Fresh faces we liked at the Great 8 Showcase

Take a bow ladies. Your debut on the big stage is about to draw rave reviews. North Tartan South East entered the spotlight for the first time last weekend at the Great 8 Showcase in Ames. The North Tartan brand is not new, of course. The club has probably had more impact on Minnesota girls basketball over the years than any other. The South East version, however, is a new twist. Based in Rochester, the old Minnesota Rage squads have now morphed into North Tartan SE and they made plenty of noise in Iowa. The 2022 version, which also includes talent from the 2023 and 2024 classes, went undefeated in Ames and the team’s top players drew plenty of notice. The one who captured our attention first was incoming junior <strong>Kennedy Speer</strong> of Rochester Century. <strong>Kennedy Speer, North Tartan South East 2022</strong> When I sat down courtside for my first look at the NTSE squad it was Speer who was the first athlete I was drawn to. She is long and lean and athletic, three key attributes that scouts look for right away. The 2022 prospect is a three-sport athlete who earned All-Big 9 honors in cross country and track and field. It’s not difficult to see why. She is a natural athlete who runs the floor at pace and plays the game in fluid motion. Speer has a big motor and can run all day long, wearing out her opponents in the process. She’s about 5’10 and plenty long, too. She is versatile, playing the 1 through 4 spots for North Tartan and contributing plenty at both ends of the floor. Speer was averaging about 6 points and 5 rebounds per game for Century this winter before coming down with pneumonia. She never quite recovered before the high school season ended but she is most definitely back in form now. Speer averaged over 11 ppg this weekend and looked every bit like a player we need to pay more attention to. <strong>Paige Klug, North Tartan SE 2022</strong> North Tartan South East scored three close wins over the weekend, defeating West Central United from Alexandria by a basket, the Wisconsin Playmakers by four, and Iowa Prep by three before losing by one to Air Minnesota. One of the big reasons for the team’s success was <strong>Paige Klug</strong>. The 5’10 guard is a 2023 prospect out of Caledonia. She has very long arms and good athleticism. Paige averaged nearly 11 points per game in Iowa with plenty of her production coming from dialing long distance. She is a prototypical shooting guard, the kind of player who excels when there is just enough space and time to launch a rocket. Rotate the ball to Klug and watch it land in the cylinder. If the defender closes out she can beat her girl one-on-one and score at the rim. Klug is one of three freshmen from Caledonia who impressed at the Great 8 as guards <strong>Alexis Schroeder</strong> of NTSE and <strong>Ava Privet</strong> of the Playmakers also looked good, too. We’ll have information on both of them in the days ahead. <strong>Cassidy Shute, Air Minnesota 9th</strong> The third player among our top fresh faces from the Great 8 Showcase also hales from Southern Minnesota. <strong>Cassidy Shute</strong> of Austin isn’t entirely new to readers of Prep Girls Hoops. We profiled her back in April in one of our many video evaluation stories. The 5’7 Shute plays the game with a ton of effort and energy. She attacks the basket off the bounce and can pull up and hit the mid-range shot with a high degree of accuracy. She can also knock shots down from beyond the arc. Even more importantly Cassidy is a strong defender who is usually assigned the task of guarding the opponent’s best player. She doesn’t score a ton but her contributions are significant. Shute is a workhorse who did double duty this weekend. Although her primary role was with Air Minnesota’s 9th grade group, which won its division, she also suited up with the Rochester-based juniors. This past winter her progression followed a similar path as Cassidy started out on JV but gradually become the program’s most improved player and worked her way into the varsity lineup where she is almost certain to stay. <strong>Zaya Esterberg, Minnesota Comets 2023 Elite</strong> Where do they all come from? That’s the question I was asking myself about the Knights of St. Albertville this weekend as I was watching yet another impressive young player from Kent Hamre’s squad. <strong>Zara Esterberg</strong> is an incoming sophomore who plays for the Comets’ top 2023 team, the one that features [player_tooltip player_id="108304" first="Maren" last="Westin"] and [player_tooltip player_id="108338" first="Dani" last="Nuest"] and <strong>Ayla Brown</strong> of Becker. Zaya was a raging bull on the court. She is strong for her age, with a big frame and the kind of hunger for the ball you just can’t measure. She frequently drove to the basket through contact. Although the finish wasn’t always there you could certainly see the potential. Esterberg is a pit bull with a high motor. She’s also a bit of a gambler, the type of risk/reward player who can win a game for you in the clutch or hand it to the opponent on a silver platter. Esterberg appears to have no shortage of self-confidence – sometimes a little too much! – and Hamre says she will never be outworked. Once the coach can reign her in a little and polish this potential gem, Zaya will be a player to be reckoned with. <strong>Madi Wodele, Minnesota Impact</strong> There were a lot of familiar faces when the Minnesota Impact took to the floor in Iowa for the first time. The club name might be new but our familiarity is due to the fact that five of the players on the roster played for the Minnesota Stars last summer as members of the club’s then-Wolyniec, now-Knight 2023 team. Who knows exactly what went down that led to the switch but <strong>Ella Avery</strong> of St. Croix Lutheran, <strong>Kyra Giffen</strong> of Grand Rapids and a trio of Eastview High School teammates – <strong>Claire Pepin</strong>, <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="148336" first="Kylie" last="Smith"]</strong> and <strong>Madi Wodele</strong> – showed up in Iowa wearing Impact jerseys. It was Wodele who intrigued us the most. At 6 feet tall, she is long and lean and athletic. She showed plenty of bounce and was really dialed in to what was happening on the court. At this point she’s quite thin, and clearly needs to gain a lot of strength, but time should take care of that requirement. Like Pepin and Smith, Wodele is part of a crop of 9th graders in a very young Lightning lineup that took its lumps this past season but could be a force in the future. She made very limited varsity appearances but looked good in Ames as the Impact won their first three games of the weekend before falling to Air Minnesota 9th by a point in the final. <strong>BONUS SELECTION</strong> <strong>Maddyn Greenway, North Tartan 2026</strong> We generally don’t write about 7th graders. The kids coming out of 6th grade are nearly always off our radar, as well. That’s fine with me as we already have too many quality prospects to keep track of and there is no rush to thrust kids into the spotlight before they have even entered junior high. In this case we’re going to make one very large exception because guard <strong>Maddyn Greenway</strong> of Wayzata is going to be a stud. I was watching Jake Kuppe’s 6th grade North Tartan team on Friday morning and Greenway was everywhere. She is one of the most athletic players we have seen in a very long time and has the well-honed skills to match. To say she was dynamic does not do the girl justice. During the game I received a text message from a D1 college coach I communicate with on a regular basis who was watching the game online. “Who is #30 on Jake K’s 6th grade team?” he wrote. “Wow! She’s good!!!” Yep, she is. I’m pretty sure you can’t offer scholarships to kids in elementary school but anyone who sees Greenway will surely be tempted. Not to worry, though, because there will likely be plenty of suitors when the time comes. In case you are wondering where Greenway acquired her athletic pedigree you should know that Maddyn is the daughter of a former Minnesota Vikings great by the name of Chad.