The New Prague boys’ basketball team dropped a pair of Wright County Conference East Division games last week.
The Trojans record fell to 1-8 in the WCC and 5-18 overall with a 54-53 loss to Holy Family Feb. 18 and a 69-56 loss to Waconia Feb. 21.
In the loss to Holy Family, it was a tale of two halves.
The Fire led 32-20 at halftime but were outscored 33- 22 in the second half.

Minnesota will join Super Tuesday this year — and 13 other states, including Texas and California, in perhaps the most consequential day of the presidential primary season.
It’s new in Minnesota. It’s our first presidential primary since 1992 and only the fourth in state history. Here are some rules.

There are some weeks, sometimes one day after another, where the phrase, “OK, what’s next?” seems vastly appropriate.

Congratulations to wrestlers (Koy Buesgens - Gr. 9; Colton Bornholdt - Gr. 9; Joey Novak - Gr. 9; Nick Novak - Gr. 11; Max Scheffler - Gr. 12; Jake Trachte - Gr. 12; & Will Busch - Gr. 12) who qualified and will be representing NPHS on Friday & Saturday at the Excel Energy Center in St. Paul.
Below are the schedules for the Individual Tournament!

The Hwy 21 bridge replacement project in Jordan begins in two weeks and will continue through November to replace two bridges and to build a trail for pedestrians and bicyclists.
Beginning Mon, March 9, construction crews will close Hwy 21 between Mill St. and south of the Sand Creek bridge to:

Replace two bridges over Sand Creek and the Union Pacific railroad
Build a trail for pedestrians and bicyclists between Mill St. and the Sand Creek bridge
Reconstruct Hwy 21 between Mill St. and south of the Sand Creek bridge

For the majority of the season, New Prague and Shakopee were considered two of the top teams in Class AAA wrestling.
Shakopee is the defending Class AAA State Champions and the Trojans were rated 4th all season.
It was inevitable the two teams would battle for the Section 2AAA championship Friday, Feb. 14 in Shakopee.
After winning their opening two matches, the two elite teams did advance to the finals.
New Prague opened the tourney with a 62-9 win over Apple Valley. This was the first time in program history they have defeated the Eagles.

Tim Neeser has been with Chart Industries for nearly 40 years. He began as an intern in 1980 when the New Prague based company was MVE (Minnesota Valley Engineering). He was hired full time as a product engineer for packaged gases fresh out of college in 1982. He retired on Friday, Feb. 14.
He said when he began with the company it employed 150 people. Now it has 5,000 employees and does $1.5 billion in sales worldwide. His work with the company has also resulted in his filing 25 patents.

New Prague senior Emily Russo was named one of 40 Minnesota seniors as a finalist for the honor of Miss Basketball.
Russo, who has scored close to 1,600 points and has more than 800 rebounds, joins a number of local players as a finalist.
Gus Boyer of Waseca, Sarah Conlon of St. Peter, Annie Guentzel of Lakeville South, Lauren Jensen of Lakeville North, Mackenzie Kramer of St. Michael-Albertville, and Molly Mogensen of Farmington are among the finalists.

The Le Sueur/Rice County Drug Task Force was very busy in 2019.
Le Sueur County Chief Deputy Nick Greenig presented information about the work completed by the drug task force within the county during the Elysian City Council meeting Feb. 11.
Last year there were 64 cases opened, 55 search warrants were issued, and there were 61 arrests made.
A total of $18,020 in cash was seized as were nine firearms.
More than 3.4 million dollars in street value worth of controlled substances were seized.

Residents of Praha Village, New Prague’s senior apartment complex, held a fundraiser for the Alzheimer’s Association, bringing in $1,623.75. The residents held a Bake & Craft Sale on December 13 that was open to the residents and their families. It was the first year that the residents held the fundraiser.

National American Legion Commander James W. “Bill” Oxford, center, addresses an audience of 130 people on Wednesday, Feb. 19, during his visit to New Prague American Legion Post 45. A dinner and program was held for Commander Oxford, who was visiting several American Legion Posts in Minnesota. For more see an upcoming print issue of The New Prague Times. (Patrick Fisher Photo)

It’s not even March yet and there are already those sports gearing up for state tournaments. At least one, the State Dance Team Tournament, has already happened. The state tournament for girls hockey and gymnastics are going on over the next few days. In the next few weeks, there will be the tourneys for wrestling, boys hockey, adaptive floor hockey and girls and boys basketball.

Evelyn L. Vlasak, 92, of Montgomery, died on Thursday, Feb. 20, 2020 at Mala Strana Rehabilitation Center in New Prague. Visitation will be held Thursday, Feb. 27 from 4 to 8 p.m. at Schoenbauer Funeral Home in Montgomery.
Mass of Christian Burial will be held on Friday, Feb. 28 at ­­­11 a.m. at Holy Redeemer Catholic Church with Father Tom Niehaus officiating with visitation one hour prior at the church. Interment will be in Calvary Cemetery in Montgomery.

Thomas Eckstein scored a game-high 14 points for the New Prague basketball team in a 55-43 loss to Orono Friday, Feb. 14.
The Trojans were without their leading scorer, Parker Johnson, who sat out the game with a back injury. He is averaging more than 20 points per game this season and is within less 100 points of 1,000 career points.
“We played well throughout the first half on both ends of the floor,” Trojan head coach Dan Peterka said. “We worked our offense and found some good scoring opportunities throughout the first half.”
New Prague trailed by only...

Blake Ryan Asher, age 17, of Lonsdale, died tragically in a car accident on Tuesday, February 18, 2020.  Blake was born on November 7, 2002 in Northfield to Ryan P. Asher and Jennifer Kassa Jones.  He was raised in the Farmington/Lonsdale area and was currently a junior at Tri-City United (TCU) School, where he was a member of the speech club.  Blake was loved by everyone with his bubbly, funny, goofy personality.

Due to a lack of a quorum, the New Prague City Council meeting scheduled for 6 p.m. tonight (Tuesday, Feb. 18) has been cancelled. For the council to meet it needs at least three of its five members to be present. The agenda, which included public comment on the renewal of the Ambulance Service Agreement, has been rescheduled for the Monday, March 2, council meeting.