Lady Huskies Take Down The Cherry Tigers

The Lady Huskies defeated the Cherry Tigers last night by a whopping 64 points. The score at the half was 55-11 and the girls only allowed them 6 points in the second half so the final score was 85-19. Four of the starters reached double figures for the first time this year.

Jesse Powell was in the house and it was like old times as he did his famous job of announcing the teams. He's been sorely missed! He's home from college for the holidays as were lots of other familiar faces that used to roam the halls and run up and down the basketball court....

I got alot of good action shots last night because I was at floor level....it sure makes a difference! I also have a new favorite action shot of Shelby.....I'm sure you can tell which one it is....some cute ones of the girls on the bench, a cool one of Robin going after a loose ball, Megan playing defense with a little smirk of a smile and Lise definately being fouled....here are a few, the rest you will have to look up on jgoblephotography.photostockplus.com

Orr Game Rescheduled for January

The game that was cancelled Monday night, 12/15/08, because of inclement weather, has been rescheduled for Saturday, January 24th at Bigfork. I'm not sure of the time but I'm sure it will be posted on the MSHSL website at a later date.....so only one game this week and that is against the Cherry Tigers tomorrow night at Bigfork. I have to say that I'm pretty excited that one of last year's seniors will be home from college and will hopefully announce the girls at the beginning of the game. Jesse Powell is the brother to junior Megan Powell and he is THE BEST at announcing the girls and getting the crowd going before the game....he has been sorely missed this year! We are really excited to have him back for the holidays! I hope he will get to be around for more than one game....

Minnesota AP Polls - Girls Basketball 12/15/08

This is the Minnesota AP Girls Basketball Polls for 12/15/08 according to The Breakdown website.

CLASS 1A
1. New Life Academy
2. Barnum
3. Ada-Borup
4. Cedar Mnt-Comfrey
5. Adrian
6. Bigfork
7. Brandon-Evansville
8. Sebeka
9. Hanock
10. Parkers Prairie

Bigfork/Orr 12/15/08 Game Cancelled

The game between Bigfork and the visiting Orr Braves has been cancelled due to the weather. It looks like it may be rescheduled for next Monday, December 22nd....will post information once it has been confirmed!

School Cancelled for Monday 12/15/08

School has been cancelled because of a huge winter storm that is producing ALOT of snow, very high wind gusts with wind chills 20-30 degrees below zero. It is supposed to snow until noon Monday so I am going to assume that the game against Orr will also be cancelled. I don't believe they can have a game when school has been cancelled anyway. Once the game has been rescheduled I will post the information!

Shelby and I are planning on baking some Christmas cookies and goodies tomorrow since we will be snowed in...that is probably the ONLY way I can keep her home! She loves to go, go, go!

We finally got the Christmas tree up this afternoon and of course our traditional cowboy hat as our tree topper. Our tree is decorated with a "western" theme every year and my closest friends always seem to find some pretty unusual western ornaments that I add to my tree every year. Interestingly enough, Shelby was born in Buffalo, Wyoming, so she was born a "westerner". Is that the right word? I was born and raised in South Texas, her dad and brother in Minnesota, her sister in Kentucky and she was born in Wyoming...quite a diversity it seems! I'm still the only "true" western gal as I was born AND raised in Texas! I've never figured out why I don't have the southern accent though! My high school mascot was the Longhorn and our colors were burnt orange and white, just like the Texas Longhorns in Austin, Texas, so I'm a little partial to the University of Texas....watched the Lady Longhorns beat Tennessee this afternoon too....hmmm, I think I'm a little homesick!

Huskies Stop the Streaks for W#4

The Lady Huskies pulled off a nice win last Thursday against Iron Range rival the Chisholm Bluestreaks by a score of 65-47. The score at the half mark was 30-15 and the Huskies were up by 25 at one point in the second half. There was a nice crowd in attendance on a very cold December night. Adrianna and Megan both hit double digits with 24 and 16, respectively. A very good defensive effort by all of the Lady Huskies! You can see by the pictures how close they play defense and how they never stop hustling! They are so much fun to watch!

They play the Orr Braves Monday night at Bigfork. Orr is a young but very improved team so it should be a nice game. I will try and post photos by the next day! Game photos of the 8th grade game, JV game and Varsity game have been posted on jgoblephotography.photostockplus.com.

I will try and keep each game up for as long as I can but will have to start taking off the older games to make room for newer ones as the season progresses. If you want to order from the older games, make sure you do so before they are taken off!

Minnesota AP Polls - Girls Basketball 12/10/08

Minnesota girls' high school basketball rankings
By The Associated Press, Associated Press

The Minnesota girls' high school basketball rankings, as provided by Minnesota Basketball News, a statewide basketball publication. Records are through Dec. 9.

Class 1A

1. Barnum (3-0)
2. New Life Academy (1-0)
3. Ada-Borup (2-1)
4. Adrian (2-0)
5. New Ulm Cathedral (3-0)
6. Bigfork (3-0) Moved up one spot from #7
7. Brandon-Evansville (2-0)
8. Red Lake County Central (4-0)
9. Sebeka (3-0)
10. Parkers Prairie (3-0)

They Can Sing Too!

Bigfork had their annual Christmas Band & Choir Concert last night...they all looked SO nice! The band and choir members were all dressed very nice and looked sharp and sounded beautiful! It was a very classy concert! I did not take pictures during the concert as the lighting is always down so low in the Edge Center but just took a quick "snapshot" of Megan, Shelby and Annalise in their robes after the concert. The lighting is not great on this picture either but I just wanted a picture of the girls together in their choir robes and all dolled up....quite a change from the pony tails and basketball uniforms we usually see them in!

They play big rival Chisholm tonight so it should be a good game...looking forward to it and I hope the girls get a nice crowd tonight! NO MERCY TONIGHT GIRLS! GO GET 'EM!!!!

Another Lopsided Affair as the Lady Huskies Smother the Vikings

Well, it was another win by a large margin and again with the starters playing about half of the game. You could tell the coach was working on a few things for their upcoming game against Chisholm and what he worked on was successful....the score at the half was 47-8 and the girls only allowed Littlefork to score another 8 points in the second half. He told them to work hard and they did just that. It also showed an improvement in defense with the younger girls that got to play in that second half by only allowing another 8 points.

The new coach from Littlefork cleared his bench about halfway into the second half so any remaining starters that happened to be on the floor for Bigfork were also taken out and it turned into another JV game. I do see an improvement in alot of the JV girls the more time they get to play though, so that is a good thing.

I'm sure Chisholm will be a tougher game and it will be interesting to see how the girls compete against them and how they fare getting to play for a longer period of time. The Bigfork/Chisholm game is always a fun rivalry which makes for good basketball. They are 3-0 also so that's another incentive for both teams to play hard to keep their clean record...

I'm pretty sure the Lady Huskies will be up for that challenge!

Oops! Littlefork Game was not Broadcast

I hope a few of you didn't get frustrated last night trying to tune the game in last night! No one from KMFY showed up to broadcast the game...so I was either misinformed or they just couldn't make it up to Littlefork! I will check with the station today and see what's going on and what games will be broadcast for the both the boys and the girls' teams!

Battle of Forks to be broadcast on KMFY

Monday's game against Littlefork-Big Falls is supposed to be broadcast by 96.9 KMFY. I understand that there will be a new person announcing the Bigfork games this year and that is Vince "Bim" Holsman. I don't have the schedule for the year yet, but once I find out the schedule for both the boys and girls' games, I will post them here.

Hopefully the starters will get some much needed playing time together and get a little revenge for all the games they have lost to LFBF during the past few volleyball seasons! It's time for all that hard work to pay off and you know what they say about payback! Go get em' Lady Huskies! I say "No Mercy" because in many years past, you were given "No Mercy!"

Bigfork Takes Down Tower-Soudan

The Lady Huskies picked up win #2 by a score of 87-26 with the score at the half being 50-11. It would sure be nice if the games would be a little closer so the starters would actually get to play an entire game or even half of one!

Here are a few pictures.

Bigfork v. Cotton Photos are Downloaded on New Site

The photos from last night's JV and Varsity game against the Cotton Cardinals have been downloaded and are ready for viewing and purchasing at jgoblephotography.photostockplus.com

The JV won their first game of the season with the final score being 37-12. Lots of girls got to play, including four eighth graders. They all played well and will be fun to watch as the season progresses.

The Varsity started off a little rusty but shook it off pretty easily once they got into the flow of the game. No one was in foul trouble for a change and lots of girls got to play in the varsity game as well. The score at half-time was 63-13 so the starters only played two minutes once the second half began. Andi and one of the players from Cotton went after a loose ball and Andi happened to roll over her as they went for the ball....she ended up bleeding profusely so the game had to be stopped and she was sent to the ER and received 5 stitches under her chin. A little bit later Shelby and another Cotton player were fighting for possession of the ball and that girl ended up with a bloody nose...Lise did a flip on the floor going after a loose ball and ended up with floor burn on her shoulder....so with Megan hitting her 1,000 points and the action on the court, it was an eventful night!

The girls were hoping to hit the century mark but it will have to come another time as the girls off the bench tried their hardest and came close, but couldn't quite get there. They did a good job of holding Cotton to only 11 points in the second half though!

Here are some more pictures from the game that you can see on the other site also.

Megan Powell Hits 1,000 Milestone as Junior

What a memorable night December 2, 2008 will be for junior Megan Powell and her family! A huge win over Cotton to start the season and hitting her 1,000 point milestone....I think she had her own cheering section as the Powell family is pretty big and very close. I think the girls were a little nervous to start and started off playing a little rusty but certainly came out of that mode pretty quick. They have a knack for staying calm and getting the job done.

Megan hit her 1,000 on a layup near the end of the first half....she did sit the bench a little bit because she had two fouls so it seemed like it took forever for her to hit that mark! Everytime she missed a shot the crowd replied with an "awwww". It was very touching to see her reaction after the shot and the response from her teammates, the head coach and of course from her father who was also on the bench taking stats...it was a magical night in many ways!

So for her anxiously awaiting big brother at college in Bowling Green, Ohio, here is a shot of your baby sister hitting her 1,000 point shot and a few others....

Minnesota Basketball News November Issue

Maybe I'm just impatient this year because Shelby is a senior, but it seems like everything is being mailed later this year! The Breakdown, first issue of Minnesota Basketball News and still waiting for Kevin Anderson's Minnesota Yearbook to become available! That's my favorite one too! Oh well, something to look forward to....

And the first issue of Minnesota Basketball News came on my birthday and I won a sweepstakes on my birthday too, so not a bad day!

So....onto the current MBN issue. Here is what is in it that pertains to Bigfork this year:

Minnesota Basketball News' Girls' Polls

Class 1A

1. Ada-Borup
2. Barnum
3. New Life Academy
4. Adrian
5. New Ulm Cathedral
6. Murray County Central
7. BIGFORK
8. Brandon-Evansville
9. Ashby
10. Red Lake County Central
11. Cedar Mountain-Comfrey
12. Granada-Huntley-EC
13. Sebeka
14. Rushford-Peterson
15. Grand Meadow
16. Red Rock Central
17. Fulda
18. Hancock
19. Nashwauk-Keewatin (Section 7A)
20. Parkers Prairie

The Top 100 - State's Elite on the Court

They have 24 Centers, 23 Forwards and 53 Guards

There are only two from Section 7A-

Shelby Goble, Bigfork (5-6 Sr.) Will move to point guard this year. and
Charlotte Overbye, Mountain Iron-Buhl (5-8 So.) Emerged as a big scorer.

Wrenshalls' Andrea Gould is one of the Centers
Barnum's Katrina Newman is another Guard

On the preview page of Class 1A - Section 7 they have the following

The Starting 5

Teams- 1. BIGFORK 2. Nashwauk-Keewatin 3. Mountain Iron-Buhl 4. Floodwood 5. Chisholm
Players- Shelby Goble, Bigfork, Andrea Gould, Wrenshall, Essa Jacobsen, Cook County, Charlotte Overbye, Mountain Iron-Buhl and Risa Valentini, Chisholm

Coaches:

M. Ciochetto, Chisholm 512-233
G. Powell, BIGFORK 261-160
R. Scheuring, Cook 198-138
D. Battaglia, Carlton 163-128
J. Buffeta, MIB 155-92

They also have an action shot of Shelby on the page under the caption: "Top Teams have strong junior group"

Greg's Coaching Outlook: "We are looking for another successful year with four returning starters who averaged double figures in scoring. We should have good quickness and shooting. We have played good defense in the past and expect it to continue. We will need to develop depth, but we have some good young girls coming up." - Greg Powell

Quote: "This section should be led by Bigfork, Nashwauk-Keewatin and Floodwood. They return the nucleus of last year's team, which made it to the semifinals." Jeff Buffeta, Mountain Iron-Buhl

Minnesota FURY AAU Club Girls Power Rankings

The Minnesota Fury AAU club has listed their Power Rankings for all classes and have Bigfork ranked as #7 in their top 15. There are no other Section 7A teams listed in their top 15. Way to go Lady Huskies!

Bigfork Lady Huskies 2008-2009 Schedule

This is the girls' schedule for the 2008-2009 season:

* Section 7A game
** Northern Lakes Conference game

Dec. 2 - v. Cotton*
Dec. 4 - at Tower-Soudan*
Dec. 8 - at Littlefork**
Dec. 11- v. Chisholm*
Dec. 15- v. Orr*
Dec. 18- v. Cherry*
Dec. 29-31 - Hibbing Holiday Tournament
Jan. 5 - at Cook*
Jan. 8 - at Northland Remer**
Jan. 12- v. Northome-Kelliher*
Jan. 15- v. Deer River**
Jan. 19- at Nashwauk-Keewatin**
Jan. 22- at Blackduck
Jan. 26- at Babbitt-Embarrass*
Jan. 29- v. Northland Remer**
Feb. 5 - at Greenway**
Feb. 9 - at Deer River**
Feb. 12- at Hill City**
Feb. 16- v. Nashwauk-Keewatin**
Feb. 19- v. Littlefork**
Feb. 23- v. Ely* (Parent's Night)
Feb. 26- at Mountain Iron-Buhl*

Good Luck Lady Huskies!!!

Andi & Shelby with "The Jaguars"

Another fun picture that Shelby and Andi loved! They were both playing together for their AAU team the Gym Rats and we were in Menomonie, WI for the Great Lakes Shootout. The girls from this team were from the Chicago area and their rooms were right next to ours at the hotel. Of course Shelby, not being afraid to introduce herselve, had a blast talking and visiting with the girls in their rooms and listening and dancing to some really "cool" new rap music. I remember one was Mike Jonesssss....or something like that. Anyway, they had a blast and is a memory they will never forget....there was only one white girl on the team and her name was Katy...she would just take her time down the court not playing much defense at all and when she got her hands on the ball would shoot a "3" like it was nothing! She was quite the character!

This other picture of Shelby and Andi (taken the same weekend) is one of my favorites of them together...you can tell it was summer time because they both are nice and tan! Shelby's freckles come out and Andi's cheeks are a little red from working hard at the resort everyday...

Going Through Old Pictures

We have been sorting through a TON of old pictures so Shelby can make her senior page for next year's Annual. Of course many of them have to do with basketball and it brings back so many memories of fun times and it is so fun to look back at those little chubby cheeks and braces that most of them had...I'm glad I found this picture because I wanted to take a picture of the four girls during their last season of basketball together and have the two at Shelby's grad party.

This picture was taken after the Region 7 Pacesetter tournament in Eveleth. It was the 8th Grade tournament as Shelby was in 8th grade and of course everyone else on the team was in 7th grade. They had been in these tournaments since 5th grade and after many, many of them, finally took the Championship and were headed to the State Championship tournament in St. Cloud that summer. It was a fun time and one that they had worked so hard for over the years.

New Site to Purchase JAG Action Shots

As many of you know, I take a ton of action shots during the girls and boys' basketball games. You will see me all over the place with my camera in hand trying to get good action shots. I don't necessarily try and focus on any certain individuals (well sometimes I have to focus on my kid), but try to get good, close-up action shots of any athlete that is playing on the floor! Of course I am partial to Bigfork athletes, but there have been times when I have gotten a really good shot of an opposing team's athlete and no one to show it too!

I decided that this year I will post action shots from EVERY one of the girls and boys' games that I attend this year, including away games AND including the C-squad teams from Bigfork. I am usually at many of the tournaments of the younger kids and will post those also.

If you are interested in purchasing action shots from your athlete's games, then please visit the following site and look for the appropriate folder....there will be a main Girls Basketball folder with sub-folders of each game and the same with the boys, Boys Basketball with sub-folders from the games that I attend.

The site is: jgoblephotography.photostockplus.com

Please pass along the site to your family and friends that don't live close enough to attend the games...hopefully they will enjoy seeing photos of your child in action!

A Great Book to Pass Along

I read a coach's profile on Kevin J. Anderson's Girls Basketball Recruit site a couple of weeks ago and the coach said his favorite book was "Blind Your Ponies" by Stanley Gordon West. Of course me being the curious one, went to Amazon's site and found the book, read the ratings, and ordered it right on the spot!

I received it in the mail on a Saturday at noon and finished reading the 574 page book early Monday morning....it was wonderful! Could be about any VERY small town in rural America with a struggling basketball program with small numbers. A heartwarming story that any basketball junkie should read... even has a little romance going on! You don't want to stop turning the pages to see what happens and you don't want it to end.

It would be a nice Christmas present to anyone that loves basketball and loves to read!

The Breakdown's Preseason Rankings

The 2008 Volume #7 of The Breakdown found it's way to my mailbox today! I quickly paged through to their Team Profiles and Section previews and of course to see who was on their Fab 15 List for Class A Girls Basketball in the State of Minnesota.

Fab 15 Team Rankings

1. Ada-Borup (won state championship game last year against Barnum)
2. New Life Academy (made the state tournament last year and lost to Barnum in semi's)
3. Barnum (took second last year at state tournament)
4. Cedar/Mtn. Comfrey
5. BIGFORK!!!!
6. Fulda (won state championship in 2006)
7. Hancock (took second place in state in 2006)
8. Adrian
9. Brandon-Evansville
10. Sebeka
11. Rushford-Peterson
12. New Ulm Cathedral
13. Murray Co. Central
14. Nashwauk-Keewatin (our friendly neighbors and rivals)
15. Mountain Iron Buhl (another Section 7A rival)

Section 7A Preview

1. BIGFORK
2. Mountain Iron Buhl
3. Nashwauk Keewatin
4. Floodwood
5. Cook

Top Players in Section 7A

Charlotte Overbye, MIB
Shelby Goble, Bigfork
Megan Powell, Bigfork
Essa Jacobson, Cook County
Emily Youngstrom, Cook
Alissa Autio, Floodwood
Lindsey Kingsbury, Nashwauk

The Skinny: Bigfork is looking for its first section title and they seem to have everything it would take to get it done this year. They have four returning starters who all had several double-figure scoring games last year: Shelby Goble, Annalise Klamm, Adrianna Ivanovic and Megan Powell.

It's the Overbye show in Mt. Iron-Buhl, as three (and possibly even four) sisters contribute mightily to the Rangers. Sophomore Charlotte Overbye led the conference in scoring (23.9 ppg) and was honorable mention All-State, Senior McKenzie Overbye and Junior Ashley Overbye combined to average double-digits.

Nashwauk has a talentd group of juniors who made a run to the section semi-finals last year and come back with more experience. Floodwood also has its entire starting lineup back from a section semifinal visit.

Bigfork defeated Nashwauk three times last year (67-49, 46-35 & 53-47) and MIB twice, defeating them in the quarter-final game by 24 points. The girls were able to keep their top scorer, Charlotte Overbye, to 10 points in the game.

Let's get started already!

Update

The girls are anxiously awaiting their first practice on November 17th and are very excited about this year's season! We lost one starter in Jenna Beckner and it looks like that spot will be filled with Theresa Stewart, as she did very well in that spot in tournaments and summer league this past summer. We also lost sixth person off the bench Rachel Kacon who had a knack for hitting the 3. Both went off to college this Fall and Jenna is currently playing ball for Mesabi Range College in Virginia. We wish them both the best and are sure Jenna will represent Bigfork well on the college basketball court! Go get em' Jenna!

That would make the starting five: Sr. Shelby Goble, Jr. Megan Powell, Jr. Adrianna Ivanovic, Jr. Annalise Klamm and Jr. Theresa Stewart. The only other senior is Brittany Stewart. There are plenty of girls to come off the bench again this year but it will be interesting to see who will be the sixth and seventh person off the bench. It will be weird to actually see an "older" lineup this year as Bigfork has had such a young lineup for years....

The girls have new uniforms, new warmups and will have new shooting shirts for this year too! It will be exciting to see them run out the first game with everything new on. The girls love the new uniforms and the material is different that they have had in the past, it is like the collegiate uniforms.

I'm also anxiously awaiting the new Breakdown issue, Minnesota Basketball News first issue and Kevin Anderson's Minnesota Yearbook to see where the girls are ranked and the preseason picks for section favorites and top players. That will be interesting to see. The girls have only lost 6 games the last two years and their QRF on Minnesota Scores was pretty high last year. I should receive the Breakdown by Monday hopefully as they are being mailed out tomorrow....

I don't want to put a photo up of the new uniforms until they run out from their first game but will the day after that. Their first game will be December 2, 2008 against Cotton. Megan Powell only needs 11 points to hit her 1,000 points and I think she will easily accomplish that milestone on the 2nd! That will be a great way to start off the new season! I'll be sure and post pictures of that also.

Once I receive the issues that I described above, I will post the info as it pertains to the 2008-2009 Lady Huskies basketball team!!! Can't wait for the season to begin!