’93-’94 state girls’ basketball team honored at MVL

NEW ULM -- Minnesota Valley Lutheran welcomed its 1993-'94 girls' varsity basketball state tournament team back to its gym on Saturday afternoon to commemorate the team's 25th anniversary for that state appearance.

The team went 25-4 under head coach Dave Ross and grabbed playoff victories over Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop, New Ulm Cathedral, Springfield, Belle Plaine and St. James. Players on the team were Kristen (Scharf) Tomziak, Tina Hopp, Heather Bernard, Lisa (Gronholz) Bielke, Alli Younge, Christy (Schwictenberg) Zuelke, Lisa Westendorf, Kristi Wendler, Naci Melzer, Sarah (Klockziem) Strackbein, Erin Enter, and Jenny Berg.

In attendance for the halftime celebrations from the team on Saturday were coach Ross, Berg, Bielke, Tomziak, Strackbein and Zuelke.

MVL saw success early on since its first girls' varsity team began play in 1980-'81, accumulating 14 winning seasons before its first state appearance in 1994. Once at state, the team suffered a 58-28 loss to New London/Spicer in the first round and fell to Dilworth-Glindon-Felton 71-57 in the consolation round.

Despite the losses in the state tournament, there was still a lot to take away from that experience for MVL. Coach Ross said that it was very important for his team to make it to state and help set the tone for MVL girls' basketball.

"The biggest thing was that we had accomplished to that level and had experience of what it was going to take to get to that level," Ross said. "We had that as a goal every year. And that was a case of playing a pretty good team in the first round and we had a little of the nerves. There were two classes -- we always figured about 500 students that were AA. It was a little tougher to make it then, but these girls really accepted that challenge. We even lost a player -- Schwictenberg didn't finish the season, so that was a little challenge too."

Ross also gave credit to coach Gayle Bauer, who coached from 1981-1993, for helping build the program up. He said that he was fortunate to inherit such a great group of athletes.

Ross added that it was great to see all of the support from the students, teachers and fans in attendance on Saturday.

"The athletic director that's here, [Craig Morgan] he followed me, I was the athletic director for many years and then he took over that, I've known him for many years," Ross said. "And then some of the teachers are still here, tons of former students and parents that are still involved with MVL, so it's pretty exciting."

An interesting coincidence on Saturday was that MVL got its first win of the '93-'94 season in a road game against Nicollet, coached by Kevin Christenson, who is back as the head coach for the Nicollet girls again this year. MVL defeated Nicollet on Saturday.