Robbie Whitney, who coached the boys basketball team at New Life Academy to state tournaments in 2022 and 2023, has been named head coach at St. Francis, where he graduated in 2016.
For more than five decades, Bob Karn has coached baseball at St. Cloud. He graduated from the school in 1959, joined the faculty in 1969 and became head baseball coach in 1971, when he was 29 years old.
They don’t talk about it. They don’t want to brag and they also don’t want to jinx it. But here’s the real deal: The girls track team from Monticello High School has won the last two Class 2A state championships and could make it three in a row this spring.
There’s no “might” and there’s no “probably.” This was one of those epic ballgames that will be mentioned any time future discussions focus on the best games. Period. The screeching crowd, the hustling athletes, the pressure of playing on TV inside The Barn. C’mon.
The top-seeded Cherry Tigers are playing in the boys state basketball tournament for the third year in a row and their focus is on finally taking a championship trophy with them when they return to the Iron Range.
Eighty-seven years after their first trip to state, the Farmington boys basketball team made fresh by winning the Section 1 championship and advancing to the Class 4A state tournament with a sterling record of 23-6.
“I was really bummed that I couldn’t make their games, and it’s been a while since they made it to state. The community was so great when I played in Fosston and you never forget that.”
When Goodhue's Elisabeth Gadient scored in the second half of the state semifinals, the Wildcats fans were ready. It seemed like almost everyone in the crowd immediately held up identical signs with a simple message: “2000”
Coaching lifer Jim Lien realized a dream this week when the Walker-Hackensack-Akeley girls basketball team qualified for the state tournament for the first time.
Carlie Wagner was back at the girls state basketball tournament on Wednesday and she walked around with the biggest smile in town. Anybody who saw her play at state a decade ago remembers the small-town superstar from New Richland-Hartland-Ellendale-Geneva for her smile as well as her tremendous basketball skills.
