on January 11, 2022, at the age of 36 in Biwabik, MN.  She was born in Burnsville, MN, on December 27, 1985 to William (Bill) Crottier of Babbitt, MN and Therese Vohnoutka of Gainesboro, TN.  She was a loving mother to her children Zoey and Arturo Cameron and Akron Hanson and was very proud of them.

It was a perfect week for the New Prague wrestling team last week.
The Trojans opened with a 66-6 Metro West Conference rout of Orono on Thursday, Jan. 20. New Prague followed with five straight wins at the Whitnall Zelinski Memorial Tournament Duals Saturday, Jan. 22. This tourney was wrestled at Greenfield, WI which is just outside of Milwaukee.
“We wrestled fantastic on Saturday and really out wrestled all of our opponents,” head coach Dan Wagner said. “We would win all five matches and none of them were really close or in question.”

As the Mayor of the City of New Prague, Duane J. "Dewey" Jirik received a copy of “Minnesota’s ‘Big Woods’ Musicians” authored by Sr. Anita Smisek, OP, with narrative assistance from John Chromy.
That’s when he saw his family on the pages and wanted his sons to have their copies.

Around 7:32 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 25, the New Prague Fire Department responded to a fire at MVE Biological Solutions along Seventh Street NW in New Prague. According to early reports from the fire department the night shift saw smoke coming from the part of the building that has offices, the break room and bathrooms. Workers called 911 and evacuated. When firefighters arrived they saw heavy smoke coming form the building. They had the fire under control by 9:30 p.m. and were working to vent the smoke.

New Prague High School students, from left, Brynn Sticha, Macey Hager, and Sophie Charnstrom, with Superintendent Tim Dittberner, were honored at the Monday, Jan. 24, New Prague School Board meeting. The three students won first place at the MARS (Mastering Academics and Real-World Skills) program’s “Shark Tank” competition at the high school. The competition was patterned after the TV show “Shark Tank” where they had to take a product and present it to judges. For more see this week’s print issue of The New Prague Times. (Patrick Fisher Photo)

On Wednesday, Jan. 19, at approximately 12:25 pm, Scott County Sheriff’s Office 911 Dispatch received a call requesting medical assistance for an unresponsive female at a residence along Livery Lane in New Market Township.
According to a report from the Scott County Sheriff’s Office, deputies found the 69-year-old female homeowner inside the residence unresponsive with serious injuries.  She was transported by ambulance to M Health Fairview Ridges Hospital in Burnsville and remains in critical condition.  

Betty Jane Rogers, age 72, of New Prague, passed away suddenly, surrounded by her family, on January 18, 2022.    Betty was born on January 24, 1949 in Redwood Falls to Benjamin & Beatrice (Stoll) Steinhouse.  She grew up in Redwood Falls and attended Redwood Falls Public Schools.  She married Richard “Rick” Rogers on December 12, 1970 in Bloomington.  She helped in the family business, United Steel Products, for a few years before becoming her best self as a wonderful homemaker and mother.  Betty enjoyed hosting parties and being on the lake.  Numerous camping trips added to her love o

There was a crash at the roundabout at the intersection of Main Street and First Avenue NE in New Prague the evening of Friday, Jan. 21. Apparently around 7:20 p.m. a driver of a four door vehicle hit the stone benches and the fire hydrant on the north side of Main Street and then abandoned their vehicle in the middle of the roundabout. The New Prague Police and Fire Departments responded to the scene. A skid loader was used to move the stone blocks of the benches out of the street. For more see an upcoming print issue of The New Prague Times. (Patrick Fisher Photo)

Guy Joseph Novak, age 55, of Veseli, MN, passed away suddenly on Saturday, January 8, 2022 at his home. Guy was born at Queen of Peace Hospital in New Prague MN, to Joseph G. and Glorene A. (Fahrenkamp) Novak. He attended and graduated from New Prague High School in 1986.

Mary Beth Retterath, 58, of Sioux Falls, SD passed away on Thursday, January 13, 2022.
 Funeral Service will be 10:00 am Tuesday, January 18, at St. Mary Catholic Church, with private family burial at Woodlawn Cemetery. Masks are required at the funeral Mass.

Hopkins scored a goal 30 seconds into overtime to edge the New Prague boys hockey team 3-2, Friday, Jan. 7.
Junior John Schmidt scored his 4th goal of the season and senior Will Andersen added his second goal of the year with less than two minutes to play in the third period to help the Trojans tie the game at 2-all.
Andersen had his 5th assist and senior Kai Johnson his 1st assist on the Schmidt goal. Senior Charlie Turnberg collected his 3rd assist of the year on the Andersen goal.

I know quite a few people are going to be enjoying the next few days because it’s going to be in the 30 degrees Fahrenheit, which compared to the previous temperatures when it was in the single digits, it will feel like a heat wave. Am I being too optimistic? Probably, but sometimes you just have to take the good times with the bad.
Another way to put it is with the song “I never promised you a rose garden” by Lynn Anderson. It talks about how things are not always going to be, well, rosy. There’s going to be rain, there’s going to be tough times when a person is by themselves.

Led by four individual champions and a very solid overall team performance, the New Prague gymnastics team won the Matt Shetka Invitational Championship Saturday, Jan. 8 in New Prague.
Ava Barsness, Jadyn Klein, Ava Bruegger, and Ellie Morris each claimed individual titles and the team had the top performances on the vault and uneven parallel bars in scoring 143.700 points.