By PATRICK SLACK Sports Editor patrick.slack@mcrecord.com A full house packed into Little Falls VFW Post 1112, Thursday, as a group of former and current standout players visited as part of the Minnesota Twins Winter Caravan. Featured Twins at the event were 2011 Hall of Fame inductee Bert Blyleven, Tony Oliva, Denard Span, Drew Butera, Rene  Read more »

By PATRICK SLACK Sports Editor patrick.slack@mcrecord.com Ben Newman has spent his entire life dealing with having vision in only one eye. Compared to that, helping the Little Falls boys hockey team get back on track has been like a walk in the park. Or a skate in the rink. Newman was 8 months old when  Read more »

By PATRICK SLACK Sports Editor patrick.slack@mcrecord.com Pierz junior Josh Lanners doesn’t consider himself a particularly fast or powerful running back. He’s just a dominant one. His success can be simplified to one thing: “The drive for the win,” Lanners said. That drive led to a standout season for Lanners, which helped produce conference and section  Read more »

By PATRICK SLACK Sports Editor patrick.slack@mcrecord.com A set goes up on the volleyball court at Little Falls High School. Flyers senior Alayna Kabanuk gathers herself, times her jump perfectly and swings her arm violently through the ball, sending another kill skipping off of the opposing side of the court. Kabanuk pumps her fist, but is  Read more »

By PATRICK SLACK Sports Editor patrick.slack@mcrecord.com Little Falls hockey players learn from a young age that taking part in the sport is hard. Players have to wake up early, brave the cold, lace up their skates, strap on their gear and get in an hour-long practice before school even starts. Any player from the peewee  Read more »

By PATRICK SLACK Sports Editor patrick.slack@mcrecord.com When Grant Bell was put on the Little Falls varsity boys soccer team in eighth grade, some people thought it was because his mother was the head coach. They don’t now. Not after Bell, a senior midfielder for the 10-0 Flyers, drilled his 104th-career high school goal into the  Read more »

By PATRICK SLACK Sports Editor patrick.slack@mcrecord.com Hall of Fame baseball player Cal Ripken Jr. did not miss a single game for 17 years. Parker Brezinka and Michael Petron have been alive for 12. While Brezinka and Petron have some work to do to catch up to Ripken as far as longevity is concerned, they have  Read more »

By PATRICK SLACK Sports Editor patrick.slack@mcrecord.com Seven current and former Little Falls High School basketball players traveled to Costa Rica in June, competing in nine games as part of a mission trip. The ES Sports team, which featured 12 players on its roster, won all nine games, including four against junior national teams that included  Read more »

By PATRICK SLACK Sports Editor patrick.slack@mcrecord.com Swanville’s Bonnie Shields photographs a fish during an underwater photography class, July 1, at the Crosby Mine Pit. Shields began scuba diving two years ago and now hopes to combine diving with photography as an occupation. Swanville’s Bonnie Shields wasn’t sure she wanted to even try it. Now she  Read more »

By PATRICK SLACK Sports Editor patrick.slack@mcrecord.com Doug Rakow works on one of the 29 laps he completed during the FANS 24 hour run around Lake Nokomis in Minneapolis, June 4-5. Rakow ran 69.46 miles during the race, which benefitted the Pillsbury United Communities. A marathon is considered a rite of passage for many distance runners,  Read more »

  By PATRICK SLACK Sports Editor patrick.slack@mcrecord.com Most of the time, a bench is just a place to sit. Members of the Little Falls branch of Minnesota Raw Athletics and the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) don’t care for sitting around, though. They would rather use benches to break records. Since starting last October, the group  Read more »

By PATRICK SLACK Sports Editor patrick.slack@mcrecord.com For the past five years, Swanville’s Jeff Opelia has headed down to Swan River every couple of weeks. He doesn’t bring bait or a tackle box with him. Instead, he takes a skinny plastic tube to test the clarity of the water. Opelia’s volunteering efforts were recently recognized by  Read more »

By PATRICK SLACK Sports Editor patrick.slack@mcrecord.com Little Falls will kick off its fall sports schedule next month just like every other school year. However, this will not be like every other school year. That’s because Little Falls, along with six other schools, will be taking part in the inaugural season of the Granite Ridge Conference  Read more »

By PATRICK SLACK Sports Editor patrick.slack@mcrecord.com Daniel Borash spared one of his brother Peter’s Royalton track and field records this spring. He’s unlikely to let him keep it by the time he finishes his career with the Royals. Borash, who recently wrapped up his junior season,  routinely put on dominant displays this season in the  Read more »

By PATRICK SLACK Sports Editor patrick.slack@mcrecord.com Senior leadership is important in high school sports. Seniors have been through countless nerve-wracking situations, know what to do and what to expect and have had four years of high school to develop their skills and intelligence. When there’s only one senior starter on a team, that player shoulders  Read more »