Girls Grade State Championships breed success, funding

The largest youth basketball tournament in the nation, and an opportunity for a recently formed booster club. By Paul Langfellow

This past weekend the Minnesota Youth Athletic Services 2022 Girls Grade State Basketball Championship took place at 26 sites across the state. The tournament is the largest competition in the nation for girls 3rd grade to 8th grade.

Stillwater High School hosted 6th-8th grade girls, drawing teams from across Minnesota. It was also part of a larger fundraising effort for Stillwater. Jenny Wiese, President of the Pony Back Court Club, discussed how the tournament benefited the Stillwater program.

Photo by Paul Langfellow

“What we do with the funding is to return it back to our boys in the Stillwater Area High School basketball program,” Wiese explained, “we do things like invite people to speak to the team, it’s really about giving back to the boys and making sure they have a great season.”

Wiese went on to say that the tournament was a major benefit for the newly formed booster program at Stillwater, The Pony Back Court Club. “It was established last year due to the concern of funding during the pandemic when things were shutting down,” said Wiese. “Coach Hannigan (boys high school basketball team) has wanted to give his players an opportunity to do something off the court as well, so he worked with some of our board members and myself to establish the Pony Back Court Club.”

Some things the club has done includes purchasing the boys warm-up jerseys and funding out of city tournaments.

As you might expect, the Girls Grade State tournament featured some of the top talent and the top teams in Minnesota, with teams facing some of the highest level competition that they had seen all year. . Cory Reisdorfer, who coaches Centennial’s 6B squad said he hoped his team would learn some new skills by playing in the Girls Grade State Tournament. He wanted them to continue to have fun, enjoy the process and enjoy playing together. “You’re going to win some, you’re going to lose some and it’s okay,” said Reisdorfer, “we’re going to go through ups and downs in life, it’s all part of the situation.”

Action from Feb 26 at Stillwater High School. Photo by Paul Langfellow

Fridley also hosted grades 3, and 5 through 7 at two sites—Fridley High School and Fridley Middle School. Jason Karsten, Board President of Fridley Youth Sports Basketball, discussed the benefits of hosting this year’s tournament. “It’s a great fundraiser for our association, it helps keep costs down for our youth and helps us replace some uniforms for next year.”

Karsten also noted that Fridley’s two locations have great facilities. “There are two full-size courts each at Fridley High School and Fridley Middle School, and it’s great that they let us use them for this event.” Fridley has hosted the Girls Grade State Championship from the start. “As long as grade state has been around we have been a part of it for girls basketball,” said Karsten.

During last weekend’s tournament, many teams faced new challenges that they had not previously faced in other tournaments. “It’s great that all year the girls are working hard in these tournaments and that there is someone organizing it so the right balance of talent is playing each other,” explained Brent Vetvick, head coach of the Blaine 6B girls team. Vetvick also mentioned that his team was able to build new skills and learn some new things at this state tournament. “I was talking with the team about how when they play in tournaments that matter, they build a mental toughness. We were in a stressful one-possession game and they really had to dig deep—I felt like they got better at playing in a close game.”

The Girls Grade State Tournament is unique in that teams from the metro area, as well as from greater Minnesota, had a chance to play opponents they may not have otherwise faced. Tony Dingmann, St. Cloud 3rd grade team coach said, “I like the organization [MYAS] and the challenge we face from playing the other teams.” He also explained how traveling was perhaps the highlight for his team. “We really enjoy staying two nights in a hotel, and while the girls love to play the game of basketball, it’s the team bonding activities like swimming and eating breakfast together in the hotel that are so much fun.”

While the key was having fun, the state tournament was also about learning to compete at a higher level. “We are seeing a lot of competition from girls who are very quick on the court and much faster than we are used to,” said Dingmann, “so they are having to learn how to adjust to faster girls, better shooters. This weekend is just more of a challenge for us.”

Link to photo gallery from Fridley

Link to photo gallery from Stillwater

Fridley Results: 2022 State Champions

3rd grade tier 1 = Chanhassen Blue over Stewartville Maroon Romans 22-14

5th grade tier 8 = Chaska over Minneapolis Lakers Blue, 20-14

6th grade tier 5 = Owatonna Blue over Dassel Cokato Blue, 40-24

7th grade tier 8 = St. Mikes PL Chambers over Cottage Grove White 25-22

Stillwater High School Results: 2022 State Champions

6th grade tier 4 = Cottage Grove Green over Rosemont, 33-17

7th grade tier 6 = Minneapolis Lakers Gold over St. Louis Park Black, 45-5

8th grade tier 5 = St. Cloud Maroon vs St. Paul Gold