Esko Basketball Wins State Award

Apr 6

Dwight Cadwell-NSO

The Minnesota Coaches Association honored the Esko girls basketball team for academic excellence. The award recognizes teams with the highest accumulated grade point average within all four classes in each section. This year, Esko was named the state academic champion in Class AA.

The Esko girls were the Section 7AA team champion with an accumulated grade point average of 3.865. The Eskomos GPA was second in the state only to Woodbury in Class AAAA, who had a combined GPA of 3.882

Esko girls basketball coach Scott Antonutti told NSO, “It was a great season on the court (23-5) having all but one loss coming to state tournament bound teams, but the attitude and effort of these girls made it exceptionally fun to be around them. All of these girls will be successful in life because of their work ethic and desire to succeed. They are great role models for all student – athletes in our school. I am proud to say I had the opportunity to coach them. “

Esko Athletic Director Chad Stoskopf is also very proud of this group, stating, “These girls exemplify what it means to be a student – athlete.”

Esko also had four players make the Individual Academic All -State Team. Kelsey Saralampi, Kelli Rengo, Amber Jubie, and Farrah Wirtz were recognized for this honor. Only seniors with GPA’s above 3.8 qualify for this recognition. Several Esko underclassmen maintained a GPA above 3.8 as well.

In Class A, Heritage Christian Academy was named the State Academic Team champion. Waconia was named the Class AAA champion, and in Class AAAA, it was Woodbury. The other schools that were winners at the section level for Section 7 were Cook in Class A, Grand Rapids in Class AAA, and Cambridge in Class AAAA.

Northland Sports Online would like to congratulate the Lady Eskomos on winning this award and being great role models for all student athletes.

Dwight Cadwell can be reached at dwight@northlandsportsonline.com