Minnesota kids you really enjoyed watching

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I was home (with chicken pox!) the spring of 1981, and stuck watching the boy's high school tournament on tv. I *loved* watching a good Austin team, but the standout that year was a very confident point/shooting guard from Bird Island, Barry Wohler.
 

WilliamsArenaGuy said:
WTF? Who is Cedar Mountain? RTR was undefeated and never trailed in a game that year until the state championship. Also, they didn’t play anyone named Cedar Mountain.

Anyway this thread is about players you enjoyed watching. And this post was about a sophomore in HS making a ridiculous dunk.
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My bad. The game I was thinking was when he was a senior I believe.
 






Growing up in western MN, I enjoyed the great Staples-Motley in the mid 90's.

Also, enjoyed watching the Morris teams with the Witt brothers, Schmidgall and Loge around that same time.

We had to play against that great Hancock team that won the state championship in 1997. They were fun to watch when not playing them but it was 32 minutes of hell playing against them.
 

restovich said:
I was home (with chicken pox!) the spring of 1981, and stuck watching the boy's high school tournament on tv. I *loved* watching a good Austin team, but the standout that year was a very confident point/shooting guard from Bird Island, Barry Wohler.
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Austin.

Big guy named Lee Aase? Guard Steve Justice? I may have the years mixed up.
 

GopherGuy82 said:
89-90, so Bouman's Junior year.
Region 3 title game. Played in Montevideo. RTR beat Cedar Mountain by two.
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It was 90-91 and his senior year. In 89-90, RTR was in the state tournament for the third year in a row and lost to DeLaSalle in the state quarters.

Anyway, how about that dunk by a sophomore from the middle of nowhere?
 



WilliamsArenaGuy said:
It was 90-91 and his senior year. In 89-90, RTR was in the state tournament for the third year in a row and lost to DeLaSalle in the state quarters.

Anyway, how about that dunk by a sophomore from the middle of nowhere?
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Hell of a dunk. I had a friend in high school that had a dunk tape of a bunch Bouman dunks. There was one where the hoop was attached from poles on the ceiling, the old school ones with the joint in the middle so the hoop could be moved. Anyway when he dunked it the hoop swung back while he was hanging from the rim. Heck of an athlete. Even more so coming from a small school.
 
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GopherGuy82 said:
Hell of a dunk. I had a friend in high school that had a dunk tape of a bunch Bouman dunks. There was one where the hoop was attached from poles on the ceiling, the old school ones with the joint in the middle so the hoop could be moved. Anyway when he dunked it the hoop swung back while he was hanging from the rim. Heck of an athlete. Even more so coming from a small school.
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I think he won several dunk contests at all star events. Pretty crazy.
 

Bob_Loblaw said:
I can't think of their names, but this same school actually beat a stacked Patrick Henry for the state championship in 1998.

They had a guy who was like 6'5", I'm picturing a bowl cut and could really shoot. They also had another guy who dominated down low (Worthington? or something like that).
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Great memory!

Ben Pearson was the tall skinny bowl cut kid who could shoot lights out.

Rob Worthington was the somewhat undersized but dominant/athletic post player. He went on to play 4 years at Lafayette.

I was in 8th grade in 98, that team took down Pryzbilla/Monticello in the semis then Henry in the title game.
 

Zeppelin Gopher said:
Great memory!

Ben Pearson was the tall skinny bowl cut kid who could shoot lights out.

Rob Worthington was the somewhat undersized but dominant/athletic post player. He went on to play 4 years at Lafayette.

I was in 8th grade in 98, that team took down Pryzbilla/Monticello in the semis then Henry in the title game.
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Yeah, that was a really good team. That section was tough back then. Simley won that section and state in 1997 and I think the following year Highland won that section (and state). That team had Mo Hargrowe and some huge white dude.
 



Bob_Loblaw said:
Yeah, that was a really good team. That section was tough back then. Simley won that section and state in 1997 and I think the following year Highland won that section (and state). That team had Mo Hargrowe and some huge white dude.
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Miley can’t remember his first name…
 

We played in a basketball tournament in South St. Paul in junior high against mostly Twin Cities teams. We were small town farm kids. 7th grade year we actually did pretty well. 8th grade year we all walk into the gym and the first thing we see is Johnnie Gilbert on a fast break. Two handed reverse dunk. Ultimate intimidation. We didn't do well that year. That was always a fun tournament to play in. Johnnie Gilbert, Jake Sullivan, Joe Mauer (a year younger), Jibrahn Ike (I think he was a year younger).
 
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I recently watched the 1991 state A championship with Chisholm over Westbrook W Grove.

Joel McDonald wasn’t quick but he could use his body well to get shots and he had Clarke range. Ted Krize was from Mesabi East and transferred in and was a another great 6-4 player!
 

Jake Sullivan dominated St Paul and the eastern and southern suburbs. I remember bragging him up to my uncle and then when we finally saw him together, he had trouble with whichever inner city team they were playing and their quickness. He turned into a pretty good college player even with very limited lateral quickness and athleticism.
 


I’ve really enjoyed watching the Little Chippers over the years. I believe they are all Minnesota kids.
 


march madness said:
Jake Sullivan dominated St Paul and the eastern and southern suburbs. I remember bragging him up to my uncle and then when we finally saw him together, he had trouble with whichever inner city team they were playing and their quickness. He turned into a pretty good college player even with very limited lateral quickness and athleticism.
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I think he probably just had a bad game. That Tartan team was just genuinely good. A lot of those kids were pretty much inner city (East Side of Saint Paul).

I think that team lost one game that year and it was to Patrick Henry.
 

GopherGuy82 said:
We played in a basketball tournament in South St. Paul in junior high against mostly Twin Cities teams. We were small town farm kids. 7th grade year we actually did pretty well. 8th grade year we all walk into the gym and the first thing we see is Johnnie Gilbert on a fast break. Two handed reverse dunk. Ultimate intimidation. We didn't do well that year. That was always a fun tournament to play in. Johnnie Gilbert, Jake Sullivan, Joe Mauer (a year younger), Jibrahn Ike (I think he was a year younger).
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Yeah. We probably played in that same tournament.

Another guy who was a terror was Adam Boone. He could dunk and had a mustache in 6th grade. He actually didn't grow that much after 7th/8th grade.
 

Bob_Loblaw said:
Yeah. We probably played in that same tournament.

Another guy who was a terror was Adam Boone. He could dunk and had a mustache in 6th grade. He actually didn't grow that much after 7th/8th grade.
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Forgot all about Boone. He was on that Tonka team.
 

Juriad Hughes from St Paul Central.

A number of the people from the Minneapolis North versus White Bear Lake title games. Brett McNeil and Doug Carter from North, Joe Reigner and Larry Ogden from White Bear.
 

In no order other than age group and the time i was interested

Sam Jacobson
Khalid El Amin
Joel Prizbella
Kris Humphrey
Tyus Jones
Daniel Oturu
Amir Coffey
Trey Jones
 

GopherGuy82 said:
Minnetonka with Shane Schilling, Ryan Keating, and Jake Kuppe.
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I played against that exact team in a summer 3 on 3 tournament. We beat a team from north branch and Joel Prizbellas team from Monticello (basically fouled him the entire time because there were no foul outs or free throws). Then went to the knock out round and this Minnetonka team beat us. Good team there for sure
 

I appreciate the love for the lesser known and out state players. I remember a lot of the guys from the late 90's and early 2000's, and have that same experience of walking into a gym only to see Johnny Gilbert rock a rim or see Joel Pryzbilla have to duck under a doorway as he entered from the opposite side. Jake Sullivan had Steph Curry range before it was a thing - I remember him pulling up from half court it seemed and draining 3's. His AAU team had a 7 foot kid who also went to ISU, and that was a tough matchup - he wasn't particularly skilled, but you can't teach height. Sounds like a lot of us suffered through some of those games...

A name I hadn't seen mentioned but made an impact on me when I was younger was Joe Hedin from Waconia. Played in the late 90's. He was one of the first high school athletes that I could immediately see just moved differently than everyone else - explosive athlete and could jump out of the gym. Looks like he had a nice career at NDSU.
 


I remember being at the Hastings (Michael Bauer) vs. Tartan (Jake Sullivan) game in 1999 I believe.
 

The Henry teams with Gilbert,Travis and Pettis were entertaining . Crazy what happened to Pettis.
 

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