Texas | Field 2 Field

August 13, 2021August 13, 2021

Southern border farmers fear for safety

Southern border farmers are afraid of being overwhelmed. The wide-open southern border of the United States has been a political hot potato for some time. Ag reporters found out how serious the problem is during a press conference called by the American Farm Bureau. Zippy Duvall, the organization’s president, took a tour of farms along the southern border and was appalled at what he saw there.

The tour came about because the American Farm Bureau got alerted by some of their state Farm Bureau organizations that sit on the border, including Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico, about the challenges farmers are facing. They wrote to the national headquarters asking for help because the situation is quickly getting out of control.

“A couple of months ago, the state Farm Bureaus reached out to me expressing the need for some help with the issues they’re facing along the border,” Duvall said during a recent press conference. “Because of that, we put together a letter to President Biden about our concerns.”

It shows how seriously Farm Bureau is taking the problem when all 50 state Farm Bureaus and the Puerto Rican Farm Bureau quickly signed on to the letter. The letter resulted in a phone call between the Farm Bureau state presidents and representatives from the administration to talk about the problems.

Once that phone call ended, Duvall decided the next step was to get a look at what was happening there. He’s always enjoyed getting out at the grassroots level and hear what’s happening on the nation’s farms. Duvall says emphatically that he’s “seen how serious the situation is for American farmers” along the border, calling it heartbreaking.

“Of course, they’ve experienced people coming across our border for decades,” he said. “But it’s never been at the level we see today. Our farmers and ranchers are worried about their safety, as well as the safety of their families and employees. They’re worried about the security of their property, including their farm machinery and equipment.”

Several farmers along the border have had their homes looted, their fences torn down numerous times, which costs a lot of money to fix, and their water sources have been tampered with and compromised. He says it’s a humanitarian crisis that needs attention immediately.

“The serious problem isn’t just affecting the lives of our farmers and ranchers: it’s also hurting many people coming across the border,” Duvall said. “We’ve heard discussions about farmers and ranchers who found dead bodies on their operations. Not everyone who comes over the border survives the journey.

“It’s been heartbreaking to see and experience everything over the last couple of days,” Duvall added.

Duvall went through Texas with Russell Boening, the Texas State President. As a farmer living in a state along the southern border, Boening said they’ve never seen an influx of people like they’re seeing in 2021.

Russell Boening, Texas Farm Bureau President, says officials along the southern border fear being overwhelmed by the influx of immigrants. (Photo from flickr.com)

“We went through McAllen, which is down in the Valley of Texas, and then we went upriver to Del Rio,” Boening said. “Those are two different areas facing different issues because of the same problem.

“The vast majority of people coming into McAllen include family units, unaccompanied minors, all of whom are turning themselves in to Border Patrol Agents and other authorities,” he said. “The number is overwhelming the capability of the Border Patrol to process and keep track of them to service their basic needs. And what do you do when these folks come in with COVID?”

Boening said the local NGOs are trying to set up places for people who have COVID to stay. The problem is they don’t have to stay at those places. They are “encouraged” to stay, but they aren’t required to. Multiple people are carrying COVID into the country unabated.

The situation is a little different in Del Rio, Texas. Some people are coming in seeking asylum. However, many of them are trying not to get caught. Those folks are sneaking through people’s property, including many farms and ranches.

“It’s a different demographic of people coming through the Del Rio area,” Boening said. “They’re in larger numbers and much more aggressive, often carrying backpacks and wearing camouflage.

“There’s the humanitarian issue of some folks who don’t make it where they’re trying to go,” he added. “They often run out of water, or the energy needed to finish the journey. Sometimes they’re found alive, but many times they aren’t.”

The Sheriff in Hidalgo County, where McAllen is located, put it simply: “This is not sustainable.”

Boening says there’s a sense of fear, desperation, and helplessness among the officials trying to deal with the situation along the border.

Craig Ogden, President of the New Mexico Farm Bureau, also says there’s a sense of desperation in New Mexico. Law enforcement officials, including the Border Patrol, are in desperate need of resources.

New Mexico Farm Bureau President Craig Ogden says Border Patrol officials are overwhelmed and afraid of being overwhelmed by immigration. (photo usnews.com)

“Technology is available to put out sensors along the border, but they need funds to make those purchases,” Ogden said. “They need a lot of resources, and you can feel the frustration of these people just trying to do their jobs.

“This is an ongoing problem that needs to be addressed and can’t be kicked down the road anymore,” he added. “Don’t forget this is also a biosecurity concern, including diseases carried by people entering the country and that can go back and forth among humans and livestock.”

So, what is Farm Bureau’s message? Duvall said it’s time for Washington, D.C., to start securing the nation’s border.

“That’s what my message is to Congress and the administration,” Duvall said. “It’s time to uphold the laws of the land. It’s close to getting out of hand.”

January 5, 2021January 5, 2021

“Fish all Fifty” is the mother of all road trips

“Fish all Fifty.” It might be an understatement to say that’s a rather big goal, sort of like trying to actually shoot the moon.

Two 18-year-old Virginia men have embarked on the mother of all road trips. With their secondary education plans sidetracked by COVID-19, Luke Konson and Daniel Balserak of Virginia hit the road with the lofty goal of catching the state fish of every state in America. Instead of sitting in front of computer screens, they’re staring through the windshield of a “commandeered” family minivan as the miles go by on their “Fish All Fifty” trip.

The buddies graduated high school in June, and they were planning to enroll this fall at Clemson University in South Carolina. However, because the year started with all online education, they didn’t want to spend any more time sitting in front of computer screens. Because they’d taken the last couple months of their senior year online, Luke Konson said, “We didn’t love it.”

Luke Kolson is pictured here after catching a walleye, the state fish in Minnesota, as a part of his “Fish all Fifty” trip with fellow Virginian Daniel Balserak. (Contributed Photo)

“We both decided to defer our admissions to the fall of 2021,” Konson said on the phone from Mississippi. “We were trying to decide what to do in the meantime and didn’t want to sit at home for a year. Travelling was a little more difficult because of COVID-19 restrictions.

“While we were trying to make that decision, I happened to be fishing with my family in North Carolina,” he recalled. “So, fishing was on our minds at the time. The idea hit us to travel to all 50 states and, because we love to fish, we wanted to catch every state fish. As far as we can tell, no one has ever accomplished that task.”

Their most recent conquest was catching the Mississippi state fish, a largemouth bass, and the duo was halfway to accomplishing their mission. He says several of the state fish they’ve caught so far were challenging.

“We had to catch a muskie in Wisconsin,” Konson said. “That’s a seriously cool fish, and it’s hard to catch. One of the things we do is if we’re in a state trying to catch a fish that we aren’t familiar with, I’ll go into Facebook groups to tell people what we’re doing and get some advice. The interesting thing is we often get people reaching out to us and offering to take us fishing.”

Daniel Balserak of Virginia is pictured here after catching his own walleye on the Minnesota River near Belle Plaine. (Contributed photo)

The variety of fish has been an especially-interesting part of the trip. The boys caught Atlantic Salmon on a road trip to Maine. Several states feature Brook Trout as their state fish. Konson says anytime they’ve gotten to catch a fish they aren’t familiar with was a “really cool experience.” They each caught a Guadalupe Bass, a fish found only in Texas.

They’ve been fishing in the Midwest as well. Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri, and Kansas all named Channel Catfish as their state fish. It’s one fish the duo knows a lot about as they go after catfish in Virginia. They caught walleye on the Minnesota River near Belle Plaine, Minnesota, and Channel Catfish on the Racoon River in Iowa.

“Our first road trip was a loop through the Northeastern states,” he said, “including Maine. We wanted to grab an American Shad in Connecticut, but it was out of season, so we’ll head back there to get one of those. We also hit New York, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia.”

Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Iowa were next on the list, through the Midwest states, and then into Texas. While on the phone for this interview, Luke and Daniel were traveling through the Southeastern States.

While they don’t usually do the “tourist things” on their trips, one of the best parts of the “Fish All Fifty” road trip is the places they fish in are some of the most scenic areas in the country. “For example, we went fishing for Brook Trout in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, and it’s beautiful up there,” Konson said. “Fishing for salmon in the wilderness of Maine was amazing.”

They do intend to do a little more sightseeing when the pair heads west. Konson mentioned seeing Yellowstone National Park, Yosemite National Park, as well as the Grand Canyon.

While the price of gas might be as low as it’s been in years in many states, it still adds up quickly when road tripping through every state in the Union. Combine that with food and other incidental costs, the price tag adds up quickly. The next logical question is how they’re financing an adventure like this. While they had a little money saved up for college they didn’t want to burn through, the boys turned to the generosity of others.

“We set up a GoFundMe page, which is where most of our funding is coming from,” he said. “People have been supporting us on GoFundMe, which has been super helpful for us. A lot of those people on GoFundMe, as well as the people we meet face-to-face, tell us the trip is a great idea, and they wish they’d done it themselves.”

With a laugh, Luke said, “I think a lot of people are living out the trip they wanted to take through us.”

The biggest surprise of the road trip so far? “I don’t think we were quite ready for the cold when we headed north,” Konson said. “Six inches of snow fell on our first day in Minnesota. That’s not something we deal with an awful lot where we live.”

Two 18-year-olds likely don’t set a big goal like this without support from their families and friends. However, that doesn’t mean family members weren’t a little skeptical of the idea when they first brought it up.

“It took a little convincing at first,” he said with a laugh, “but we got it done. I think they’re happy for us because we’re getting some good life experiences and learning a lot of things through our travels. We’re seeing a lot of things and meeting a lot of people we likely wouldn’t get to know while sitting in a dorm room watching online classes.”

Their tentative plan is to be home a couple of weeks over the Christmas holiday. They may squeeze in a quick trip to the Carolinas and Georgia, which aren’t too far from home.

Here’s the link to their Go Fund Me page if you want to chip in for gas to help the boys complete what really is a once-in-a-lifetime trip.

https://www.gofundme.com/f/catching-the-state-fish-in-each-state

January 8, 2020January 8, 2020

NDSU Bison playing for another football title

NDSU Bison football. What do you know? They’re in another title game. Here’s a preview of the Saturday matchup with James Madison University.

There’s a third certainty in life besides death and taxes. It’s the North Dakota State University football team making a deep run into the FCS playoffs. The NDSU Bison take on James Madison University for the FCS college football championship on Saturday, Jan. 11, in Frisco, Texas. Kickoff is at 11 a.m. Central time. The Bison (15-0) are the No. 1-ranked team in the land while James Madison (14-1) is No. 2.

These two teams have quite a history. First of all, this is a rematch of the 2017 national championship game. NDSU has won two straight and seven of the last eight national championship games. JMU took the 2016 national title game after they beat the Bison in the national semifinals. James Madison is making its third appearance in the title game in the last four years.

NSDU football beat writer Jeff Kolpack (@FGOSPORTSWRITER) spoke to Travis Aune on Minnesota Sports Weekly and was refreshingly honest when asked if he thought heading into the season that the Bison would make yet another appearance in the title game.

“To give you a one-word answer, it’s ‘no,’” he said with a laugh. “I wasn’t expecting it because I thought we had too many young players. It’s tough to depend on a freshman quarterback (Trey Lance of Marshall, MN) to get you back to Frisco (Texas).

Another year, same result

“That being said, there’s something about this program that just keeps reinventing itself,” he added. “One of the advantages this program has is they don’t have a lot of players leaving every year. Guys sometimes stick around for 2-3 years before they even get a shot at seeing the field. I think that’s a lot of dedication to a program that you don’t see as much of anymore.”

He says a lot of today’s kids that aren’t playing as freshmen will often bail on their program and look for opportunities elsewhere. It’s the “instant gratification” part of today’s sports and the Bison program has been able to avoid a lot of that.

Obviously, the Bison aren’t winning as much as they have without talent. “They have a lot of that,” he said. “They have a lot of support, resources, and money, as well as a university president (Dean. L Bresciani) who’s on board with the program’s success. You need all those things. Did I expect this? No. Am I surprised they’re here again? No.”

Freshman QB

Despite being a redshirt freshman, Marshall native Trey Lance has shown the ability to be an equally effective passer and runner since taking over under center for the Bison. For a young player, his accuracy is remarkable. He’s thrown for 28 touchdowns and doesn’t have a single interception this season.

“He’s 6-foot-2, 225 pounds, and is a powerful runner,” Kolpack said. “His development is coming along well. He recognizes what defenses are trying to do and gets to his check-down points. He’s much farther along mentally than anyone thought he’d be at this point. It’s sometimes hard to remember that he’s just a freshman when he’s out there.”

Matt Entz took over as head coach after Chris Kleiman left for Kansas State University after last season. Kolpack said the first year under Entz “couldn’t have gone any better.” He was the defensive coordinator under former Bison coaches Kleiman and Craig Bohl.

Dominance

The Bison have been on a remarkable run of winning football. Minnesota Sports Weekly host Travis Aune pointed out that NDSU beats most of its opponents by considerable margins. Why don’t the Bison schedule better opponents? Kolpack’s answer was a simple one; “No one will play them.” He said it might be hard to truly appreciate just how good the program has been over many years.

“It’s one of the most dominant college football programs in history,” he said. “If they win on Saturday, they may win three more. If that’s the case, the NDSU Bison program becomes the most dominant one in college football history.

“However, when you’re watching it before your eyes, it may be hard to recognize that,” Kolpack added. “It’s hard to live in the moment of a history book because technically the book hasn’t been written yet. It’ll be written 10-20 years down the road. You write it after the fact.”

This Saturday

Looking ahead to the title game on Saturday, Kolpack said the defenses could play a major role in the outcome. James Madison is No. 1 in the country in terms of yards allowed on the ground, with their opponents averaging a mere 61 yards per game and 2.2 yards per rush.

“The recent run of NDSU Bison success has been built on good defense,” he said. “They’re a good defensive team again this year. I think the first team to 20 is going to win this game. The teams will open with some basic football early on and get a feel for what each of them is doing.

“Two heavyweights like this are going to come out like boxers,” Kolpack said. “They’re not going to try for the knockout early. I’m seeing a close, low-scoring game.”

You can find the whole interview with Jeff Kolpack as part of Minnesota Sports Weekly right here.

September 17, 2019September 17, 2019

World Horseshoe Tournament: Minnesotans do well

The 2019 World Horseshoe Tournament took place in Wichita Falls, Texas, on July 22-August 3. The National Horseshoe Pitching Association sponsors the tournament once a year in different locations around the country. Once again, this year’s tournament included a contingent of “pitchers” from the Rushford-Peterson area, who all competed well down in Texas.

Darren Chambers of Rushford usually takes a delegation of area residents to the World Horseshoe tournament once a year, with this year being no exception. “This year, we had a few more people going along than in 2018,” he said. “I took three new players this year. A total of five went from the Rushford area and I took my two grandsons from West Salem too.

“My new players this year included my niece, Donata Kitchens,” he said, “along with my granddaughter, Brielle Schneider, as well as Lucas Rasmussen. They all took part in their first world tournament. The three that I took to last year’s tournament, Isaac Rasmussen, Mason Chambers, and Noah Chambers, all went again this year too.”

Brielle Schneider, who Chambers says has “only been pitching for about five months,” won the Class C Division at the tournament. “She won the round-robin tournament with a perfect 9-0 record,” Chambers said. “Brielle actually had to beat Isaac Rasmussen at one point (18-17) to win the championship. Isaac wound up in second place with an 8-1 record.

“A total of four kids were in Class C, including Brielle, Isaac, Lucas, and Noah,” he said. “Noah took sixth place in Class C and Lucas Rasmussen finished in seventh. Mason won his class last year and took fourth in this year’s World Horseshoe Tournament. He started slowly but finished the tournament on fire, throwing 15 ringers in one game (40 total throws, 37%).”

Chambers said he takes the kids to different tournaments in Iowa throughout the winter (indoors). It’s not hard to get them ready for the world tournament because “they just love the road trips” and they “love playing the game.”

Lucas Rasmussen had the distinction of being the youngest player at the World Horseshoe Tournament in Texas. He played quite a match with Brielle Rasmussen in Class C competition. “Lucas lost to Brielle in the last game of the tournament,” Chambers recalled. “He trailed 11-9 and just needed a ringer to win the game. Lucas threw a ringer that would have won him the game. However, she had a shoe that was literally standing up on the side of the pole and it flipped her shoe right on there. That canceled out his ringer and he lost 11-9.

“This old guy (Darren) finished up 9-6 at the tournament this year,” he said with a laugh. “I wound up in sixth place, which got me into a little money. They pay out through sixth place.”

Chambers said Donata Kitchens wasn’t initially going to play in the tournament. At first, Chambers said she came along to “help out with the kids.” Chambers admitted he knew they would need an extra pair of hands on the trip, especially with the extra kids going along to Texas. “Well, we decided since she’s going along, Donata might as well play,” he said. “You have to play in four tournaments to qualify for the world tournament and we just barely got her qualified. It was worth it as she took third place in the women’s Class K Division.”

It takes many hours of practice to be successful at the world tournament. Chambers likes the fact that people in each division are competing against other players with similar skill levels, thanks to the way the national association organizes the tournament.

“This tournament really has a class for everybody,” he said. “Participants are put into their class based on their ringer percentage. The more ringers you make, the higher class of competition you’re in. For example, I’m in the second-to-lowest class at the tournament because my ringer percentage is between 10-12 percent., while the number-one-ranked guy in the world will pitch somewhere between 85-90 percent.

“That’s a big difference and why they class it up the way they do,” Chambers added. “When you play someone in your class, you’ll have a good chance to win. It makes the tournament a lot more fun for everybody.”

Chambers started attending world tournaments every year since 2003 and typically went by himself, however the group traveling to next year’s world championship tournament in Monroe, Louisiana, will likely include at least 13 people from Minnesota. He said there’s always room for more people who want to play.

“Anyone interested in pitching horseshoes can give me a call if they want to get involved,” Chambers added. “I’m happy to teach them different ways to throw and would be happy to help anyone interested.”

I included a video recap of some of the action at this year’s tournament: