It couldn't have been a better finish to an outstanding career for
Joe Coleman of
Hopkins (Minnetonka). The 6-foot-4 senior guard had quite the run in the past week. Here's how it went:
On Wednesday, March 23, Coleman, who has signed with the University of Minnesota and is the brother of former Gophers standout Dan Coleman, was named the Star Tribune Metro Player of the Year. Coleman averaged more than 21 points and almost six rebounds per game over the course of the season for the state's best team.
Saturday, Coleman scored 22 points as Hopkins avenged its only loss of the season, defeating Eden Prairie 64-52 to win its third consecutive AAAA state championship.
Tuesday, Coleman capped it all off by being named Mr. Basketball Minnesota, given annually to the state's top senior as voted on by the Mr. Basketball Minnesota Commission. The other finalists were
Lucas Brown of Roseville,
Shelby Moats of Waconia,
Kyle Noreen of Minnesota Transitions and
Jake White of Chaska.
Coleman, who had four dunks in the state final win over Eden Prairie, had this to say after the state championship win:
"I didn't want to go to college with a loss in the state championship," Coleman said in a Star Tribune article. "That's not a good note to end on. I wanted to make sure for our school and our team that we got it done."
Coleman and company got it down all right. Hopkins finished 31-1 on the season and became the first AAAA school in Minnesota history to three-peat.
Other teams claiming state championships at the Target Center over the weekend were:
3A - Orono
2A - Perham
1A - Springfield
Here is a look at some key highlights from those games:
3A: Orono (Long Lake) 85, Columbia Heights 76Orono may not have made many headlines this season, and they may not contain a team with star power, but they are the best team in 3A after emerging in a hard-fought win over a talented and scrappy Columbia Heights team. The Spartans were led by the father-son combination of head coach Barry Wohler and son
Brady Wohler. Brady Wohler scored a game-high 23 points to help lead Orono to the state title. His father Barry was an all-state football, basketball and baseball player at Bird Island-Lake Lillian and played on back-to-back Class A state championship teams in 1980 and 1981 (Wohler also played on state championship football teams in 1979 and 1980). Barry was coached by his father, Jerry, then, and now, he got to coach his son on a state championship team.
"Orono's always kind of been a hockey town, but I feel like after this, we can maybe get some basketball pride there," Brady Wohler told the Star Tribune. "It's great that we can share this experience."
2A: Perham 45, Lourdes (Rochester) 37Every championship team has a special bond formed on the way to a state title run. For Perham, that bond was formed early this season and for good reason. In January, guard Zach Gabbard suffered a heart attack on the court during a game. Gabbard was at the state tournament and is recovering, but the scary incident created a rallying cry for the Perham Yellowjackets. Playing for Zach and with a community that rallied around the team, Perham defeated Rochester Lourdes to win the AA state championship. The player who took over for Gabbard in the starting lineup was junior Jordan Cresap. He made two key 3-pointers in the first half. Nick Tobin of Perham led all scorers with 15 points, including 10 in the second half.
Perham head coach Dave Cresap summed up the special season after the win:
"Playing basketball was a huge relief," he said. "Zach was always on our minds. So it was nice to be able to go out and run around and work some of that stress off. This means a lot to me, but it means so much more to these kids. They're the ones that made it happen."
1A: Springfield 70, Belgrade-Brooten-Elrosa 58 It was also a special weekend for Springfield guard Jesse Kieper. Not only did he help the Tigers win the Class 1A state championship with a 70-58 win over Belgrade-Brooten-Elrosen (BBE), his final point in that win - a free throw with 44 seconds remaining - put him at exactly 1,000 points in his career. It was a big win for the Southwest Minnesota school, which upended previously unbeaten BBE. Another key player in the win was Tyler Marz, a 6-foot-8, 280-pound center. Marz scored seven points and had 12 rebounds but his presence on the defensive end played a much bigger role than the final stats indicate. Marz has signed to play football at Wisconsin, but his physical play was a key to the Springfield state championship run.
