The Last Supper

On the eve of MN's COVID lock-down, the gang celebrated the 2019-2020 Title IX fantasy football champions at Demi, the latest concept from Gavin Kaysen.

The food was out-of-this-world, and the customer service was like nothing we'd ever seen. Custom cocktails based on your mood, first name basis by the entire staff, personalized gifts (engraved Lombardi Trophy replicas), instant service if you even alluded to a need.  

Just incredible. No better way to head into solitary confinement than an unforgettable night on the town with your life-longest, closest friends.

Section Finals, Hopkins/Wayzata III

The nation's #1 ranked girls team, the Hopkins Royals proved once again too much to handle for Wayzata, in a sold-out Section Final game with more star power on and around the floor than I've ever seen in a high school game (11 signed D1 players between the two teams, four Timberwolves sitting court side, and basketball legends Geno Auriemma and Lindsay Whalen in the crowd).

A huge night for women's sports. So glad we we able to see it live.

Grade State, 3A

Sawyer's 3A team rolled over the competition this brief "intro-to-travel" season, going 10-0 against 3rd grade competition, and often winning games by 40+ points. They even took 2nd place in a 4th grade B tournament (lots of valuable lesson in the beating they took in that championship game). And, wrapped the season up with a 34-9 beat down of Lakeville South in the State Championship game.

They were not big, they were not tall, but they were crazy fast, relentless on defense... and had unquestionably the state's best player who averaged ~20 ppg (which is nearly 2x the average total points most 3rd grade teams score as a whole).  

Don't sleep on S though... she was the team's hustle points leader (steals, blocks, rebounds), #2 scorer and an excellent passer.

Grade State, 5A-

I could not be more proud of Evie's Wayzata 5B hoops team, and Evie individually, this season.

This team has been together since 3rd grade, was always competitive, but could never really get over the hump and had never won a tournament.  This season the group bought in to dialing up their work ethic and intensity and making "tougher, meaner, smarter" their team identity.  "Tougher" meaning far more physical, far fewer tears, and no more band-aids for scratches.  "Meaner" meaning we'd still be excellent sports and humans, but we wanted to hear teams say they didn't want to play us anymore. And, "smarter" meaning no more plays, rather an offensive system build on reading situations... and even incorporating a film session or two into the practice plan!

And man, did their commitment pay off. As a 5B-team, they beat every 5B-team they played by an average margin of 15 points.  They "played" up in a few 5A tournaments, and went 0.500 in those games, and when they lost the average margin was just -3 points.  And, the team earned the #20 overall seed for State (of over 100 MYAS Grade State programs), and was the only 5B team that got bumped up into the 5A brackets.

Evie personally made a leap this season as well, and was the team's floor general and was relied on for many of the biggest responsibilities, notably breaking the toughest presses and initiating our offense.  She led the team in assists, 3s and FT%... and was an absolute joy to coach.

What a great group of girls.  What a season.

Crosby

#GirlDad weekend in Crosby at the McBeth's cabin.  XC skiing, hoops at City Hall, (root) beers at Cuyuna Brewing, and hole-digging in frozen Rabbit Lake (I'd call it ice fishing, but we hand-dug exponentially more holes than we caught fish).