Playing tight defense, Bekah Laky was also a force on the boards, passed the ball well and made big points for the team when they needed her to shoot.
As the Viking girls’ basketball season wrapped up, the Cook County News-Herald asked Cook County Vikings’ Head Coach T.J. Super about his three graduating seniors, Molly Zafft, Ashley Deschampe and Bekah Laky.
Coach Super said, “Molly started as a freshman who struggled to do any of the little things that make basketball players good, although we could see she had the athleticism to flourish in our program. We saw her develop over the years and then last summer before her senior season, she was in the gym and in the weight room and made huge strides. She was dedicated, improved, and played well in our summer tournaments. She was quickly developing into our No. 2 scorer and was looking forward to a promising year. After a shoulder injury in the fall, we went into the season knowing she would struggle with it but didn’t know to what extent. She played four games and struggled with the lack of mobility and pain and went with it. In our third game, trailing by 15 to McGregor, she scored 17 points in the second half to help complete the comeback, showing the explosiveness that she had. [That was Molly’s final game. Her season ended with shoulder surgery].
Molly Zafft’s season was cut short by injuries but during her tenure with the Vikings she was a strong player who infected the team with her athleticism and upbeat nature.
“Molly will be going to Winona State and may be running track there. She is a fantastic athlete, student, and teammate.
“Bekah has been a three year varsity player and has started for three years after filling in for Essa (Jacobsen) after her career-ending injury. Bekah is a player who does everything on the court very well. She has played outside the previous seasons before moving into her most comfortable position under the basket this year. She still plays some guard, especially helping us against pressure, but the majority of her points have come from close range. She is a good defensive player and one of our leaders on the court. Her value is almost always underappreciated by anyone watching our team, as her stats do not do justice to the type of player she is.
Ashley Deschampe was the Polar League player of the year and this year became the Vikings’ all-time leading scorer. Ashley will be missed as much for her leadership as her good nature.
“She is also a joker of a rather quiet team and is a great person. She is thoughtful and always doing something for someone else. She plays about 34 minutes a game and does so much for the team, she will be sorely missed next year.
“What can be said about (Ashley Deschampe) Dish? I could see when she was a seventh-grader; my first year here, that this kid was special. She didn’t have a good-looking shot and she wasn’t necessarily smooth but she had the ‘it’ factor. I could tell right away she was a scorer and when she played varsity as an eighthgrader, at times she was our leading scorer, although she wasn’t mentally tough enough to handle playing full time varsity.
“We worked through that and she hasn’t not started since, leading the team in scoring every year she was in high school. Had she not played with two 1,000-point scorers and two other girls with about 900 points, she probably would have put up ridiculous scoring numbers in her career.
“She hasn’t settled, though, to being just a good player, she has worked very, very hard to become the player she is today. She holds many CCHS weight lifting records as well as many basketball records. She has spent more time in the gym than any other player I’ve been around and it has produced a great player. She has become a mentally tough, mature player who knows what it takes to win and to be a great teammate.
“It will be impossible to replace the skills and intangibles she has brought to this basketball program.”
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