Workin' with Whalen

Speaking of greatness, E & S got in a few small group sessions with another basketball HOF'er in Lindsay Whalen via a partnership with MBT.

GOAT

Amazing to witness basketball immortality in Catlin Clark, live and in-person at Williams Arena as she broke the all-time women's scoring and Big 10 3-point career records on week... and then the all-time all-gender scoring record held for > 50 years by Pistol Pete Maravich, a must-see TV moment a few days later.

That girl is on fi-re!

2AAA Semifinals

#1 St. Peter upended #4 New Ulm and "cousins" Jordan (junior, my cousin Jeff's kid), Maddie (junior, my uncle Jay's kid and therefore MY cousin), and Brooklyn (junior, my cousin Maria's kid, who is also Brooklyn's cousin) at Gustavus, with a slew of Backers cheering them on... 

Confused?

7A Tier 1 State Champions

Sawyer, back after missing almost 2 months due to a torn ankle ligament, and team ran the table in Prior Lake to win the 7A Tier 1 Grade State tournament.

The squad, a #2-seed, knocked off Shakopee 57-39, arch-rivals Maple Grove 40-33, and Stewartville (who beat us last year by 1 in OT in the championship) 52-41, before a come-from-behind victory over Chanhassen 40-33 (down 7 with 4 min to go) in the title game.

Sawyer was a horse all weekend... shooting 15-15 from the line all tourney, and leading the team in points (20), rebounds (6) and steals (4) in the championship game.

So proud of this team. They grinded all season long to get back to that championship game, wanted it so badly, and trusted the process.

Can't wait to get this group on the floor together again next year, for a shot at a 4th title as they wrap up their youth travel careers...

(Video is of Sawyer's championship game-tying 3-pointer with a little over 3-minutes to go in the 4th)

Road to State Players-Only Banquet

Team dinner at Redstone in prep for State weekend. The girls clean up nicely, don't they! :-)

Kudos to Gianna's mom (Redstone GM) for the set-up and hook-up!

9A & JV vs. STMA

E wrapped her first HS season with 9A win and JV loss vs. STMA... with G'ma & G'Pa Maxwell in town to take it in.

9A finished the year 22-1, the JV 21-2. 

E grew, literally, as a handler, getting to the basket and defensively this season. So impressive to see her work ethic paying off. 

She was the queen of "hockey assists" initiating the break on 9A, and filled had to lead the team in FG and 3Pt %... and might've done so on the JV as well (just fewer minutes & looks). 

Keep grinding, E!

Valentines

Homemade "Punch Salad", homemade chicken fettuccini alfredo and freshly cut flowers for my lovely ladies...