2018 in Review: Coach of the Year (Part 1)
Part 1 of 2: Coach of the Year There’s lots to say about coaches. There’s a lot that goes into picking a Coach of the Year though, on the other hand, when we tell you who our Coach of the…
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Continue ReadingPart 1 of 2: Coach of the Year
There’s lots to say about coaches. There’s a lot that goes into picking a Coach of the Year though, on the other hand, when we tell you who our Coach of the Year is, you’re going to say, well, that must have been an easy choice. That’s pretty obvious. But, on the contrary, we identified a lot of good candidates, and here they are.
Coach of the Year Candidates
Scott Bergman, Sauk Centre. Led his team to its (and his) 8th state tournament appearance in 9 years, and this time the Mainstreeters won it all with an all-time state best record of 33-0.
Molly Kasper, Eastview. In her 3rd season with the Lightning, Kasper’s team went 32-0 and roared back from a 12-point 1st half deficit to defeat Hopkins 68-63 and win the Class AAAA state title.
Wendy Kohler, Alexandria. Not much was expected of the Cardinals this year, but coach Kohler led her team to a 24-7 record, a 69-42 thrashing of DeLaSalle in the state tournament, and a 6th place finish. She also became the winningest female coach in Minnesota girls basketball during the season.
Ryan Hulke, Sleepy Eye. After a 2-2 start and, later, a 2nd loss to the Wabasso Rabbits, coach Hulke, guard Madi Heiderscheidt and their team put the pedal to the metal, winning 15 in a row before running into the buzzsaw called Lyle/Pacelli in the state Class A final.
Justin Morris, Lyle/Pacelli. And speaking of Lyle/Pacelli, coach Justin Morris and his Athletics put a pair of soul-crushing defeats (in 2015 and 2016) behind them, steamrolling 3 state tournament opponents by an average of 21 points. The win over Sleepy Eye in the final was a heck of a way for coach Morris to wrap up his 8 year tenure with this program.
Ellen Wiese, Eden Prairie. As you know, coach Wiese led a program that had struggled to just 11 wins in the past 2 seasons to a 16-12 record including wins over Moorhead, Minnehaha and Holy Angels and 2 wins over Edina.
And the winner is….
OK, yeah, when it comes down to it, the choice wasn’t that hard. 32-0. State champions. 2 hard fought, come-from-behind wins against Hopkins. And, admittedly, we ourselves here at Prep Hoops were among the doubters. We had Eastview rated #1 from the time they defeated Hopkins at St. Olaf in December right up through the middle of March. But, yes, it’s true. In our state tournament preview, we picked Hopkins to win the state title.
Not to worry, Coach of the Year Molly Kasper told us, “We’ve never been picked over Hopkins. Before the tournament, we even wondered if we would end up with the #2 seed.” But, no, Eastview got the #1 seed and, then, it achieved the vastly more difficult task of defeating the Royals 68-63 in the final. “They handled our pressure,” Hopkins coach Brian Cosgriff said afterward. Imagine the mental toughness it took for the Lightning to come from 12 points down against one of the state’s most aggressive defenses. But that is just how much mental toughness Eastview brought out on to the court with them. And, we figure coach Kasper had something to do with that.
Q & A with Molly Kasper
Here, then, is Part 1 (of 2 parts) of a Q & A with Coach of the Year Molly Kasper. First, we asked, tell us about Hopkins.
“I’m not from Minnesota,” Molly told us, “so I didn’t know much about Hopkins, but obviously it’s a great program with a great history. And, I think (Hopkins’ example) has been good for girls basketball. Girls basketball has continued to improve.”
“But (not being too familiar with Hopkins) helped coming into this situation,” Kasper said. “I don’t look at them as any different. I just look at them as another (great) opponent. And, our biggest thing is we’ve been to state 7 straight years, too, and so we just worry about the things that we can control on the court. It doesn’t matter if it’s Lakeville North, or if it’s Hopkins. I mean, obviously, they’ve done great things.”
“And, for me, at Eastview, the biggest thing has been improving our strength and our ballhandling just so that we can handle their pressure and what they bring to the table defensively. Because obviously they try to make you play very chaotic and rushed and turn you over a lot. So, I showed the girls some data on that. Last year Hopkins scored 65 percent of their points off of turnovers and 2nd chances. But, going into the state tournament, looking at their section final and their 1st and 2nd round games, against Roseville they had 12 offensive rebounds in the 1st half. They forced Forest Lake into 28 turnovers. In the section final against Mpls. South they had 39 points off turnovers and 2nd chances.
“So once our girls realized how many points Hopkins scores off turnovers, then they were better able mentally to control the things they can control. We cut down on those numbers significantly.”
“Still, we knew even going into that last game that we would have to take that 1st punch.
At the 1st media timeout I said, ‘You just took a really good punch. So let’s just chip away,’ and they had that mental toughness (to do that.)”