MaxPreps Basketball Tour of Champions celebrates Eastview High School

Having upended Hopkins 68-63 in the MSHSL Class 4A state championship contest, the 32-0 Lightning claimed Eastview's second girls state basketball title, earned the No. 36 ranking in MaxPreps' National Rankings and played their way into the MaxPreps Xcellent 25 Writers' Poll at No. 23! Eastview, who is 199-25 over the past seven seasons, is one of just 10 girls basketball programs being honored on the Tour of Champions.

As classes were letting out at Eastview High School, parents, friends and school officials joined MaxPreps and the Minnesota Army National Guard at the school's performing arts center to celebrate Lightning girls basketball. Eastview athletic director Matt Percival welcomed the throng of fired up fans before reading a house resolution from the Minnesota Legislature that was spearheaded by State Representatives Anna Wills and Erin Maye Quade.

The resolution read, "BE IT RESOLVED by the Committee on Rules and Legislative Administration of the House of Representatives of the State of Minnesota that it congratulates the Eastview High School girls basketball team on winning the state championship."

Following a season in which the Lightning went undefeated, posted their seventh consecutive appearance in the girls state basketball tournament and claimed the school's second girls state basketball championship in five years, MaxPreps representative Rolf Erdahl declared that Eastview was not just winning basketball games, it was dominating in the state.

Sergeant Michael Goette of the Minnesota Army National Guard then stepped forward and presented the Army National Guard national ranking trophy and a nationally ranked rafter banner to head coach Molly Kasper and the state champions. "In the three years I've been the coach of this team, we have been trying to build great people, not just trying to win basketball games," Kasper answered when asked about her goals. "I inherited a team with a winning record, that knew how to win games. But I am getting back to building an EVHS family."

Congratulations to Coach Kasper and the Eastview Lightning girls basketball team on a truly remarkable season! Click here to view the Eastview TOC photo gallery and for more information about the Basketball TOC, please visit the MaxPreps Tour of Champions site.