With a successful 2008-2009 basketball season in the books, the CCHS girls basketball team has been busy this summer preparing for next season. In the current age of high school basketball, it takes more than work during the regular season to have a winning season—it takes time and dedication in the summer. Most teams play in leagues in towns that are less than an hour away. Some teams hold practices daily and go to a tournament nearly every weekend. Because of our distance from everywhere it makes it more difficult to organize and get a full team to go to these things. Despite this, the girls have had a good, and busy, summer of basketball.
The off-season started early with a tournament in St. Louis Park on May 23. The girls played three games against schools from the Metro area and won 1 and lost 2. A highlight was that their win was against AAA Dassel-Cokato, an all-star team that consisted of girls from Minneapolis North and South.
The next tournament was the annual Barnum tournament on June 13. For the second year in a row, Coach TJ Super could not be there because of a wedding, so Coach John Jacobsen took the reins. The day started with a trouncing of Mesabi East, followed by a 20-point win over Duluth East. The championship pitted Barnum against the Vikings, with Barnum pulling away at the end for a 10-point win. It was the first and last time the Vikings had their full roster for a summer event and the Vikings played well together.
It wasn’t just tournaments that kept the Vikes busy. The Midwest Elite Basketball camp came to Grand Marais for three five-hour days. A staff of college coaches came to put the girls through rigorous drills and workout sessions. The coaches were impressed with the girls’ skills, but more so by their attitude. The founder of MEB, Brad Schmidt, said, “The girls listen so well and want to get better. You can tell that these girls really love the game and really do want to improve.”
The next series of games took place in Barnum against some of the best competition in the area over a couple of weeks. The Vikings played games against Floodwood, Barnum, and Braham. Floodwood got second place in Section 7A, Barnum was the third place team in state, and Braham was a state participant in class AA. TheVikings played well against all three teams with only five and six players each day.
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