Under-the-radar 2023s at the Spring Showdown

The college offers and commitments have been flying all week, which is par for the course after the first Live Viewing period of the year. That’s crucial for highly-rated prospects who were traversing the country to major events, particularly those in the Class of 2023. The weekend was no less important, however, for those incoming seniors who are still under the radar, who aren’t among the ranked prospects in their grade, but are actively seeking next-level opportunities, too. We saw five of them over the weekend at the Spring Showdown right here in our own backyard and they are definitely worth a second look. Taylor Shelstad – 2023 point guard, West Central Wildcats I had been hearing over the past couple of weeks about how much the West Central Wildcats teams had improved this year, and how well their 2023s in particular have been playing. I decided to see for myself. With North Dakota State commit [player_tooltip player_id="302256" first="Avery" last="Koenen"] off competing elsewhere, the player who caught my attention immediately was Taylor Shelstad. I hadn’t even sat down on Saturday morning at Chanhassen to watch them play when the athletic guard brought me to attention. Kids with lighter feet, great athleticism, an elite first step and a cool, calm and collected demeanor tend to do that. Shelstad is wiry, with long arms. In addition to excellent ball-handling skills she is a very good shooter, with a quick delivery and a very high arc. Coming up the court her head is always up and on a swivel. After a few minutes of being impressed I spotted a college coach I know, an assistant with scholarships to hand out for the Class of 2023, and wondered what he thought. After making my way around the court, I sat down next to said coach only to overhear him on the phone with his boss: “Have you seen Taylor Shelstad play?” he blurted. “She’s amazing!” So I wasn’t alone in my assessment. The last point guard I scouted from Lac qui Parle Valley was a good one, too, and Kelsea Lund has gone on to have a very nice collegiate career at Northwestern-St. Paul. With a lot more length and just as much athleticism, Taylor might deliver similar results. While Shelstad impressed with her complete package, All-State junior Abby Berge of Belgrade-Brooton-Elrosa was lighting up the scoreboard all weekend for the Wildcats. Berge just has a nose for the basket. She’s not afraid to enter the no-fly zone and make contact with whoever is guarding the paint. More often than not she ends up at the free throw line because of it. Other Wildcats who stood out this weekend include [player_tooltip player_id="339125" first="Hailey" last="Dirksen"] of Montevideo and [player_tooltip player_id="339158" first="Maddy" last="Grove"] of Morris Area, both ranked by Prep Girls Hoops. All of the above are more than capable of being difference-makers at the collegiate level. Here are four more 2023s who made a positive impression at the Spring Showdown. <a href="https://prephoops-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/pgh/uploads/2022/04/Marina-Lafreniere-scaled-crop-2048x1345-1651108451.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-420291" src="https://prephoops-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/pgh/uploads/2022/04/Marina-Lafreniere-scaled-crop-2048x1345-1651108451-300x197.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="197" /></a> Marina Lafreniere – 2023 forward, Minnesota Heat Gustafson Blaine has a history of putting big, strong athletes on the court of late, kids who show up with their lunch pail night in and night out and get to the next level through sheer hard work. Gina Stefferud, who recently transferred from Minot State to Viterbo, comes to mind. So does Kayla Bohr of UW-Parkside. Now we bring you Marina Lafreniere who has a chance to achieve what Gina and Kayla have done and maybe more. Lafreniere is a tank! At 5’10, with broad shoulders, she’s got a big frame, a super-strong lower body and next-level power. She fights for every square inch on the court and God help the opponent who wants to tussle over a 50-50 ball. Although she doesn’t really need to score to be a big part of whatever her team wants to do, Lafrienere did show us some skill around the basket, executing a really nice 360-degree spin move at full speed in transition. Marina played a huge role this weekend for a Heat squad that was down four players. As a result, she probably handled the ball more than normal, maybe had more scoring opportunities than usual, perhaps got a boost of confidence from the situation. She was nothing short of terrific in both games we watched. Heat Gustafson has some nice pieces – [player_tooltip player_id="148317" first="Lilah" last="Bergen"], [player_tooltip player_id="339120" first="Kloey" last="Lind"], [player_tooltip player_id="302287" first="Emily" last="Glass"] and more – but it was Lafreniere’s performance that had the most oomph. <a href="https://prephoops-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/pgh/uploads/2022/04/Rayna-Klejeski-scaled-crop-2048x1345-1651108538.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-420293" src="https://prephoops-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/pgh/uploads/2022/04/Rayna-Klejeski-scaled-crop-2048x1345-1651108538-300x197.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="197" /></a> Rayna Klejeski – 2023 forward, Crossfire Vaughn We run across a lot of multi-sport athletes in girls basketball, especially when it comes to kids from smaller schools across the state. This weekend we encountered our second barrel racer of the year! I must confess I know next to nothing about the sport, but a quick look-see on YouTube makes it appear as though there’s a fair amount of courage, nerve and skill required. Rayna Klejeski seems to have plenty of all that. The 6-foot forward from Barnum has a sizeable frame, good length, plenty of strength and a strong physical presence on the floor. She does the little things well and consistently. And she can score. This weekend Rayna put up 14 points against Southern Minnesota Fury, 15 against the Minnesota Heat. This winter she passed 1,000 career points. She’s not super-fast, and she’s not going to wow you with an arsenal of highlight-reel moves, but there’s a very good chance Klejeski is going to give college coaches what they’re looking for from a solid, reliable, blue-collar post player who can deliver the results at both ends of the floor. Klejeski currently has one Division 2 offer with more on the way. <a href="https://prephoops-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/pgh/uploads/2022/04/Korpela_Birkeland-scaled-crop-2487x1633-1651108714.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-420297" src="https://prephoops-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/pgh/uploads/2022/04/Korpela_Birkeland-scaled-crop-2487x1633-1651108714-300x197.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="197" /></a> Liv Birkeland – 2023 guard, Northern Lights At 5’5, Liv Birkeland (photo right) isn’t the most imposing figure on the court. But with plenty of speed and quickness (she runs track), a strong lower body (she plays soccer), and a pretty solid set of skills, Birkeland has the goods to make a big impact both here and now and in the future. And she can score. Birkeland has proven herself many times over playing at the Class 3A level for Hermantown. This winter, for example, she had a 28-point, 7-rebound, 8-assist, 3-steal performance against Princeton. Not bad. Liv played a huge role Saturday morning as Northern Lights fought valiantly against North Tartan Elite, despite having just six available players. They actually led NT at the half before the length and strength of North Tartan’s more pedigreed performers was a little too much, but the Lights fought to the end regardless. Birkeland had a 14-point game against TAP Manitoba and showed her willingness and ability to share the basketball and create nice opportunities for others. Birkeland’s next step will be to increase her physical presence on the court, a necessity for success at the collegiate level. Sascha Korpela – 2023 forward, Northern Lights If there’s one thing we’ve learned from watching Cromwell-Wright over the years it is the fact that they are scrappy competitors who are going to make you earn it night in and night out. Following in the footsteps of all those great Hakamaki girls, Sascha Korpela (photo left) epitomizes that approach to the game. We’ve seen it for several years now as Korpela has been a force for Adam Johnson’s Northern Lights teams. Listed at 5’9 but playing a lot bigger, Korpela is a slasher with a scorer’s mentality. She is a good three-point shooter, too, which forces teams into difficult choices when guarding her. That, combined with a willingness to make and take contact, creates an awful lot of scoring opportunities. Sascha averaged 12 points per game this weekend. We were impressed with her touch around the basket, she has nice footwork, and she has a good-sized frame. Korpela is a solid on-ball defender who has sound defensive understanding and the size and length to take advantage of it.