Class AA Player of the Year & All-State Team
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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…
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Continue ReadingIt 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 Ellie Colbeck Ellie Colbeck 5'9" | PG Fergus Falls | 2022 State MN ’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.”
RUNNER-UP
Natalie Bremer Natalie Bremer 5'11" | CG Lake City | 2022 State MN – 2022 guard, Lake City (MSU-Mankato)
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 Maddyn Greenway Maddyn Greenway 5'8" | PG Providence Academy | 2026 State MN 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 Katie Borowicz 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.
CLASS AA ALL-STATE TEAM
1st team
- Ellie Colbeck Ellie Colbeck 5'9" | PG Fergus Falls | 2022 State MN – 2022 guard, Fergus Falls (South Dakota State)
- Natalie Bremer Natalie Bremer 5'11" | CG Lake City | 2022 State MN – 2022 guard, Lake City (MSU-Mankato)
- Addison Mack Addison Mack 5'9" | PG Minnehaha Academy | 2025 State MN – 2025 guard, Minnehaha Academy
- Maddyn Greenway Maddyn Greenway 5'8" | PG Providence Academy | 2026 State MN – 2026 guard, Providence Academy
- Tori Oehrlein Tori Oehrlein 5'10" | CG Crosby-Ironton | 2026 State MN – 2026 guard, Crosby-Ironton
2nd team
- Maria Counts Maria Counts 5'11" | PF Providence | 2022 State MN – 2022 forward, Providence Academy
- Grace Counts Grace Counts 6'1" | PF Providence | 2023 State MN – 2023 forward, Providence Academy
- Avery Koenen Avery Koenen 6'3" | SF Montevideo | 2023 State MN – 2023 forward, Montevideo (North Dakota State)
- Laura Hauge Laura Hauge 5'9" | SG St. Croix Lutheran | 2024 State MN – 2024 guard, St. Croix Lutheran
- Jocelyn Land Jocelyn Land 6'0" | PF Holy Family | 2024 State MN – 2024 forward, Holy Family
Honorable Mentions
- CJ Adamson CJ Adamson 5'9" | CG Rochester Lourdes | 2022 State MN – 2022 guard, Rochester Lourdes (Augustana)
- Nicole Bowlin Nicole Bowlin 5'6" | PG Holy Family | 2022 State MN – 2022 guard, Holy Family (Colorado Christian)
- Charita Lewis Charita Lewis 5'4" | CG Minnehaha Academy | 2022 State MN – 2022 guard, Minnehaha Academy (ND Science)
- Natalie Mikrot Natalie Mikrot 5'6" | CG Moose Lake-WR | 2022 State MN – 2022 guard, Moose Lake-Willow River (UM-Crookston)
- Malia Nelson Malia Nelson 5'9" | CG Dover-Eyota | 2022 State MN – 2022 guard, Dover-Eyota (Winona State)
- Tori Ratz Tori Ratz 5'7" | CG Fergus Falls | 2022 State MN – 2022 guard, Fergus Falls (MSU-Moorhead)
- Abbie Riederer Abbie Riederer 5'8" | CG Mn Valley Lutheran | 2022 State MN – 2022 guard, Minnesota Valley Lutheran (Upper Iowa)
- London Salberg-Thornton London Salberg-Thornton 5'11" | PF Maranatha | 2022 State MN – 2022 forward, Maranatha (Briar Cliff)
- Vivica Bretton Vivica Bretton 5'9" | SF Rochester Lourdes | 2023 State MN – 2023 guard, Rochester Lourdes
- Jenna Gapinski-Vogt Jenna Gapinski-Vogt 6'0" | PF Sauk Centre | 2023 State MN – 2023 forward, Sauk Centre
- Sophi Hall Sophi Hall 6'1" | CG Holy Family | 2023 State MN – 2023 guard, Holy Family (Providence)
- Olivia Harazin Olivia Harazin 5'8" | PG LCWM | 2023 State MN – 2023 guard, Lake Crystal-Wellcome Memorial
- Tori Miller Tori Miller 5'10" | SF Goodhue | 2023 State MN – 2023 forward, Goodhue
- Abigail O’Reilly Abigail O’Reilly 6'1" | PF PEM | 2023 State MN – 2023 forward, Plainview-Elgin-Millville
- Elisabeth Gadient Elisabeth Gadient 5'10" | CG Goodhue | 2024 State MN – 2024 guard, Goodhue
- Kylan Gerads Kylan Gerads 5'11" | SF Albany | 2024 State MN – 2024 forward, Albany
- Claire McGregor Claire McGregor 5'7" | CG Maple River | 2024 State MN – 2024 guard, Maple River
- Alyssa Sand Alyssa Sand 6'2" | PF Albany | 2024 State MN – 2024 forward, Albany
- Willow Thiel Willow Thiel 5'11" | PF Perham | 2024 State MN – 2024 forward, Perham
- Regan Juenemann Regan Juenemann 5'9" | CG Duluth Marshall | 2025 State MN – 2025 guard, Duluth Marshall
Top photo: Ellie Colbeck Ellie Colbeck 5'9" | PG Fergus Falls | 2022 State MN of Fergus Falls