Kim’s Tae Kwon Do announced the following students from Chanhassen and Eden Prairie achieved black belt ranks in the June promotional testing: Ian Leary, Daniel Wang, Faysal Gharwal, Jake Engel and Jennifer Doan (not pictured).
The ACTA Minnesota and Kim’s Tae Kwon Do (www.tae-kwon-do.org) operate four clubs in the Twin Cities – Life Time Fitness in Chanhassen, Life Time Fitness in Eden Prairie, Life Time Athletic Club in Eden Prairie and at the Chanhassen Recreation Center. Classes are open to all ages 7 and older.

Hennepin County Commissioner Mike Opat, District 1, will discuss boys' literacy at the Minnesota Twins game this Saturday, July 19, according to a news release. Jon Scieszka — children's author, founder of the www.guysread.com national literacy initiative, and the National Ambassador for Young People's Literature — is flying in from New York to "make some noise for boys" at the Twins game on July 20.

Barring a rain out, Friday will be the unofficial grand opening of the brand new Round Lake Baseball Stadium, you know, that fancy field with the welcoming scoreboard you see as you drive by on Eden Prairie Road.

The first team to use this field will be the back-to-back-to-back-to-back state champion Eden Prairie American Legion team.

Players interested in joining the Eden Prairie Soccer Club for the 2008/09 seasons should attend tryouts in August. Tryouts for girls U11-U17 teams will be held Sunday Aug. 3; tryouts for bys U11-U17 teams will be held Saturday Aug. 9. All tryouts will be held at Franlo Park; the fee is $25. For further details, including registration materials, go to www.epsoccerclub.com.

In March, Sam Brancale won a 77-pound School Boy Folkstyle National Championship.

When you combine that title with the Freestyle and Greco-Roman titles he had won the year before, the soon-to-be Eden Prairie ninth-grader was the defending national champion in wrestling’s three disciplines.