5A @ Farmington

Sawyer's crew, feeling pressure to keep up with the WGBA "Joneses", tried their hand at "playing up" and went 2-1 in the 6B division at Farmington, knocking off Century and St. Paul before losing to New Prague in the championship (coached by my old college roommate Jesse... and reinitiating plenty of hardcourt smack talk that had been on ice for a few years).

Small world. Fun opportunity!

7A @ Farmington

E's team ran the table at Farmington in the 8A bracket, most notably knocking off one of the only two teams who has beat them this season (Forest Lake, the #1 seed in next weekend's "Tier 1" 8A State Tournament).

Xmas with G'pa Tom

Rescheduled 4X due to someone somewhere with Covid, we FINALLY had our Christmas celebration with Grandpa Tom... in February!

Skating, taco bar, a flurry of gifts and some overdue catching up with the fam'... and, the Xmas 2022 is just 10 months away!

5A @ Waconia

Weird "1st place" finish for Sawyer's squad at Waconia, after finding themselves on top of a complicated tie-breaker analysis. The team beat Chan and Waconia, but lost to Lakeville North (that series is now 2-2).

Sawyer may have had one of her best games at the FT line and finishing at the rim vs. Waconia...

7A @ Waconia

E & team went 1-2 in Waconia, the two losses coming against the state's #1 and #2 seeded 8A teams, Waconia and Forest Lake, respectively... and fought tooth & nail against each. They'll get one more shot at FL in Farmington prior to state, and I wouldn't bet against them!

GVL

Covid took our annual Xmas/New Year's Grand View Lodge family vacation from us, but a random January free weekend provided an opportunity to make it up.

A quick one, just Friday afternoon to Sunday morning... but, the trip was the escape we needed.

Hockey, Zorbaz, outdoor hot tubing, downhill skiing (Ski Gull), Cowboy's, very brief hike of Lindbergh State Park and an anti-climatic hayride to check out the World's Largest Ice Fishing Tournament... and some early-to-bed/late-to-rise R&R.

7A @ Orono

E's 7A squad brought home another gold in Orono, knocking off tough EP 8A and Orono 8A and OMGBAA 8A.

E keeps grinding, finding her shot and working on throwing herself physically into the demo derby that is 8A girls hoops these days...

5A @ Chaska

5A woke up on the wrong side of the bed for the Waconia Classic, barely beating Shako and losing to Edina before pulling it together against Prior Lake in the 3rd place game.

Sawyer's best stretch was an 8-0 run down in the post to open the second half vs. Shako. Fun to see her learning to play with her back to the basket and having some in-game success with it.