Cass Lake-Bena Public Schools - #CLBSPANTHERS

🐾 PANTHER GAME DAY 🐾

Two Panther teams are hitting the road!

🏐 8TH GRADE VOLLEYBALL
🐾 Cass Lake-Bena vs. Bug-O-Nay-Ge-Shig
⏰ 4:30 PM
📍 Bug-O-Nay-Ge-Shig School

🏈 VARSITY FOOTBALL
🐾 Cass Lake-Bena Panthers (1-4)
🆚 Polk County West Thunder (4-1)
⏰ 6:00 PM
📍 East Grand Forks High School

Please note that Polk County West will be recognizing its seniors and parents during the football event.

Good luck to our Panthers! Compete hard, support one another, and represent Cass Lake-Bena with pride!

Thank you to Western Bank for proudly supporting Panther Athletics!

#PantherPride #CLBAthletics #PantherVolleyball #PantherFootball

Reminder:
AIPAC Meeting on Wednesday, October 14, 2026. 5:00pm in the high school choir room.

🐾 PANTHER GAME/MEET DAY 🐾

It’s a busy day for Panther Athletics! Our Cross Country teams are heading to Thief River Falls for the Conference Tournament, while Panther Volleyball hosts Kelliher/Northome at home!

🏃 CROSS COUNTRY CONFERENCE TOURNAMENT
⏰ Girls and Boys begin at 4:00 PM
📍 Thief River Falls Golf Club

🏐 HOME VOLLEYBALL

Middle School Gym
• 7th Grade vs. Kelliher at 4:45 PM
• 8th Grade vs. Kelliher at 5:45 PM

High School Gym
• Junior Varsity vs. Kelliher/Northome at 5:45 PM
• Varsity vs. Kelliher/Northome at 6:45 PM

Come out and support our Panthers at home, and wish our runners good luck as they compete at the Conference Tournament!

🎟️ Tickets:
https://www.gobound.com/mn/schools/casslakebena/tickets

📺 High School Livestream:
https://fan.hudl.com/clbhspanthers

📺 Middle School Livestream:
https://fan.hudl.com/clbmspanthers

Thank you to Western Bank for proudly supporting Panther Athletics!

🏐 SATURDAY VOLLEYBALL 🏐

It’s a busy Saturday for Panther Volleyball! Our 7th and 8th Grade teams will compete in the Northland Conference Junior High Tournament at Pine River-Backus, while Varsity travels to the Thunderbirds Invitational!

📅 Saturday, October 10

🐾 8th Grade Conference Tournament
⏰ First match at 9:00 AM
📍 Pine River-Backus High School

🐾 Varsity Thunderbirds Invitational
⏰ First match at 9:45 AM
📍 Waubun High School

🐾 7th Grade Conference Tournament
⏰ First match at 10:00 AM
📍 Pine River-Backus High School

Good luck to all three Panther teams! Play hard, compete together, and represent CLB with pride!

Thank you to Western Bank for proudly supporting Panther Athletics!

🍎 GOLDEN APPLE MOMENT 🍎

Cass Lake-Bena High School was featured on Lakeland News for the launch of our new Intro to Teaching class!

This class gives students the opportunity to explore education as a possible career while gaining meaningful, hands-on experience in the classroom. We are incredibly proud of our students for stepping outside their comfort zones, learning what it takes to become an educator, and beginning to see themselves as the teachers and leaders of tomorrow.

A special thank you to Danielle for the passion, dedication, and care she has put into building this opportunity for our students.

We would also like to thank students Daniel Jackson and Tamara Goggleye for participating in the interview and helping share the story of this exciting new class. You represented Cass Lake-Bena wonderfully!

Watch the full Golden Apple story here:
https://youtu.be/aTp99vH8TT4?si=2oOmn4ZA_Z4N7p2x

Amazing things are happening at Cass Lake-Bena Schools! ❤️🖤🐾

Congratulations to our very own PANTHER XC runner Markis Washington, the Pillager Invitational CHAMPION!

Markis played it cool the first mile, then let it FLY! Clocking a 19:31.5 on the STEEP hills of Madden's on Gull Lake Golf Course,taking the crown by nearly 50 SECONDS ahead of runner-up Jayce Compton of Pine River-Backus! We are so proud of you Markis!

To watch the video of Markis crossing the finish line here is the link:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1sb4Ovmua7LAXShC7CpRkNO6B4LHf4mSP/view?usp=sharing

🏈 VARSITY FOOTBALL GAME DAY 🏈

The Panthers are hitting the road to take on the Walker-Hackensack-Akeley Wolves under the Friday night lights!

🐾 Cass Lake-Bena Panthers (1-4)
🆚 Walker-Hackensack-Akeley Wolves (0-5)
⏰ 7:00 PM
📍 Walker-Hackensack-Akeley High School Game Field

Make the trip and cheer on our Panthers!

Thank you to Western Bank for proudly supporting Panther Athletics!

💛 A Friendly Reminder for Our Elementary Families 💛

We appreciate your partnership in keeping our school safe and welcoming!

If you visit during the school day, between 8:15 a.m. and 3:10 p.m., please stop at the office to sign in and receive a visitor pass before heading elsewhere in the building. This includes visits to speak with a staff member about your child. We encourage appointments if you need to speak with a staff member as well.

Please wear your visitor pass where it can be easily seen throughout your visit. Checking in helps us know who is in the building and connect you with the right person.

Thank you for your understanding and support. We’re grateful to work alongside you in caring for our students!

Dr. Grover - Elementary Principal

🏐 JH CONFERENCE TOURNAMENT 🏐

The brackets are set for Saturday’s Junior High Conference Volleyball Tournament at Pine River-Backus!

Both our 7th and 8th Grade Panthers will be competing. Check out the brackets below for game times and matchups.

Good luck, Panthers! 🐾

🏈🏐 PANTHER YOUTH SPORTS WEEKEND! 🏐🏈

Our young Panthers are ready for another full Saturday of Flag Football and Volleyball! Here are the locations and first game times for each Cass Lake-Bena team on Saturday, October 10.

🏈 3RD–4TH GRADE FLAG FOOTBALL
📍 Pequot Lakes

• CLB 1: 9:00 AM
• CLB 2: 9:30 AM
• CLB 3: 9:30 AM

🏈 5TH–6TH GRADE FLAG FOOTBALL
📍 Walker-Hackensack-Akeley
• CLB: 9:10 AM

🏐 3RD–4TH GRADE VOLLEYBALL
📍 Cass Lake-Bena

• CLB 1: 9:00 AM
• CLB 2: 10:00 AM

🏐 5TH–6TH GRADE VOLLEYBALL
📍 Cass Lake-Bena
• CLB 1: 8:00 AM

🏫 CASS LAKE-BENA HOST INFORMATION

🚪 Doors open at 7:30 AM
🎟️ Admission is FREE
🍿 Concessions will be available at the High School

📋 VIEW THE COMPLETE SCHEDULES:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1toU9qK1WVZ3QK86xeKt0mSgqfngjPUkt?usp=drive_link

Please arrive early, communicate with your coaches, and be ready before your team’s first game.

We are excited for another great day of learning, competing, and having fun! Please cheer positively, respect the coaches and officials, and help make this a great experience for every young athlete.

Thank you to Western Bank for supporting Panther Game Day and Cass Lake-Bena student-athletes!

GO PANTHERS! 🐾

🐾 WESTERN BANK PANTHER GAME DAY! 🐾

Our Panther Cross Country and Volleyball teams are on the road tomorrow, Thursday, October 8!

🏃 BEMIDJI CROSS COUNTRY INVITATIONAL
📍 Greenwood Golf Course

• Varsity Girls: 3:00 PM
• Boys Cross Country: 3:30 PM
• Additional Boys Race: 4:00 PM
• 7th and 8th Grade Boys: 4:30 PM
• 8th Grade Girls: 4:30 PM

🏐 PANTHER VOLLEYBALL AT NEVIS
📍 Nevis High School

• 7th Grade: 4:45 PM
• 8th Grade: 5:45 PM
• Junior Varsity: 5:45 PM
• Varsity: 6:45 PM

Good luck to all our Panther student-athletes! Compete hard, support one another, and represent Cass Lake-Bena with pride!

Thank you to Western Bank, our Game Day sponsor, for supporting Cass Lake-Bena activities!

GO PANTHERS! 🐾

#PantherPride #CLBCrossCountry #CLBVolleyball

Senior Class Meeting and Photo (Wear Black) Tomorrow!

🏈 LIGHTS ON. PANTHERS SHOW UP! 🏈 Our undefeated junior high Panthers headed to Blackduck for some Tuesday night football under the lights, and they’re coming home with another WIN! The Drakes gave us a battle, but our Panthers fought through adversity, stuck together, and pulled out a hard-earned 20–14 victory! 💪 From the full player introductions to the bright lights and all the game-night bells and whistles, our students got an experience to remember. And they made the most of their moment! Big thanks to Blackduck for making it a special night for junior high football. Proud of our Panthers for their grit, teamwork, and determination! Still undefeated. Still working. What a night to be a Panther! 🐾🔥 #PantherPride #GoPanthers #JuniorHighFootball

Attention CLB High School
🍂 Fall Special = Yearbook Savings!🍂

Don’t miss your chance to lock in your 2026–2027 Touchstones Yearbook at the special price of $65 + tax!

📸 A whole year of memories, friends, events, activities, quotes, surveys, sports, and everything that makes CLB unforgettable—all in one book.

⏰ Order by October 16 to get the $65 price!

💻 Order online at Jostens.com or pay in cash or check to Ms. Engel

Buy it now. Thank yourself later. 🐾📖

#CLBPanthers #TouchstonesYearbook #Yearbook2027 #CassLakeBena #PantherPride #YearbookMemories

PANTHERS RUN WITH THE BIG DOGS: Part 2
On the girls varsity side, Tiara Wilson battled through her first 5K dealing with a hurt ankle. She finished in 27:06/ running 8:43 a mile for her very first 5k is no joke.

Tiara is human sunshine.

She brings energy, encouragement, and humor wherever she goes. She has a way of lifting the mood of the entire program simply by being herself. It’s fun watching her step into a new sport and compete.

Tiana Wind is also a very tough athlete, she finished 97th while battling an extremely tight soleus.

The soleus muscle is a shock absorber. It absorbs up to eight times your body weight when you run. She could have dropped out.

But that’s not Tiana.

For her, the victory was refusing to quit, pushing through the discomfort, and seeing it through all the way to the finish line.

Our younger Panthers got after it, too.

Jordince Wind battled runners from Bemidji and Roseau finishing 9th in 15:44.8 (7:52 pace). She came through the finish breathing hard and feeling that familiar pain every runner learns to appreciate.

Ask any runner, there’s magic in the misery. All that hard work earned her a medal in a DEEP field.

Jacie Robertson-Lyon crossed in 18:18.4 at 9:09 per mile, running almost exactly the same time as her previous meet, except this time she did it on an even TOUGHER course.

Jacie is a joy to watch because she is always smiling and eager to improve.

For the JH boys, Gavin Fineday ran 15:41.8 (7:50) for 39th, making another huge leap from last year. His PR last season was 17:09, meaning he has cut 90 WHOLE seconds off his best time.

His confidence has grown. At practice, Gavin now wants to run with the faster athletes. He is challenging himself to find out just how good he can become.

Keegan Cooper was right behind him in 15:46.6 for 41st out of 65 runners. He started cross country a month late, but he showed up, competed, and made the most of every opportunity.

Every meet teaches you something.

The Bagley Invitational showed the Panthers can compete with some of the strongest programs around.

The Panthers don’t back down.

They bite back.

Momentum IS a beautiful thing, and it’s fun watching the Panthers carry it forward.

The fields get deeper. The names on the starting line get tougher.

Good.

That’s exactly where we want to be.

🌱 Future Educators in Action! Last week, our Introduction to Teaching college course traveled to the Itasca campus for a day of professional development with Peacemakers, giving our future educators an opportunity to learn, connect, and grow alongside other students preparing to enter the field of education. Introduction to Teaching is a new college-level course at Cass Lake-Bena, offered in partnership with Minnesota North College, and our students have already been diving into some powerful conversations about what it means to become an educator. Throughout the course, students have been exploring identity, culture, resilience, the whole child, and the many factors that shape a student’s experience in school. Most importantly, we’ve been asking a fundamental question: How do we create classrooms where every student feels seen, heard, valued, and supported? If you ask any student in this course, one of the best parts of the class is the discussions. Students are thinking critically about the kind of educators they want to become and how they can build relationships, create a sense of belonging, recognize students’ strengths, and respond to students with empathy and understanding. Part of this course also requires students to complete a field experience. Two days a week, they are working alongside a mentor teacher in an elementary or middle school classroom, getting hands-on experience and seeing what it’s really like to be in a classroom. And perhaps the most encouraging part? At their core, this group of students genuinely wants to help people in whatever career path they choose after high school. ❤️ We are excited to see where these future educators go and, someday, to welcome them back into our schools and communities as teachers, counselors, coaches, and educational leaders. 🍎📚

🏈✨ JUNIOR HIGH FOOTBALL UNDER THE LIGHTS! ✨🏈

Tonight, our Junior High Panther Football team travels to Blackduck for a special night game!

🐾 Cass Lake-Bena Panthers
🆚 Blackduck Drakes
📅 Tuesday, October 6
⏰ Kickoff: 7:00 PM
📍 Blackduck High School Football Field

This will be more than just another football game! The Panthers will get the full Friday-night experience under the lights, complete with all the bells and whistles!

Make the trip, wear your maroon and black, and help create a great atmosphere for our Junior High student-athletes. It is going to be a fun night of Panther Football!

Thank you to Western Bank, our Game Day sponsor, for supporting Cass Lake-Bena student-athletes!

GO PANTHERS! 🐾

Due to low numbers at Circle of Life there will be no 8th grade game.