As expected, another winter storm dumped more snow across the already snow-soaked region on Wednesday and early Thursday morning, bringing with it high winds and very cold temperatures. The Freeman community was on the southern side of the system and received a lesser amount of snow than others — one measurement showed just under 8 inches in town — but the blowing snow made conditions very poor.

A solid defensive effort, like this shown by Rylee Peters (20) and Erin Uecker helped lead the Freeman Public girls to a 62-36 win over Alcester-Hudson in the Region 4B Tournament Tuesday night in Centerville. Here's the full report.

Marion/Freeman head wrestling coach Chris Sayler offers a few remarks during a Tuesday morning sendoff for the state-bound wrestlers, who left for Rapid City at 9 a.m. to get ahead of the incoming winter weather. Also pictured is assistant coach Jeff Wollman and those grapplers heading to state: From left - Brody Gossen at 106, Easton Tschetter at 113, Finley McConniel at 120 and Riley Tschetter, who is going as an alternate at 160 lbs. The competition begins Thursday morning at 10 a.m. MST.

This is the bracket for the Region 4B Girls Basketball Tournament set to begin tonight, with No. 8 Freeman Academy/Marion hosting No. 9 Gayville-Volin in Marion starting at 6 p.m. The Bearcats lost to the Raiders 44-38 during the regular season. Region 4B action is scheduled to continue Tuesday night at two locations — Centerville and Viborg-Hurley — and it appears the games will be able to be played ahead of the incoming storm (although the start time has been moved up). Freeman Public will face Alcester-Hudson at 4 p.m. in Centerville, followed by Menno and Centerville.

These three grapplers will represent the Marion/Freeman Rebels at the State Wrestling Tournament in Rapid City next week. From left: Brody Gossen, an eighth grader at Freeman, will compete at 106 lbs.; Easton Tschetter, a seventh grader at Freeman, will wrestle at 113 lbs.; and Finley McConniel, a sophomore at Marion, will compete at 120 lbs. All qualified at by placing third at the Region 2B Tournament at McCook Central High School on Saturday. Riley Tschetter, a freshman from Freeman, finished fifth and is a state alternate at 160 lbs.

Estelle Waltner, a freshman at Freeman Academy, removes cheese pockets from their boiling bath of water as she and others prepare the popular ethnic food for Schmeckfest Saturday morning, Feb. 18 in the Pioneer Hall kitchen and dining hall. Volunteers were at it Friday evening, too, preparing the ingredients for assembly. Two hundred dozen will be made today, and another 200 dozen will be made next Friday and Saturday. All will be sold at Schmeckfest on March 24 and 25. 

For more than 80 years, this building served students attending Freeman Public School — first students at all grade levels and then, following the opening of the current junior-senior high school in 1975, students in grades K-6. The two-story brick structure opened in 1926 — two years following a fire that destroyed the previous school building located on what is today Lions Park. The building no longer exists; it was razed in 2009.

Kent Mueller is featured in the 5-Minute Interview published in this week's Courier. Here it is.

JEREMY WALTNER - PUBLISHER Just a few Sundays ago, as the church service at the Freeman Missionary Church was drawing to a close, a couple from Illinois showed. They were having car trouble and wondered if there was anybody in town that could offer some assistance. So the church’s longtime pastor, Stephen Roussos, made a call to Blaine Saarie, owner of Saarie Auto Body, on behalf of the Freeman Ministerial Association.

As is obvious in this photo of Bob Pidde clearing snow in front of his Main Street business, Jamboree Foods, the area was hit with another round of weather late Tuesday night and into Wednesday morning as several more inches of snow, coupled with high winds and cold temperatures, made for tough conditions. Driving was difficult if not impossible late last night (there have been many reports of cars in ditches), prompting schools in Freeman and Menno to cancel classes for the day. Additionally, the city of Freeman's rubble site and Heritage Hall Museum & Archives are closed.