JEREMY WALTNER - PUBLISHER In the same way eyes have been on Freeman’s Main Street since its reconstruction began in April, the downtown area will be the center of attention on Friday, Sept. 23 for a ribbon-cutting marking the completion of the primary business district that will coincide with the community parade and Freeman High School’s homecoming celebration. The parade will  begin at 11:30 a.m. and make its way south from Main and Railway streets.

JEREMY WALTNER  - PUBLISHER The Menno community will take its turn at celebrating school spirit and Wolves/Trapper pride next week. Coronation will formally kick things off Monday night beginning at 7:30 p.m. in the city/school auditorium. This year’s candidates for king are Owen Eitemiller, Ajay Herrboldt, Cody Munkvold, Brayden Sattler and Daniel Sayler; standing for queen are Abby Bender, Julia Buechler, Alana Fergen, Madelyn Kludt and Halle Van Hove.

JEREMY WALTNER  - PUBLISHER The first homecoming in the Phoenix-era of football arrives next week. Freeman Public Schools will honor school spirit in the traditional way beginning Monday night, Sept. 19 at coronation. The formal start to homecoming week will begin at 7:30 p.m. inside the Freeman High School gym. Candidates for king are Jayden Jacobsen, Jonathan Law and Zac Sayler, while Brooklyn Mendel, Kate Miller and Erin Uecker will stand for queen. Ava Andersen and Evan Scharberg will serve as junior emcees.

JEREMY WALTNER  - PUBLISHER Freeman Regional Health Services wants to hear from you. No, Freeman Regional Health Services needs to hear from you. Leadership teams at the local health care facility are both inviting and urging those from across the area to respond to a survey that is part of the facility’s Community Health Needs Assessment — an every-three-year process required by the Affordable Care Act for all critical access hospitals.

JEREMY WALTNER  - PUBLISHER As expected, enrollment at Freeman Public is up again — bigtime. While the official student count won’t be submitted to the state until the last Friday of September, a preliminary look shows that the number of students enrolled with the Freeman School District is up nearly 30 over the start of last school year — 402 compared to 374 this time last year. That growth is distributed throughout the classes, particularly at the junior-senior high school level.

JEREMY WALTNER  -  PUBLISHER On Friday night in Volga, Kadeyn Ulmer took the field for the Jim River Trappers as the starting quarterback — a position he will presumably return to when the Menno and Scotland cooperative reassembles on football fields over the course of the next two months. It’s been years in the making for the Menno senior, who can trace his start on the gridiron, not to junior high football, but all the way to his boyhood years when he took part in Punt, Pass & Kick.

JEREMY WALTNER - PUBLISHER It was 10 years ago that Chad Soulek attended a rib cook-off in Corsica at the invitation of longtime friend and fellow firefighter Josh Gerlach. So impressed was Soulek with the event that included representation from fire departments across the area that he brought the idea back to Freeman with him. “I said to our department, ‘I don’t know why we can’t try this here and make it a go,’” he told The Courier. “We took a chance and went with it and here we are.”

JEREMY WALTNER - PUBLISHER It’s just about time to ring the bells again — the school bells, that is. Area students will begin reporting to class for the 2022-23 term next Wednesday, Aug. 17 when Freeman Public and Menno start the new year. Both districts will complete a full day — a change for Freeman Public which has historically held just a half-day opener. Marion starts school on Monday, Aug. 22 — that will be a 12:30 p.m. dismissal — while students at Freeman Academy will report for a full day on Wednesday, Aug. 24.

JEREMY WALTNER - PUBLISHER As recently as two years ago, Ryan Mews hadn’t even heard of Heritage Hall Museum & Archives (HHM&A), let alone appreciated all that it has to offer. But as circumstance would have it, the 2011 graduate of Bridgewater-Emery High School with a keen interest in German immigration not only learned of one of Freeman’s most underappreciated treasures, but has also immersed himself in it.

JEREMY WALTNER - PUBLISHER A member of the 1975 Freeman High School boys basketball state championship team and a highly successful coach from West Central will be on the sidelines once again, this time as the assistant girls basketball coach with the Freeman Flyers. Kent Mueller has been hired by the district to work alongside second-year head coach Jenny Peters starting with the 2022-23 basketball season; his contract was to be formally approved by the Freeman School Board at its regular monthly meeting Wednesday night, Aug. 10.