Class AA Player of the Year & All-State Team

It has been awesome this week watching so many Minnesota athletes have success at the next level – from Lauren Jensen’s dagger three for Creighton to Hannah Sjerven’s excellence for South Dakota to Alyssa Ustby’s performance on the big stage for North Carolina. It fills you with pride when you actually know the players standing out on the national stage. That’s how Gerard Coury felt watching South Dakota State commit [player_tooltip player_id="30148" first="Ellie" last="Colbeck"]’s masterful performance last weekend on behalf of Fergus Falls in the Class AA State Championship game. Colbeck’s 41-point night was as fine a display of individual talent and effort as you will ever see. For Coury, who coached Colbeck in her final summer of AAU basketball at North Tartan, it was a thrilling moment. “She refused to let her team lose,” Coury said. “Whatever it took for her team to be successful she was willing to do it. She’s not only willing to do it but she gets things done. She has this fearlessness, this calmness about her. Watching her facial expression, it never changed once. That’s what was so impressive. Nothing got to her. She never got rattled.” The performance drew plenty of notice at the state tournament, but for those of us who have watched Colbeck over the years it did not come as a surprise at all. It was merely the cherry on top of a wonderful career, both in high school and AAU. As a result we are pleased to name Ellie as our Prep Girls Hoops Class AA Player of the Year. Last summer, after playing the majority of her AAU career with West Central United, Colbeck joined North Tartan to test herself on the EYBL circuit. The pace of play is light years beyond high school basketball, and the level of opponents is off the charts. But Colbeck quickly figured out how to raise her game to compete against the true elite. That experience, in turn, made her into a much better high school player this season, one who was more versatile, more physical and overall more effective than she had been in the past. “You can’t take credit for it but you can definitely enjoy having a front row seat for a kid like that,” Coury said. “We saw her make plays against some of the best players in the country. She didn’t get as many shot attempts as she did with her high school team but we saw that calmness, that drive, that fearlessness, against some very special basketball players. It didn’t matter what time the game was, it didn’t matter who we were playing or when or where, nothing gets to her. Some kids get rattled. Not Ellie... Coming in last year I knew she was a good basketball player but I didn’t know what she had inside of her. I didn’t know about that drive. I didn’t know about the physical and mental toughness that she has... That’s the stuff that you can’t use a stat to measure.” <img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-187491" src="https://prephoops-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/pgh/uploads/2020/07/Natalie-Bremer-201x300.jpg" alt="" width="201" height="300" /> <strong>RUNNER-UP</strong> [player_tooltip player_id="57939" first="Natalie" last="Bremer"] <strong>– 2022 guard, Lake City (MSU-Mankato)</strong> The same things we said about Ellie can be said about Natalie. If there was such a thing as a “franchise player” in high school basketball, that’s what Bremer has been at Lake City. Yes, she has rewritten the record books. Yes she has taken the team to new levels of success. Yes she has won so many games in so many different ways on so many different occasions through shear will and effort. What Bremer will most be remembered for, however, is how she changed the culture of Tigers basketball. Natalie is a winner and she leaves her high school program in a much better state than it was when she arrived. This was an incredible season in Class AA. In reality, there could have been multiple Players of the Year, including 8th grader [player_tooltip player_id="252381" first="Maddyn" last="Greenway"] of Providence Academy. While Colbeck and Bremer are at the end of their high school careers, Greenway is just getting started. How many 8th graders lead their team to a State Championship? In recent memory <strong>Katie Borowicz</strong> of Roseau comes to mind, but that’s the only one I can recall. Congrats to all of the All-State players. You’ve earned your stripes. <strong>CLASS AA ALL-STATE TEAM</strong> <strong>1st team</strong> <ul> <li>[player_tooltip player_id="30148" first="Ellie" last="Colbeck"] – 2022 guard, Fergus Falls (South Dakota State)</li> <li>[player_tooltip player_id="57939" first="Natalie" last="Bremer"] – 2022 guard, Lake City (MSU-Mankato)</li> <li>[player_tooltip player_id="252379" first="Addison" last="Mack"] – 2025 guard, Minnehaha Academy</li> <li>[player_tooltip player_id="252381" first="Maddyn" last="Greenway"] – 2026 guard, Providence Academy</li> <li>[player_tooltip player_id="205310" first="Tori" last="Oehrlein"] – 2026 guard, Crosby-Ironton</li> </ul> <strong>2nd team</strong> <ul> <li>[player_tooltip player_id="57963" first="Maria" last="Counts"] – 2022 forward, Providence Academy</li> <li>[player_tooltip player_id="148338" first="Grace" last="Counts"] – 2023 forward, Providence Academy</li> <li>[player_tooltip player_id="302256" first="Avery" last="Koenen"] – 2023 forward, Montevideo (North Dakota State)</li> <li>[player_tooltip player_id="178263" first="Laura" last="Hauge"] – 2024 guard, St. Croix Lutheran</li> <li>[player_tooltip player_id="322999" first="Jocelyn" last="Land"] – 2024 forward, Holy Family</li> </ul> <strong>Honorable Mentions</strong> <ul> <li>[player_tooltip player_id="109125" first="CJ" last="Adamson"] – 2022 guard, Rochester Lourdes (Augustana)</li> <li>[player_tooltip player_id="109127" first="Nicole" last="Bowlin"] – 2022 guard, Holy Family (Colorado Christian)</li> <li>[player_tooltip player_id="109134" first="Charita" last="Lewis"] – 2022 guard, Minnehaha Academy (ND Science)</li> <li>[player_tooltip player_id="109156" first="Natalie" last="Mikrot"] – 2022 guard, Moose Lake-Willow River (UM-Crookston)</li> <li>[player_tooltip player_id="109159" first="Malia" last="Nelson"] – 2022 guard, Dover-Eyota (Winona State)</li> <li>[player_tooltip player_id="109137" first="Tori" last="Ratz"] – 2022 guard, Fergus Falls (MSU-Moorhead)</li> <li>[player_tooltip player_id="147454" first="Abbie" last="Riederer"] – 2022 guard, Minnesota Valley Lutheran (Upper Iowa)</li> <li>[player_tooltip player_id="109167" first="London" last="Salberg-Thornton"] – 2022 forward, Maranatha (Briar Cliff)</li> <li>[player_tooltip player_id="108335" first="Vivica" last="Bretton"] – 2023 guard, Rochester Lourdes</li> <li>[player_tooltip player_id="186128" first="Jenna" last="Gapinski-Vogt"] – 2023 forward, Sauk Centre</li> <li>[player_tooltip player_id="108315" first="Sophi" last="Hall"] – 2023 guard, Holy Family (Providence)</li> <li>[player_tooltip player_id="148319" first="Olivia" last="Harazin"] – 2023 guard, Lake Crystal-Wellcome Memorial</li> <li>[player_tooltip player_id="302260" first="Tori" last="Miller"] – 2023 forward, Goodhue</li> <li>[player_tooltip player_id="302273" first="Abigail" last="O’Reilly"] – 2023 forward, Plainview-Elgin-Millville</li> <li>[player_tooltip player_id="302307" first="Elisabeth" last="Gadient"] – 2024 guard, Goodhue</li> <li>[player_tooltip player_id="302300" first="Kylan" last="Gerads"] – 2024 forward, Albany</li> <li>[player_tooltip player_id="304921" first="Claire" last="McGregor"] – 2024 guard, Maple River</li> <li>[player_tooltip player_id="302297" first="Alyssa" last="Sand"] –  2024 forward, Albany</li> <li>[player_tooltip player_id="178271" first="Willow" last="Thiel"] – 2024 forward, Perham</li> <li>[player_tooltip player_id="296516" first="Regan" last="Juenemann"] – 2025 guard, Duluth Marshall</li> </ul> <span style="font-size: 10pt;"><em>Top photo: [player_tooltip player_id="30148" first="Ellie" last="Colbeck"] of Fergus Falls</em></span>