A year to remember: Looking back at the fall sports season

Talk about it

The following is another “Have Fun or Get Out of the Way” column by Don Leighton and Mike Granlund and their alter egos, Lance Boyle and Billy Pirkola, which runs occasionally in the Superior Telegram.

The high school fall sports season, and both Northwestern and Superior high schools had many memorable moments. Each season, there are performances that will be remembered by these kids for the rest of their lives. (Lance still remembers scoring five touchdowns in a high school football game. Wait a minute. That was Al Bundy. At any rate, we digress with a cloudy memory.)

Here are some highlights of some of the great kids and great moments at Superior High School and Northwestern High School.

Superior

Volleyball

After being an assistant coach at UWS for three years and working for years in the Junior Olympic Volleyball program, first-year volleyball coach, Lori Keute, welcomed 39 potential volleyball players for tryouts on Aug. 17. The varsity team that came from that initial group may not have met their own expectations during the year and playoffs, but fans saw plenty to build upon.

With sophomores Danielle Magdzas, Ally Keute and Marissa Miner getting considerable playing time, look for the Spartans to continue to build upon the foundation that Coach Keute has put in place. Lake Superior Conference all-conference first-team honors were realized by senior Christa Diedrich, who led the team with 159 kills. Her leadership will be missed. Sophomore Keute was all-conference honorable mention and led the team with 280 digs and 21 ace serves.

Boys soccer

Boy’s soccer coach Tom Bush would love to win every game, but he realizes learning, sportsmanship and improvement during the season are as important as wins and losses.

His team showed vast improvement during the season and defeated the higher-seed Rhinelander in the sectionals. Early in the season, Superior lost to Hermantown 11-0. Later in the season, the score was 2-0, with Hermantown the victor. Hermantown also advanced to the state tournament in Minnesota, finishing second. Three players received LSC All-Conference honors: Kyle Ilenda and Kevin Olson on the second team and Andy Fitzgerald with honorable mention and team MVP.

Cross country

In cross country, both the boys and girls had outstanding seasons. The boys won the LSC title and the high-test Hibbing Invitational, and the girls took second place in the LSC. Matt Swanson won the conference title.

The brother-and-sister act of Shane and Leah Holmes qualified for the state cross country meet. During the season, Shane won two and Leah four invitational meets. Pretty impressive when you consider Leah is a freshman.

Another freshman girl who exploded onto the cross-country scene was Natalie Kintop. Kintop came back after being kicked by a horse to finish sixth in the conference meet and was close to qualifying for state. Without the injury, Superior may have had two freshmen at state.

Coach Dan Conway has done an incredible job coaching both the boys and girls. Conway, a man of few words, said of the season, “It was a very good year.” Lance predicts more success next year for the Spartans.

Girls tennis

Girls tennis coach Pete Conley is thrilled with the season his team had. The girls were underdogs in most matches but came through with a fourth-place finish in the tough LSC. One of the most memorable matches of the year was Superior’s win over Duluth Marshall. Marshall is a perennial power in Minnesota, and the Spartan girls defeated the Hilltoppers for the first time in Conley’s coaching career.

“We had other highlights, but as the year progressed, we got better,” Conley said. “They always played with heart and dedication and came together as a team. On the court you are by yourself, but this team always had others watching them and cheering them on. Because of their hard work, we beat a lot of teams we were not supposed to beat. It was a great season.”

Girls golf

Coach Dan Schulz’s girls golf team had a very successful season. Two Spartans competed at sectionals, Janelle Strewler and Cassie Berg, and Strewler advanced to the state tournament. She became the first SHS girl golfer ever to qualify for state, where she placed 46th. That is pretty incredible when you consider more than 1,000 girls play Division 1 golf in Wisconsin.

Another golfer who had a great season was Abby Gotelaere. She, along with Strewler and Berg, was named All-Conference in the LSC.

Football

Bob DeMeyer began his fourth season as head football coach at SHS with high hopes. He lost a lot due to graduation, but he had outstanding athletes coming back for the 2009 season. Another playoff run was in the cards, but the Spartans fell short, losing their last two games to be eliminated from postseason play.

Injuries did not help, but the classy DeMeyer never makes excuses. The season still had high points. Superior handed Hudson its only regular season loss, defeated Chippewa Falls for the first time in a million years and, if not for the five turnovers, played the No. 1 seeded Stevens Point team to a stalemate.

Individual honors from the tough Big Rivers Conference were awarded to several Spartans. Zac Colvin, set to play Division 1 football for North Dakota State, was named a first-team defensive back. Also named to the first team were defensive lineman Nikko Bogojevich, linebacker Ethan Taylor and punter Kellen McCoshen. AJ Soland was named a second team running back, and Mike LaValley was named as a defensive back on the second team.

Mark our words, the Spartans will be back next year.

Girls swimming

The girls swim and dive teams had 20 LSC all-conference performers. What an accomplishment for Coach George Lehman and his girls.

Lance and Billy will “pool” their thoughts and write an article on these girls, their coach and the reasons of their success. There is so much to talk about with this great program that they deserve their own space in the very near future.

We don’t want to “water” down their accomplishments in one paragraph. We hope this will “suit” you. If it doesn’t, you are “all wet.”

(For the record, Billy came up with these puns. Lance has way too much class to resort to that type of humor.)

Northwestern

Girls golf

Taylor Prior capped off her career by making the all-conference team for the third straight year. This season she finished fourth overall in the Heart of the North Conference. Nicolette Lindberg scored a golfer’s dream with a hole in one this year at Spooner, and Yui Tabata, a foreign exchange student from Tokyo, Japan, played the entire year on the varsity for coach Stacy Burfield’s team.

Volleyball

The Tigers won the Heidi Zosel Memorial Tournament for the first time ever and finished a strong 21-10 for the season, becoming the first team to play in Northwestern’s new gym. Coach Jamie Stendahl’s team continued to be in the top echelon of the HON standings.

Anna Morgan established herself as one of the Tigers’ all time greats. The four-time all-HON performer finished her career as Northwestern’s all time kills leader with 1,189. Melissa Hogfeldt finished the season as one of the top set assist leaders in the area.

Cross country

The Northwestern cross country team had a record 46 athletes out for the sport this year. In an amazing feat, the Tigers boys and girls cross country teams both qualified for the state tournament in Wisconsin Rapids. This had not happened for more than 20 years. Both teams also won the HON, as Northwestern continues to be a force in cross country.

The Tiger girls also won the Superior, Ashland and Hayward Invites. In the Heart of the North Conference meet, seven of the top nine girls finishers were from Northwestern. Freshman Olivia Amber set a course record during that race. Freshmen Jordan Johnson, Angela Snow and Tess Nelson finished third, fourth and seventh, respectively. Sophomores Ellie Tiege and Nicolette Amber and junior Jessie Morris also were in the top 10, pointing to a bright future for Coach John Woodbury’s runners.

Seniors Zach Yepma, Nathan Nelson and Jari Mackie led the boys team.

Football

A magical season came to an end last week in the WIAA state semifinal game against Kewaunee, after 12 consecutive wins for the Tigers and a Heart of the North Conference championship. Coach Dennis Scherz loses 16 seniors but returns a lot of talented players.

Ryan Miesbauer finished his career with 2,793 yards rushing and 43 touchdowns. His 43 touchdowns are believed to tie the school record set by Bryan Wedan in 1994 and 1995. The record may not last too long, though, as Junior T.J. Polkoski has 27 so far.

Kevin Derick also finished with more than 2,000 career yards at 2,162.

The beautiful facilities at Gordon L. Nelson Athletic Complex set an unofficial attendance record as close to 3,000 fans attended the Level 3 playoff win against Somerset.

A big highlight of the year was the 49-0 showdown win over HON runner-up Bloomer.

Opinions and story ideas can be e-mailed to dleigh1273@aol.com or wgranlund@centurytel.net.

Tags: have fun or get out of the way, sports, northwestern, tigers, superior, spartans, collections