Not Everybody Melted

Marc Hugunin

July 28, 2017 @ 06:30 PM

Not all eyes were on the North Tartan Meltdown last week. Some were on Bloomington Kennedy where the Under Armour Challenge was Under Way. The MN Stars stood up for local pride against many of the top-ranked adidas-affiliated clubs, including the Wisconsin Flight, Arkansas Banshees and Texas Elite, each of which sent a full complement of clubs. It was a field of 70-some teams compared to 180+ at the Meltdown but, according to Stars coach Josh Hersch, it had "as good of top tier talent as the Meltdown." The Stars came away with a record, as best as I could determine, of 34 wins and 19 losses. 5 Stars teams won their division, and the MN Nice 17U did, too. Let’s take things one division at a time. High School Black Stars 11 Hersch won the top division against at least 2 of the top-rated adidas-affiliated teams in the country. Now, granted, that’s not a huge pool compared to the Nike world. But, still, one of the victims was the Texas Elite (or, more properly, Texas Elite 17 adidas Prime) by a score of 62-60. The Texas Elite had lost just one game the entire season up until then. According to coach Hersch, they had 6 high D1s including an Arizona post who abused the Stars all game long, and also 2 Oklahoma guards and another Arkansas commit. “It was as intense of a game, as well played, as back and forth, as I’ve been a part of,” coach Josh Hersch told us. Heaven Hamling made the gamewinner with a bomb from the corner. In the same division, Stars DeSart went 2-2 and Suns R. Long 0-4. Both Stars teams defeated Suns R. Long, Hersch 70-52, DeSart 46-29. High School Blue The MN Nice 17U team swept through this division at 4-0, which had to mean that there was a Yokie Lee sighting. Too bad more of you folks didn’t get out to see her as she doesn’t get to the metro a whole lot. But, as you know, you’re going to have a tough time finding a box score for any of its wins, but we know that they came by an average score of 53-36. Suns Kietzer finished 2nd here at 3-1. They didn’t play the Nice but the they both played 3rd place CBC adidas Gauntlet. The Nice won 53-49, the Suns lost 61-38. High School Green Nice 16U went 2-1, Stars Vogelsberg 1-3 and Suns Fassett 0-4. Nobody won anything that you’d be tempted to melt down (get it?). High School Red Stars Amundson won the division despite two losses and a 3-2 record. But, one of the losses was an exhibition loss to Texas Elite adidas Gauntlet Premiere 59-57. Suns Jefferson went 2-1, Suns Wilson 1-3 and Lady Get Shook Turner 0-4. Stars Amundson defeated LGST 75-26. High School White Okay, we’re starting to run out of colors here. But Stars Nelson came through in 2nd place at 3-1, with a 56-50 loss to Texas Elite 17 adidas Gauntlet Choice. Stars Walters went 0-3. 9th Blue Stars Antl went 4-0, Stars McAlpine went 3-1 and Suns Long/Michaud went 1-3. Antl defeated the Suns 56-27, McAlpine 33-23. 9th Green Stars Kolden went 3-0 against an all-local division. They beat Lady Get Shook McMillan Black 48-43, Stars Blascziek 47-46 and Suns Froehlich 72-33. Blascziek went 2-2, Stars Voyce 1-3, LGSMB 1-3 and the Suns 0-4. 9th Red Coach Josh Hersch took a 2nd division, going 4-0 with his youngsters. Stars Zabel went 1-3. Up Next So, now, the Stars will strap ‘em on one more time before finally calling it a summer. They’ll be at another UA Challenge in Ankeny, IA, this week. Oddly enough, North Tartan 9th Coley will also be there. Meanwhile, the bigger event is up the road in Ames—the Battle of the Best. Fury and Tartan go at it one more time, while the Metro Stars Wiese wrap things up at The National Championships (that’s their capital T on The, not ours) in Atlanta. Otherwise, most MN club teams have already packed up their gear for the season. After about 36 hours of rest, they’ll be playing here and there with their high school teams or, well, somebody. Wouldn’t want to take a chance on getting rusty. And, in fact, tryouts for next summer’s teams are now approaching like the light at the end of the tunnel. More on that later.