Section 7AAA Basketball Preview

Dec 3

Dwight Cadwell

Section 7AAA Basketball Preview

Girls Basketball:

Cloquet Lumberjacks

The 2009-2010 Lady Lumberjacks will be returning a good core of players on this season’s roster. However, they will need to replace three starters of last year’s team: Jes Vork, Hannah Roy, Taylor Sautbine and role player Julia Nell. The Lumberjacks have Annabel Morrisroe to lead the low post game. She will be joined by Kialee Kutter who saw a lot of playing time last season as well.

Brianna Hennagin will lead the Jacks backcourt, looking to be more of a scoring threat from the outside. Katie Pappas, along with a core of younger players, should also be a contributing factor for Cloquet this season. Mary Keller, Claire Rosen, Jenna Beaupre and Sarah McMillen could all be a factor in the Lumberjacks success.

Jeff Ojanen is in his second year as a head coach and has the program heading in the right direction. He is assisted by Heidi Anderson and Randy Chalberg. Offense will be the key for Cloquet and finding a scorer or two will be the biggest variable to any success this season.

Hermantown Hawks

The Hermantown Hawks are consistently one of the best teams year in and year out in section 7AAA. Head coach Beth Clark continues to prove she is one of the best coaches in the area. This season’s team should be strong once again and contend for the section championship.

Nicole Neimi, Jessica Love and Lydia McMillen will provide senior leadership this season for the Hawks, who are looking to improve on their 16-10 record from a year ago. They will be joined by juniors Mary Neumann and Andrea Enockson and sophomore Carmen Bergstedt.

Coach Clark is looking to guide her Hawks to their fourth state playoff appearance. She will be joined on the sidelines by Eric Borndahl and Jim Frisk. Hermantown’s task of making the state tournament will have to go through two-time defending section champion Grand Rapids. They will also have to make a run against Hibbing, who has finished as section runners-up for
the past 4 seasons, and Bemidji, who joins Section 7AAA this year. Bemidji dropped a class, coming from Section 8AAAA and boasts one of the top ten players in the state in junior post Kayla Hirt.

Boys Basketball

Cloquet Lumberjacks

Head coach Steve Battaglia is excited for this season because he has a very good group of players returning to the court. The Lumberjacks, coming off a Section 7AAA championship loss to Grand Rapids, will again look to battle the Thunderhawks for the section crown.

The Thunderhawks have made a trip to the state tournament an annual event, but this season Cloquet should have a strong chance at ending the their routine trip down south. Recent division one signee Chad Calcaterra should once again lead Cloquet. He is looking to improve on his 24 points per game average from last season along with 11 rebounds per game.

Joining Calcaterra will be seniors RaRa Jones, Peter LaCourse, Connor Stowell, Tim DeFoe, Zach Zezulka, and Ben Shultz. Foreign exchange student Julius Scholtes should be an immediate contributor along with junior Andy Wappes. Battaglia feels his team’s size and experience should help them overcome some of the close game losses they have had in the past.

Hermantown Hawks

The Hermantown Hawks are looking to improve on their 6-21 record of last season. They have a strong nucleus of returning players from last year’s team and should be a better team than in seasons past.

Head coach Mike Pothast has four senior starters in Tyler Michelizzi, Zach Shade, Colton Zacharias and Michael Swartz. Those four will be joined by junior guard Cory Kucza. Along with those five, the Hawks have several underclassmen eager to step in and play.

The Hawks have an uphill battle in Section 7AAA because Grand Rapids and Cloquet appear to be the early season favorites. Duluth Central and Denfeld should be strong contenders. Two new additions to Section 7AAA, North Branch and Chisago Lakes, are also looking to make a statement in the section this season.

Dwight Cadwell can be reached at dwight@northlandsportsonline.com