Kallie Theisen is our Player of the Summer for the Class of 2019
It turns out that we caught Kallie Theisen and her Crossfire 10th Elite (CFE, sometimes referred to as Crossfire Theisen) team at low ebb at the North Tartan Meltdown and Super Showcase, after a 58-42 loss to North Tartan TRU.…
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Continue ReadingIt turns out that we caught Kallie Theisen and her Crossfire 10th Elite (CFE, sometimes referred to as Crossfire Theisen) team at low ebb at the North Tartan Meltdown and Super Showcase, after a 58-42 loss to North Tartan TRU. Coach Ken Theisen thought his team was 28-12 at that point. That’s a record a lot of teams would like to have, of course, but CFE was coming off an amazing 44-4 record the previous year. So it had turned into a bit of a slog.
But, that was then, and this is now. Crossfire suddenly caught fire and finished the 2017 summer season on a 7-0 run with signature wins over North Tartan 10th EYBL and North Tartan 9th.
Then, yesterday, Sunday, August 13, Kallie Theisen decided that she will play for North Tartan 11th EYBL and coach Gerard Coury next summer. This was confirmed by Crossfire club director Rob Robertson, by people at North Tartan and by a couple of Theisen’s former Crossfire teammates. Previously, Kallie’s dad and Crossfire coach Ken had said that Kallie would be deciding whether to go to Tartan or stay with the Crossfire on Sunday, which is what she did.
Going Out With A Bang!
Kallie’s Crossfire career, which includes 2 state championships but which would end 2 week’s later with yesterday’s announcement, closed out on a high note. CFE closed out the Meltdown with a pair of close wins over All Nebraska Attack 10th Elite 51-48 and then arch-rival Fury 2019 Blue 46-41 to take 5th place in the Whalen 2 Division.
Then it was on to Ames, IA, for the Battle of the Best where CFE won its pool at 4-0 with a pair of amazing wins. First, 41-37 over North Tartan 10th EYBL, who had won the state AAU championship in April—right, the AAU championship that CFE had won the previous 2 years. Theisen scored 21 points with 12 boards and 6 blocks in that game. Then, 58-57 win over All Iowa Attack Nike in which AIA led by 4 and had the ball with 10 seconds left! A Taylie Scott steal and a Hannah Purcell 3 got CFE within one. Then, after a missed AIA FT, Kallie Theisen was fouled on a half-court 3 and made 2 FT for the win. Theisen finished with 13 points, 14 rebounds and 6 assists.
In the final CFE beat the unbeatable North Tartan 9th 38-36 as Theisen scored 12, grabbed 12 boards and blocked 4 shots. In 6 games at Ames, she averaged 14 points, 11 boards and 4 blocks. In addition, according to coach Theisen, she anchors the CFE defense inside.
Theisen is no stranger to big games, of course, with those 2 AAU champioships. She also plays for Wayzata in the winter, in case you didn’t know. Last winter the Trojans went 22-7, losing to eventual state runner-up Hopkins 81-74 in the Section 6AAAA final after shocking the Royals by taking 41-29 halftime lead. Theisen scored 20 in that game.
So, anyway, we caught up to Kallie at the Meltdown and asked her a few questions and also informed her that she was Northstar Girls Hoops Player of the Year for the summer of 2017 and in her age class of 2019.
What were your goals for this summer, and how are you progressing on those goals?
Kallie: I wanted to come into the summer and improve my game (as well as) excel at the aspects that I’ve already worked on, and I think I did a pretty good job of that. I’ve had some highs and lows but overall I’ve played pretty well. I’ve shot pretty well. So it’s gone pretty well.
Coach says you’re 28-12 now after going 44-4 last year. How has this year been different?
We’ve played a lot of tough teams, which is good, to play tough competition. And we’re not going to surprise anybody anymore. They know who Crossfire is and that makes it a little more challenging. We’ve had some games that we weren’t able to close out, that we were able to do last year. But, overall we’ve played really hard and really well.
So teams are sitting back in the lane and waiting to defend you in the land a little stronger?
Yeah, a little bit more.
The summer season is almost over. You’ve played a lot of basketball. Are you planning on getting some rest now?
No, not really. We have high school things in the morning for the summer…working out. Then we have a couple weeks (off), then we have Breakdown in the fall. So a couple weeks but otherwise no, not really.
And, you’re coming out of the summer season healthy?
The first half of July I was pretty sore, but nothing major.