The Harrisburg Times
Presorted Standard ECRWSS US Postage Paid Permit #1 Harrisburg, SD 57032 To Current Resident
H om e of the Tig er s
Feb r u ar y 20 18
Growing Class Sizes Require Change of Venue for Graduation 2019 joanne vermulm
HARRISBURG CHAMBER
Chamber members meet each month at local businesses in Harrisburg.
Resolving to Build a Better Business Community
This year’s seniors will be the last to graduate from the campus of Harrisburg High School. The board voted on January 15th to move the graduation venue for future classes to a larger location, namely the Sioux Falls Arena, for the Class of 2019. Class sizes
have increased dramatically over the years, with the Class of 2016 at about 166 and the Class of 2017 at 178. This year’s seniors and the next few to follow are well over 230. This year’s sixth grade class is double that size.With numbers like that, the math just doesn’t add
CONTINUED ON PAGE 3, SEE GRADUATION
Adrienne McKeown, President, Harrisburg Economic Development corp. & Chamber of Commerce I was recently reading an online article when I came across a somewhat startling—yet not all that surprising—fact. According to U.S. News, approximately 80% of New Year’s resolutions fail by the second week of February. I’m sure there are many reasons why this happens, but instead of focusing on the failure, the article mentions that one way to help ensure success is to enroll in a class related to your goal. I suppose the logical
connection is that participating in a class will provide accountability, give you milestones for progress to keep working towards, and so on. However, it also caused me to think about the role the Harrisburg Chamber plays in helping our business community achieve goals throughout the year. In 2017, we had 115 businesses and organizations join the Harrisburg
Chamber of Commerce. This surpassed the 100-member goal the board of directors had set, outpaced similar communities of our size in the region, and showed tremendous growth over the past few years since the chamber was formed. We have members who are self-employed business owners with a payroll of one all the way up to large manufacturing companies shipping products all over the country. And while surpassing
SOURCE: HARRISBURG SCHOOL DISTRICT
CONTINUED ON PAGE 16, SEE BETTER BUSINESS
INSIDE
History in the Making Jane Klemme
UFC Fighter To Visit HHS Page 6
Boys Basketball Page 13
Girls Basketball Page 14
Harrisburg High School Gymnastics hosted its first ever home gymnastics meet on Thursday, January 18, 2018. The meet was held at Wings Gymnastics Academy, located near Horizon Elementary School in southeastern Sioux Falls. The Tigers played host to Wagner and Montrose high schools. Approximately 200 fans were on hand to witness Tiger history in the making. Bleachers were borrowed and brought in for the event. The athletes spent time warming up and at 6:00 PM the competition got started. The evening’s events included vault, uneven bars, beam and floor routines. An athlete participates in just one, or multiple events, depending on where her talents best shine. Harrisburg’s first gymnastics team consists of athletes from high school and both middle schools (7th and 8th grades) in the district. They meet for practice each day at Wings Gymnastic Academy. Head coach is Stephanie Hovda and assistant coach is Samantha Thorne. “The girls were so excited to compete in front of their home crowd, and show their friends and classmates how much they have
worked and improved in just 2 ½ months,” stated Hovda”.
Results of Harrisburg’s first gymnastics home event:
For many of the fans in the stands at the first home event there was much to learn. Music and melody filled the air as gymnastics took the floor. Most interesting to novice fans was how time spent waiting was never wasted. While judges and scorekeepers added up the final scores, the gymnasts seized the moment in polite competition to discover who could stand on her head the longest. Perhaps “standing on her head” is not an appropriate description of a handstand but as with every new sport, we do the best we can. Discussion around the high school this season has everyone wondering what to call starting time for gymnastics events. With basketball we ask one another, “What time is tip-off?” With football it’s, “When is kick off?” So, with gymnastics, is it what time is flip off?
Vault
“Call it what you need to,” states Hovda, “We are just having a blast learning a sport that is incredibly new to these girls.”
•
Jocelyn Kruse Montrose 8.55
•
Emiy Duffek Wagner 8.5
•
Joanna Soukup – Wagner 8.3
•
Lauren Hruby – Harrisburg 8.05
•
Alcista Dion – Wagner 8.0
Floor •
Emiy Duffek – Wagner 8.65
•
Jocelyn Kruse – Montrose 8.35
•
Lauren Hruby – Harrisburg 8.35
•
Ivy Hopkins – Wagner 8.25
•
Alcista Dion – Wagner 8.25
Beam • J o c e l y n Kruse – Montrose 8.55
–
• Ivy Hopkins – Wagner 7.25
–
• Emiy Duffek – Wagner 7.2 • Riley Buus – Harrisburg 7.15 •
Alcista Dion – Wagner 7.0
Bars • Jocelyn Kruse – Montrose 8.35 • Emiy Duffek – Wagner 7.8 • Riley Buus – Harrisburg 7.65 • Joanna Soukup – Wagner 7.1 • Lauren Hruby – Harrisburg 6.95 Megan White, senior, does a vault at a recent home meet at Wings Gymnastics Academy in Sioux Falls. JON KLEMME