On Tuesday, April 18th MaxPreps visited
Appleton North (Appleton, Wis.) High School to honor their girls' basketball team on the 12th Annual MaxPreps Tour of Champions presented by the Army National Guard. This marks the 11th year that we are presenting this award to the top basketball teams across the nation. MaxPreps only selects 10 girls' basketball teams out of over 20,000 each year. Appleton North is certainly a worthy team to celebrate as they are ranked No. 28 in the nation by MaxPreps and won the Wisconsin Division 1 state championship. Furthermore, Appleton North completed a perfect, undefeated 28-0 season when the Lightning drubbed DePere, 49-34, on March 11th to capture their first ever Wisconsin Division 1 state championship since the school opened its doors in 1996!
Photo By Precision Sports Entertainment
To start the presentation, MaxPreps representative Ray Dungee recapped their tremendous season, explained the MaxPreps ranking system and thanked the Army National Guard for their partnership. Next, Ray introduced Sergeant First Class Chad Nimmer who had coached against this amazing team. He started his speech off by pointing out the shared character traits of a championship team and the Army National Guard, which included teamwork, dedication, commitment to one cause, perseverance and the pursuit of excellence. Then SFC Nimmer was proud to hand Head Coach Joe Russom the well-deserved Army National Guard national ranking trophy, which consists of the Minuteman statue.
Coach Russom was truly grateful as he received the "Minuteman" trophy and mentioned that he was really looking forward to next season and hopefully another invitation on the Tour of Champions. Lastly, he expressed his gratitude and thanked MaxPreps and the Army National Guard for this prestigious award and national recognition.
Congratulations Coach Russom and the Appleton North Girls Basketball team on a great season and first ever State Championship!
Click
here to view the Appleton North TOC photo gallery and for more information about the Basketball TOC, please visit the
MaxPreps Tour of Champions site.
Photo By Precision Sports Entertainment
