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Volume 134 Number 35 14 pages Friday, August 31, 2012 Single Copy Price: $1 Oldest Weekly Newspaper in North Dakota • Established in 1879 HILLSBORO, NORTH DAKOTA 58045 HARVEST Continued on page 2 Hillsboro hosts first-ever cross country meet PAGE 9 By COLE SHORT A new sports partnership between the Hillsboro and Central Valley schools debuted with a sizzling start last Friday. Playing together for the first time since an emergency football co-op was approved June 27, the H-CV Burros trounced the Thompson Tommies 44-8. Parents from Hillsboro and Central Valley packed the west-side stands in Thompson, standing shoulder to shoulder to back the Burros. Athletes from both schools had standout performances in the game. Hillsboro senior quarterback Brendan Dufner rumbled for 192 yards on the ground and passed for 143 more on 8-of-8 passing amid a three- touchdown performance. Central Valley senior Dusty Schildberger caught two touchdown passes and classmate Ethan Proznik ran for 98 yards in their first game for the Burros. Proznik also led the team in tackles with six. After a failed courtship in 2010 and a suspenseful spring as the schools forged new ties, players were anxious to put the co-op talk behind them and return to the football field. “I think it’s gone well for the most part,” Dufner said. “I was a little leery about how it was going to go. “I didn’t really know how things were going to work out, but surprisingly, I don’t think it could get any better,” he said. H-CV fans will get to see the football team in its home debut tonight (Friday). The Burros will host the Finley-Sharon-Hope-Page Spartans at 7 p.m. in Hillsboro. See page 8 for more information on the Thompson Tommies game and a preview of tonight’s matchup against the Spartans. Answering the call Answering the call Father Casey takes charge at St. Rose in Hillsboro Photos by Cory EriCkson By CORY ERICKSON It’s a mild Saturday eve- ning in August, and a scattered crowd sits silently among pews at St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church in Hillsboro. A lector is reciting a Bible passage for the 7 p.m. service. In front of the sanctuary, adorned in green and gold cleri- cal vestments, sits Kazimiers Kopacz – better known locally as “Father Casey.” Casey replaced Father Leo Kinney as leader of the con- gregation this summer after Kinney received a position at St. Stephen Catholic Church in Larimore, N.D. Grayed hair belying his age, the 46-year-old Poland native listens with a slight smile on his face, his gaze slowly scanning the crowd. Hands clasped, the priest’s calm, settled demeanor hints at a life dedicated to obedience. Casey stands and, after a hymn, walks with purpose to the pulpit. “I look at my own life and my own experiences and,” he pauses, “things were very dif- ficult for me. “During the times that things are not going well and not getting better, remember this story.” Silence fills the sanctuary. An unusual student Casey was born in 1966 in the city of Tarnow, Poland, during a period of Soviet and Communist occupation after World War II. The oldest of five children, he was raised in a middle-class family by a school-worker mother and a father employed by a chemical factory in the city located 50 miles east of Krakow. “They were hard working, both of them,” he says. “Very loving.” Officially his father’s plant was an agricultural facility, Casey says, but the building’s barricades and barbed wire told a different story. “Nobody really knew,” he says, “but among the soldiers were chemical specialists preparing elements for chemical weapons.” His father was not allowed access to portions of the factory, under control by some of the 40,000 Soviet troops stationed in the area at the time. Casey’s family owned a small 12-acre plot of land used mostly for subsistence farming, typical of many families at the time. “A lot of people wanted to be independent,” he says, as the Soviet government rationed food for families with coupons. “You could only buy like a half-pound of butter, around two pounds of meat and two pounds of sugar per month,” he adds. Casey spent much of his free time as a child reading or play- ing soccer with the numerous other children in the area. At age 7, Casey attended a state school, where he showed a proficiency for academics. After graduating in 1981, he skipped high school and attended what he described as an “elite” gimnazjum, or college, in Han- nover, Germany. While there, Casey found he was in the minority as many of the college’s students were sons and daughters of prominent Communist Party members. “I was a very unusual stu- dent because I was not coming from the Communist Party or the elite class,” he says, deny- ing that he was an exceptional student to have received the educational opportunity. “Maybe I was just lucky,” he adds with a chuckle. Escaping the Bloc After graduating from the school in 1985, Casey went di- rectly to the Pontifical Academy of Theology in Krakow. The path to priesthood was always something that had been on his mind. His uncle was a Part 1 of 2 Father Casey’s arrival in hillsboro has shaped lives, but the journey here changed his. Coach scott olsen is positioning the burros to contend this season. Casey’s personality has made him a favorite among adults and children. By NEIL O. NELSON The Red River Valley's hard spring wheat harvest this year proved to be a pleasant surprise. Fields with yields upward of 80 bushels were not unheard of. The 80-plus bushel yields may have been the exception; yet, much of the Hillsboro area averaged between 65 and 80 bushels. Good news, all around. Hillsboro farmers are hoping they'll be pleasantly surprised again with their soybean and corn harvests. But they're not holding their collective breath. Actually, they're hoping for an average yield from both crops. Which, all things considered, would be another pleasant sur- prise. Considering the fact that they've received far less rain than the average summer, they'll gladly accept an average yield in both harvests. “If you would have told me last month that there was a chance at an average yield in both the soybeans and corn, I would have said you were nuts,” said Ken Nichols, Traill County extension agent. There was no way . . . Since May 1, Hillsboro and much of Traill County are four inches behind the average year for rainfall. “So, we could use another two inches of rain, you bet,” said Nichols. Earlier this summer, it didn't look like it would ever rain. The heating unit days, the farmers had; it was the moisture that was sorely lacking. Still, the wheat crop came in and Hillsboro's farmers were shaking their heads. Then it rained more than two inches the first week in August. A potentially disastrous year was apparently averted. Surpris- ingly, a good year, even an av- erage year, was not out of the realm of possibilities. Tim Kozojed describes the turnaround as absolutely amaz- ing. “A lot of farmers were look- ing at their wheat crop and are now looking at their soybeans and corn and asking: Where did this come from?” Kozojed knows. The subsoil. FATHER CASEY Continued on page 5 Potential for average bean, corn crops real, despite lack of rain H-CV Burros off to sizzling start Photo by ColE short

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Volume 134Number 3514 pagesFriday, August 31, 2012Single Copy Price: $1

Oldest Weekly Newspaper in North Dakota • Established in 1879 • HILLSBORO, NORTH DAKOTA 58045

HARVESTContinued on page 2

Hillsboro hosts first-ever cross country meetPAGE 9

By COLE SHORT A new sports partnership

between the Hillsboro and Central Valley schools debuted with a sizzling start last Friday.

Playing together for the first time since an emergency football co-op was approved June 27, the H-CV Burros trounced the Thompson Tommies 44-8.

Parents from Hillsboro and Central Valley packed the west-side stands in Thompson, standing shoulder to shoulder to back the Burros.

Athletes from both schools had standout performances in the game.

Hillsboro senior quarterback Brendan Dufner rumbled for 192 yards on the ground and passed for 143 more on 8-of-8 passing amid a three-touchdown performance.

Central Valley senior Dusty Schildberger caught two touchdown passes and classmate Ethan Proznik ran for 98 yards in their first game for the Burros. Proznik also led the team in tackles with six.

After a failed courtship in 2010 and a suspenseful spring as the schools forged new ties, players were anxious to put the co-op talk behind them and return to the football field.

“I think it’s gone well for the most part,” Dufner said. “I was a little leery about how it was going to go.

“I didn’t really know how things were going to work out, but surprisingly, I don’t think it could get any better,” he said.

H-CV fans will get to see the football team in its home debut tonight (Friday).

The Burros will host the Finley-Sharon-Hope-Page Spartans at 7 p.m. in Hillsboro.

See page 8 for more information on the Thompson Tommies game and a preview of tonight’s matchup against the Spartans.

Answeringthe callAnsweringthe call

Father Casey takes charge at St. Rose in Hillsboro

Photos by Cory EriCkson

By CORY ERICKSONIt’s a mild Saturday eve-

ning in August, and a scattered crowd sits silently among pews at St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church in Hillsboro.

A lector is reciting a Bible passage for the 7 p.m. service.

In front of the sanctuary, adorned in green and gold cleri-cal vestments, sits Kazimiers Kopacz – better known locally as “Father Casey.”

Casey replaced Father Leo Kinney as leader of the con-gregation this summer after Kinney received a position at St. Stephen Catholic Church in Larimore, N.D.

Grayed hair belying his age, the 46-year-old Poland native listens with a slight smile on his face, his gaze slowly scanning the crowd.

Hands clasped, the priest’s calm, settled demeanor hints at a life dedicated to obedience.

Casey stands and, after a hymn, walks with purpose to the pulpit.

“I look at my own life and my own experiences and,” he pauses, “things were very dif-ficult for me.

“During the times that things are not going well and not getting better, remember this story.”

Silence fills the sanctuary.

An unusual studentCasey was born in 1966

in the city of Tarnow, Poland, during a period of Soviet and Communist occupation after World War II.

The oldest of five children, he was raised in a middle-class family by a school-worker mother and a father employed by a chemical factory in the city located 50 miles east of Krakow.

“They were hard working, both of them,” he says. “Very loving.”

Officially his father’s plant was an agricultural facility, Casey says, but the building’s

barricades and barbed wire told a different story.

“Nobody really knew,” he says, “but among the soldiers were chemical specialists preparing elements for chemical weapons.”

His father was not allowed access to portions of the factory, under control by some of the 40,000 Soviet troops stationed in the area at the time.

Casey’s family owned a small 12-acre plot of land used mostly for subsistence farming, typical of many families at the time.

“A lot of people wanted to be independent,” he says, as the Soviet government rationed food for families with coupons.

“You could only buy like a half-pound of butter, around two pounds of meat and two pounds of sugar per month,” he adds.

Casey spent much of his free time as a child reading or play-ing soccer with the numerous other children in the area.

At age 7, Casey attended a state school, where he showed a proficiency for academics. After graduating in 1981, he skipped high school and attended what he described as an “elite” gimnazjum, or college, in Han-nover, Germany.

While there, Casey found he was in the minority as many of the college’s students were sons and daughters of prominent Communist Party members.

“I was a very unusual stu-dent because I was not coming from the Communist Party or the elite class,” he says, deny-

ing that he was an exceptional student to have received the educational opportunity.

“Maybe I was just lucky,” he adds with a chuckle.

Escaping the BlocAfter graduating from the

school in 1985, Casey went di-rectly to the Pontifical Academy of Theology in Krakow.

The path to priesthood was always something that had been on his mind. His uncle was a

Part 1 of 2

Father Casey’s arrival in hillsboro has shaped lives, but the journey here changed his.

Coach scott olsen is positioning the burros to contend this season.

Casey’s personality has made him a favorite among adults and children.

By NEIL O. NELSONThe Red River Valley's hard

spring wheat harvest this year proved to be a pleasant surprise.

Fields with yields upward of 80 bushels were not unheard of.

The 80-plus bushel yields may have been the exception; yet, much of the Hillsboro area averaged between 65 and 80 bushels.

Good news, all around.Hillsboro farmers are hoping

they'll be pleasantly surprised again with their soybean and corn harvests.

But they're not holding their collective breath.

Actually, they're hoping for an average yield from both crops.

Which, all things considered, would be another pleasant sur-prise.

Considering the fact that they've received far less rain than the average summer, they'll gladly accept an average yield in both harvests.

“If you would have told me last month that there was a chance at an average yield in both the soybeans and corn, I would have said you were nuts,” said Ken Nichols, Traill County extension agent.

There was no way . . . Since May 1, Hillsboro and

much of Traill County are four inches behind the average year for rainfall.

“So, we could use another two inches of rain, you bet,” said Nichols.

Earlier this summer, it didn't look like it would ever rain. The heating unit days, the farmers had; it was the moisture that was sorely lacking.

Still, the wheat crop came in and Hillsboro's farmers were shaking their heads.

Then it rained more than two inches the first week in August.

A potentially disastrous year was apparently averted. Surpris-ingly, a good year, even an av-erage year, was not out of the realm of possibilities.

Tim Kozojed describes the turnaround as absolutely amaz-ing. “A lot of farmers were look-ing at their wheat crop and are now looking at their soybeans and corn and asking: Where did this come from?”

Kozojed knows.The subsoil.

FATHER CASEYContinued on page 5

Potential foraverage bean,corn cropsreal, despitelack of rain

H-CV Burros off to sizzling start

Photo by ColE short