2014-15 Season Recap

The Pine City Boys Basketball Varsity Team ended the year with an 20-8 (14-2 Conference) overall record.  They finished the year 2nd in the conference and 4th in section, earning a home playoff game that they won sending them to the quarter-finals where their season ended again the #1 seed Barnum.

The non-conference schedule was much more difficult than it was the past few years, but that did not stop The Dragons from increasing their win total for the fourth straight year.  The program as a whole had all 5 teams with a winning record (JV: 17-7, C: 12-6, 8th: 7-5, 7th: 10-2).  Along with this, the participation numbers continue to be high with 69 total student participants this year grades 7-12.  There were also 14 7th/8th grade students who participated in the optional C-Squad season before the junior high season began.  This is a huge positive to our great staff (Jason Rademacher, Jeff Hussong, Billy Christianson, David Jackson, Tyler Johnson, Trent Hippen, Michael O’Donnell) that we had this year.

A lot of the continued success continues to equate back to the increase in summer/offseason participation.  Most of our athletes are 3 sport athletes at Pine City and continue to develop their overall athleticism.  47 basketball players participated in open gym last summer for a total of 1,357 hours.  During the open gym, the Unified Athletic Program is offered where students 7-12 work on their overall athleticism.  This program is also offered year round.

At the youth level, we hosted youth camps at different times throughout the year from grades K-6 with over 100 participants.  These camps were worked by our high school athletes who volunteer their time back to the program.  We also had teams in the Great Northwest Basketball League participating in grades 3-7.  The youth are also invited to be a “Junior Dragon” during varsity basketball games.

At the varsity level, we had some great individual and team accomplishments.  We were fortunate enough to have 3 all-conference players (Noah Adams, Kole Jusczak, and Mitchell Hansmann-Honorable Mention).  Our staff was nominated for Coach of the Year of the conference for the 2nd straight year.  During the year, Junior Noah Adams also scored his 1,000 career varsity point; placing him as the 10th basketball player (boy or girl) to achieve this and Kole Jusczak was named to the All-Tournament Team at our Holiday Tournament in Cloquet, MN over the break.  The varsity team increased their points per game this year by 16 points per game while only allowing their points against per game to increase by 1 point per game from the previous year.  Stat leaders for the varsity were:

Points: Kole Jusczak (492)

Rebounds: Kole Jusczak (242)

Assists: Noah Adams (176)

Steals: Mitchell Hansmann and Noah Adams (77)

Blocks: James Pixley (17)

Charges Taken: Connor Clark (14)

Made 3’s: Easton Foss (62)

Every year, our varsity players vote on awards that solely decide who receives which award.  We recently held our awards banquet with the following individuals earning the following awards:

Most Valuable Player: Noah Adams

Offensive Player of the Year: Kole Jusczak

Defensive Player of the Year: Easton Foss

Dragon Award: Noah Adams

Most Improved Player: Nathan Kleppe and Easton Foss

Teammate Award: Connor Clark

Hustle Award: Gabe Gonyea and Noah Adams

Eye Opener Award: Nathan Kleppe

The seniors this year (Mitchell Hansmann, Easton Foss, Connor Clark, James Pixley, Gabe Gonyea, Logan Stahl) have given so much for this program and we are so proud of all of their accomplishments both individually and as a group.  They have helped to continue to positive trends for the program; believing in themselves, their teammates, their coaches, and the program as a whole.  They are leaving behind huge shoes to fill, but have done a great job of teaching and modeling how to go about filling them.

It also usually goes without mention (Not this time...) the amount of time and energy our varsity managers (Erin Pavelka, Amanda Basta, Danni Mullins, Hannah Bramer, Elijah Johnson, Taylor Kline, Dan Cranston) put into the boys and the program.  We would not be able to do a lot of the things we do without their help.

We also had a dedicated crowd that not only showed up for home games but became road-tough with us as we had a heavy dose of away games this year.  We are so excited about the increase in student and community involvement at our games and hope that this is just the beginning of what is to come!

We are very excited about the accomplishments so far, but are not satisfied with the end results yet.  We have laid down a great foundation thanks to the help of great young individuals in our program who have created the blueprint of success.  Those athletes coming up will need to continue to outwork the groups that came before them if this success will continue; they must continue to take advantage of the opportunities that are presented to them for us to continue to reach toward our goals.