Beacon burning brighter

You might have noticed, your Brookings Beacon is starting to look a little different.

Your support has enabled us to move ahead of schedule in building out this little local paper.

In addition to the high-quality color photographs and local journalism you’ve come to expect, today’s Beacon will feature a full sports section for the first time.

Please join us in welcoming Andrew Holtan as our new sports editor.

After spending the last six years plus as the sports editor at The Brookings Register, Andrew will join us full time here at the Beacon, providing the in-depth sports coverage readers have told us they want — and we know they deserve.

Andrew grew up in Eagan, Minn., and graduated high school there in 2014. He’s a Minnesota fan through and through. The Vikings, Timberwolves and Gophers top his fandom list, but the Twins and Wild grab his attention when they put a successful product out.

After high school, Andrew came to Brookings and went to college at South Dakota State. He first became interested in SDSU after watching Nate Wolters and the Jackrabbits hoops team in the NCAA Tournament. He fell in love after a tour and investigating the SDSU journalism program, and was intrigued by the idea of covering Division I athletics while in college.

Holtan got a taste of covering major sporting events right away — he covered the Summit League Tournament his freshman year for The Collegian and then traveled to Spokane, Wash., with the men’s basketball team for the NCAA Tournament in 2016.

Holtan served as sports editor of The Collegian during his junior and senior years of college. Then, in 2019, he took a job with the Register and was with them until now.

During his tenure, he covered everything from NCAA Tournaments and FCS National Championships to high school sports and legion baseball.

Holtan says he’s excited for this new opportunity to tell more stories about the people and athletes in the Brookings community. Brookings has become his home away from home and he looks forward to continuing to work here.

Send Holtan news and sports tips to Sports@BrookingsBeacon.com.

You may have noticed another frequent byline on the Beacon cover, continuing today with her feature on Brookings High School Teacher of the Year Scott Miller.

Amy Cecil Holm grew up in Brookings and graduated from BHS in 1988. She was interested in writing from an early age, and worked with her father, Chuck Cecil, at his newspapers (RFD News Group) throughout high school and college.

She graduated from SDSU in 1992 with a bachelor’s degree in journalism, then attended Minnesota State University, Mankato, where she earned a master’s degree in English with a concentration in creative writing.

Holm worked as a college writing instructor for more than thirty years, and she’s also been a journalist, technical writer and copy editor along the way. She currently works remotely as a line editor, copy editor and proofreader for Allegory Editing, Seattle, Wash., in addition to her freelance work for the Brookings Beacon.

Her husband, Jeff Holm, is also a 1988 BHS graduate and was a college baseball coach for many years before moving into athletic administration. He is the associate athletic director for facilities and operations at SDSU. They have two sons, Jay (24) and Charlie (22).

Holm and Holtan join myself and my wife, Nichole, as regular contributors — along with our fantastic group of semi-regular writers.

Special thanks to just some of those — Mark Johnsen and Stuie Lewis, who give us our weekly dose of religion; Bob Burns, who regularly sends us his thoughts on politics national and local; Chuck Berry, who wrote his first outdoors piece for us this week; Ann Volin at the Rotary Club, who shares rundowns of their meetings weekly; and all the other folks who so generously send us articles, news releases, tips and questions for us to run down.

Truly, it takes a village, and though I have said it before — it never fails to amaze me how much this endeavor truly feels like a local project.

If you’ve been waiting a while to decide on a subscription — now’s the time. Head on over to BrookingsBeacon.com and take your pick of offerings. If you are waiting for me to come see you about some advertising, please drop me a line at BrookingsBeacon@gmail.com — with hockey season ending and some help on board, I might just have some time.

And if you want to help in any way, please, reach out. I want this paper to be ours — to tell our stories, to keep us informed, to reflect our community.

Three months in and you all have helped us make that a reality.

I can’t wait to see where we all go from here.

Onward!