Tri-City United High School’s baseball players spent five days from Tuesday, March 24, through Sunday, March 29, having fun, warming up, and learning for this year’s season in Melbourne, Fla., nearby to Cocoa Beach. Players only missed three days of school for the trip.
    TCU’s Head Baseball Coach Greg Westerman introduced the trip, organized by the TCU Baseball Booster Club, early last year to the school board and received approval for it in May 2025.

    Tri-City United High School again has five young artists in the 2026 High School Art Show at Waseca Art Center, which runs through May 1. Students from around the region will have their works on display there. 
    The exhibit will culminate with a workshop for the students with a professional artist on Friday, May 1, and awards will be given for Best in Show, Best 2-D Artwork, Best 3-D Artwork, and People’s Choice — where visitors to the center can vote on their favorite piece in the exhibit.

    Bolten & Menk was approved to move forward with design and oversight of rehabilitating the city’s wastewater treatment facility, which is past its lifespan being over 20 years old.
    The unanimous decision by city council, and recommended by the public works advisory board, calls for an upfront fee $1,145,550 in engineering fees to oversee the project. Estimated costs for the total rehabilitation, including engineering, legal, and administration, is estimated between $13.8 to $18 million dollars.

Tri-City United School District's dedicated bond website: https://sites.google.com/tcu2905.us/ref26/home .

    The election in November 2025 came in with a failing vote for the Tri-City United School District’s $39.99 million dollar bond.

    A little seventh grade team from Tri-City United Middle School’s robotics club called the Circuit Surfers (3589A), consisting of AJ Munguia, Landon Ballman, Colton Claffey, Jake Goettl, and Vincent Carpenter, has qualified for the VEX V5 Robotics World Championships to be held April 25-27, 2026, in St. Louis, Mo. at the America’s Center.
    “The VEX Robotics World Championship is a gathering of the top 588 Middle School Teams from all around the world,” said Robotics Head Advisor Jeff Ballman. It’s a first-ever honor the club has ever received, according to Jeff Ballman.

    The Tri-City United (TCU) boys track and field team placed second in the Belle Plaine Indoor Triangular Saturday, March 21 at Myers Field House at Minnesota State University, Mankato.
    The Titans scored 32.5 points to place behind champion Belle Plaine, who scored 107.5 points. Glencoe-Silver Lake placed third with 27 points.
    TCU had three champions and a pair of runner-up finishes.
    The 4 x 200-meter relay team won the race in 1:42.56. Relay runners were not provided as of print time.

    The Tri-City United (TCU) girls track and field team won three of the four field event championships and five other titles in the Belle Plaine Indoor Triangular Saturday, March 21 at Myers Field House at Minnesota State University, Mankato.
    Juniors Louise Stock and Kaitlyn Hartwig each won two titles helping the Titans place second to a very strong Belle Plaine team. The Tigers won the event with 88 points. TCU followed with 69 points and Glencoe-Silver Lake placed third with 12 points.

    TCU Titans youth wrestling wrapped up its 2025–26 season with 17 wrestlers competing at the MN/USA State Folkstyle Tournament, marking the culmination of months of hard work on the mat.
    The Titans youth wrestling program, which serves wrestlers in grades PreK-6th from the Tri-City United communities, began its season in November with 94 registered wrestlers, the most in program history. 

    The St. Patrick’s Day Festival and Parade in Le Center was largely unaffected by the historic March 14-15 blizzard until Saturday evening after about 5 p.m. when snow started falling, well after the parade.

    Child’s Play Theatre owner, and physical education teacher at Most Holy Redeemer Catholic School (MHRCS) and Holy Cross Catholic School in Webster, Andy Velishek, was honored this past week with receiving the Catholic Schools Center of Excellence’s (CSCOE) February Saintly Services Halo Award.

    Tri-City United Middle School’s 7th grade black boys traveling basketball team went 4-0 in Minneapolis on Saturday, March 14, beating Minneapolis Phelps by two. This gave them the Minnesota Youth Athletics Association’s (MYAS) title of being the 7th Grade Tier 3 Tournament State Champions.
    The team played in nine tournaments this year, competing in 29 games for the season where they ended up 20-9. Head Coach John Schmiesing said, “At the end of the season, MYAS has our team ranked 25th out of all 7th grade teams in Minnesota.”

    Sophie Smith, 20, of Montgomery, won this year’s 2026 Kolacky Days button design contest, chosen by the 248 members of the Montgomery Area Community Club (MACC) that runs Kolacky Days out of the 10 submitted designs.
    Smith is an emergency medical responder (EMR) working towards being an emergency medical technician (EMT) for Montgomery Area Emergency Medical Services. She is a 2024 graduate of Tri-City United High School with plans to continue her education to do something in the health care fields.

Saturday, March 14, 5 p.m. Update

The National Weather Services (NWS) in Chanhassen, Minn., has issued a Blizzard Warning for our greater area from 7 p.m. on Saturday, March 14, through 4 a.m. on Monday, March 16. They are calling this a "historic March winter storm on track to bring extreme snow accumulations and strong winds." 

The warning calls for a broad swath of 12 to 18 inches of snow over the region, with some area approaching two feet, with winds between 35 and 45 mph, with gusts to 55 mph, even after the snow starts to taper off.

    Music students from Tri-City United High School participated in the Section 2AA Solo and Ensemble Contest last Wednesday, March 4. 
    The school’s jazz band and the Encore choir both received the highest rating, a superior, at the contest.

While St. Patrick’s Day was still a week away, festivities kicked off Saturday at the Le Center American Legion Post 108 with the Miss Shamrock Talent Show.
            Three candidates are vying for the title of Miss Shamrock, Miss Leprechaun or Miss Irish Rose. The John Gregory O’Connell Scholarship will also be given to one of the candidates.

    It was another success for the Titans at the Minnesota State High School Weightlifting Championships in Cannon Falls this last Saturday.
    Head Coach Andrew Meier said, “It was a great finish to an overall very successful season. Seven lifters at state: four of them made the podium and two state champions.”