Graduation

The day finally came for Shelby and her classmates from the BHS Class of 2009 to graduate! It seemed surreal to me and just did not seem like the day was here and she was actually graduating.

The Validictorian was Justin Mann who had just qualified for State in the shot put the day before and the Co-Salutatorians were Viki Krachtt and Britney Stewart. It was a very nice ceremony with Jacob Rahier (2008) and Jared Anselmo singing A Simple Man. The slideshow went well and when the choir went up to sing The Prayer was when I cried....seeing Shelby, Lise and Megan standing there together for the last time was what got to me.....ugh. So hard to believe she won't be with them next year!

Here are a few pictures from the day....the one of Shelby laughing was after they threw their caps and Joe G's got stuck up in the rafters! Leave it to Joe G!

I will post a few more pictures once I get them from Shelby's camera and my final note to end the blog after Shelby's grad party on the 6th....need to get through that this coming week!

Athletic Awards Photos

Just a few pictures from the Athletic Awards the other night. Megan received a ball for her 1,000 point and her 1,000 rebound. She made her 1,000 point the first game of the season and then reached 1,000 rebounds at the State tournament. That is quite impressive, both achieved during her junior year! Megan also was presented with her the 1,000 point club board that will be joining the others in the gymnasium.

There is a picture of the Senior athletes receiving their plaques. Missing was Sarah Rooks, Britney Stewart, Jared Anselmo and Michael Sheppard. Shelby and Justin both ended up with 13 letters each although Shelby was missing one year from volleyball, her ninth grade year, so I don't know what was up with that or if they just missed it.

Another picture is of the five girls receiving their Northern Lakes All Conference plaques and certificates. That was another first as Bigfork had five girls receive the honor this year, Theresa Stewart, Shelby Goble, Adrianna Ivanovic, Annalise Klamm and Megan Powell.

Finally, I took a picture of Shelby with Coach Powell and her "finished" board that will be put back up in the gym. She received the board last year with the final total. She did end up being the second highest scorer in Bigfork...so far. Mason claimed that title for a few years and it will be fun to see if his sister Megan will be able to claim that title back in the Powell family! You just never know what will happen!

Megan received the award for Most Assists, Lise for Most Steals, Andi for Most Rebounds, Shelby for Best Free Throw Percent and Lise for Most Improved. Greg has never given an award for the most points in a season. You can see how they worked as a team by the awards they were given. He mentioned that between everyone on team there were 500+ assists. (I can't remember the number he said but it was impressive)

He also mentioned that Shelby was picked as an All State selection for Class A teams in the State of Minnesota and that the Coaches Association picks 12 girls out of over 900 girls that are on Class A teams in the state, so she was in the top 2%! That was interesting to know....I knew it was a big honor and that really puts it into perspective.

It was a long night as the ceremony went for about 2 1/2 hours, but it was very nice. I didn't have my slideshow done and there were a few disappointed people, but they would have been there another hour if I had it done, so probably a good thing! I still plan on doing one and we will just get together one evening at the school and watch the show...then it can be as long as I want it to be!

Athletic Banquet Tomorrow Night

The BHS Athletic awards will be held tomorrow night at the Edge Center. I actually can't remember the time and will have to find out tomorrow! Last year they combined all the sports together and it actually went very well...the coach/coaches of each sport talk about their respective seasons and present awards, etc.

I was planning on doing a slideshow but never had the time to put it together the way I wanted so there will not be one....it would take hours and hours and I just don't have the time right now with graduation, etc. Maybe someday I will put one together for Shelby....

Lord's Army Youth Group Car Wash

Shelby is a member of the Lord's Army Youth Group from our sister church in Cohasset, Mn. The Good News Bible Church. They had a car wash today to raise money for a trip to Valley Fair that will be taken in August. The group started last September and has grown tremendously....they meet once each month and have had different trips and activities thrown in between such as a UMD football game, ice fishing with a ton of prizes, hayrides and bonfires and cookouts and more.

Today they had 54 kids show up and washed 53 cars! The cost was $10 per car and with that you got a free hamburger! Of course most people donated a little more than the $10 as it is going for a great cause...the kids were required to be at the car wash to be able to go to Valley Fair.

There are kids from Grand Rapids, Greenway, Deer River, Bigfork and Northome schools. I'm probably forgetting one or two....

The little girl in the pink shirt with Shelby is the one that I mentioned earlier in my blog that went home after youth group and emailed her grandma and said "you won't believe who was at youth group tonight! Shelby Goble! (right after they made it to State and her Grandpa was Shelby's coach and the Lady Huskies are her idols) It was so cute...

Here are some fun pictures that I took in a hurry....I thought the car wash was from 11-5 and it was from 11-1! We had church in Dora Lake until 11 so we got there a little after 12.....these are my favorite pictures to take....life in action (and kids and puppies to boot!)

Enjoy!

Senior Reception

Everything about the Senior Reception was very nice....simple, but yet classy and organized. The stage looked great and you can see in the pictures that they had their Stargazer flower with a quote as the backdrop. Char Westerman, Class President, gave a short speech and then they went directly into presenting a few of the awards. Jared Anselmo had a piano solo, that he composed himself. It was a beautiful piece.

Then onto more awards and presentation of the Class by Pam Francisco, who has been one of their class sponsors since 7th grade.

Here are a few pictures of the night....Char at the beginning, Shelby being presented the VFW - Orbin Holt Vocational/Technical Scholarship from Foster Bjorge Post 1764 and the three, Justin Mann, Britney Stewart and Shelby after being presented with "Stephanie's Gift" Scholarship from the Bigfork Ambulance Service representatives.

I am waiting for a copy of the picture of the class with the cakes but haven't gotten it yet and will post it at that time....

Senior Reception Tonight

The Senior Reception and Award Ceremony is tonight at the Edge Center at 7:00 pm. I have to pick up the two cakes that we ordered from Tracy Schaar over at Squaw Lake...she makes the BEST cakes and is very talented at decorating also...she will also be making Shelby's graduation cakes and a few other Bigfork graduates' cakes.

We always order our cakes from her...Desirae's wedding cake, Rod & Max's 50th Anniversary cake, Shelby's 1,000 point cake and many more....she is also a talented cook as her family owns the Mistic Strawberry Farm and they have a restaurant on the farm during strawberry season...her number is 659-4308 if anyone ever needs a delicious cake!

I will have to take a picture of them to post....(they are having two). One will have all of their names on it with the boys' names in black and the girls' names in hot pink with their class flower (a fresh Stargazer Lily) and the other will be the normal Congratulations Seniors in their class colors..

I'm hoping it will be a good scholarship night for all the seniors that put in scholarship applications. I know some didn't take the time to fill them out and others (like Shelby) filled out every single one they could! Shelby has heard back from some of them with bad news and some of them with good news...there will be others tonight that are announced that will be surprises. Shelby did receive a call last Friday from someone on the Grand Rapids Area Chamber of Commerce that she was in their Top 5 and they wanted to do a phone interview with her since she wasn't in town. She did the interview on Monday and they called her back yesterday afternoon and told her she would be receiving one of their scholarships! Yippee!!! Everything helps....will pay for her books for one semester!

I will post pictures tomorrow with the cakes and how she does scholarship wise....looks like it's clearing up outside as it was raining hard this morning...should be another beautiful day!

The End of Blog Coming Soon...

I have decided that I will end this blog once Shelby has graduated on May 30th, 2009....It has been fun keeping up with her and the Lady Huskies over the past three years and since her time will be done at Bigfork High School, it is time to end this blog.

The purpose of this blog was to journal her high school basketball career, along with her teammates on the Lady Huskies basketball team. I tried to post any and all accomplishments regarding the team and the individual girls over the years, along with photos from the games that I attended. (My favorite part!)

Truthfully, the comment that was made about my daughter on an earlier post has brought me to this decision. I can't even tell you how many hours I have put into this blog and I hope it did bring some enjoyment to a few proud parents and family members....hopefully another parent or interested Lady Huskie fan can start another blog to keep up with the team next year as I think they will have another successful season.

I was originally going to keep it going through next year but will now end it and focus on life after Basketball in Bigfork....mine and Shelby's at ICC in the Fall. She registered for her college classes last Friday and it made me happy to see her so excited about starting college and making new friends. We had lunch with Coach Bauer and he mentioned me starting a new blog on the Lady Viking basketball team next year...so that is what I will pour my extra time in.

I will post info the next two weeks up to her graduation and then will stop posting....the blog will stay up so people can view the past few years, maybe. I might just delete the whole thing too....haven't quite decided on that yet, but will in the next two weeks.

Looks like it is going to be a beautiful day today!

First Prom Out of the Way, Sort of....

Shelby went to the Blackduck Prom last night and had a great time...I'm happy that she was able to such a nice event.

Anyway, here is a picture of Shelby with her best friend Larissa and their dates....no boyfriends, just all friends.

Short Update

Not too much going on but working on graduation things for Shelby and for others. I got the last half of Shelby's invitations in the mail today and have a few to hand out at church on Sunday and then that will be done! Yeah...

I dropped off Shelby's uniforms at the school today as I got them washed up after the All Star games in Minneapolis. I also had to drop off the ball from her "1,000" point game so the art teacher can paint the date, 1000 points and then her final career total will also go on there. Greg said her final was 1,880 points and she is now the second highest scorer on the wall behind Angie Chernugal with over 2,400 points. When she hit her 1,000 points she was at the Holiday Tournament in Hibbing so they gave her the game ball and it has an anchor on it so that makes it special too.

Tomorrow I am busy working on a couple of graduation invites for seniors and a senior picture order from a session in October....nothing like waiting until the VERY last minute! I also need to work a little more on the senior slide show...scan two more of the seniors and wait for a couple more to give me theirs...then I can finish it up and put the music to it. It has been fun to see all of their baby pictures.

A chilly and rainy day today and tomorrow so it will be a good day to sit at the computer and work on things....

A Few Pictures From All Star Series

Here are just a few pictures. I didn't get too many the second game that were to my liking. I didn't have my camera set right or something because they are a little too fuzzy! I'm just posting one of the Class AA team and where they are all going to college and a picture of the "remaining" six girls from the Class A team. As you can see, they are pretty wore out! They lost to the Class AA team 100-61. The reason they only had six was one girl had prom Saturday, one girl had a big softball tournament and the other one left the hotel Friday night, stayed out until very late and when she got back she was told she was off the team and could not play the next day. The right thing for them to do and it left a hardship for Class A, but had to set a precedent for the future.

I like the pictures of the Class A team from the first game as they are all in their home uniforms and the colors are great! They had 9 girls that game but lost 81-57 to the Class AAA team. They had girls going to St. Cloud State, Providence College, Briar Cliff/Southwest, two to University of Minnesota, Bethel University, Drake University, University of MN-Crookston and a couple undecided. The one picture of Shelby "trying" to guard Princeton's #25, Katie Loberg, is 6'4" and going to the Gophers. Lots of talent on all of these teams.....

I just have her home uniform to wash up and then we can return her uniforms to the school for the last time....sad but she is ready for a new start with a new program and new teammates. She will surely miss the Bigfork girls, but it's time to move on.....

So Impressed with the MN Coaches Association All Star Series

What a wonderful couple of days I had with Shelby and her Grandma Max....this had to have been the classiest, most enjoyable All Star games I have ever attended! Not taking away from the other All Star Games' Shelby was in this year, but this event was very put together and just VERY nice all around. I was just so impressed with everything and even though the Class A team lost both of their games, it was an honor just to be a parent of one of the players and enjoy it all....

My mother-in-law and Shelby's Grandma, Maxene, came with us and we had a very nice time...we left Hibbing Thursday afternoon after Shelby and the Bigfork Choir competed in the State competition in Virginia and got to our hotel around 6:30 pm....my driving directions from Google worked just great!

We checked in and of course had to get off to the Mall of America right away as that was the only day Shelby would be able to get any shopping done...and if you know my Shelby, she LOVES to shop! But we did have a few things we needed to get for graduation, so it worked out great and we had fun. We took Grandma Max to the Bubba Gumps restaurant on Floor 3 and it was delicious. We were pretty tired after and headed to the hotel and went straight to bed....up early to get ready and get Shelby to the Minneapolis Hilton by 9:00 a.m. Traffic was a little busy at it was morning rush hour but we got there in plenty of time. Parked in the parking ramp and had to pay $5 just to walk her in and then be told to leave right as we dropped her off! The lady asked what Class she was in and when we said Class A, she said "okay, you can leave now!" So we did.....paid $5 for parking for about 15 minutes....

We left for IKEA to shop for some graduation party items and then to the Mall of America again...took Max to Johnny Rockets for lunch and she got a kick out of the old fashion diner as we ate at the counter and put our $.15 in for three songs from the jukebox. Roy Orbison, Dion and I can't remember the other one.....went back to the hotel and relaxed for about an hour and then off to the first game at MacCalester College. What a super nice venue that was...brand new. We walked in and Shelby's coach from Bigfork (Coach Greg Powell) was there with Adam Johnson, a UW-Superior asst coach. We went in with them and waited a bit for the teams to arrive....they walked in with their new Nike warmups and looking sharp. Visited with Amber Dvorak's parents for a bit and with Amber, as she couldn't play in the first game as she is a Division 1 recruit and can only play in two all star games. She played in the Border Battle with Shelby so that counted as one game and since this one had two games, she could only play in one of them and they decided she would play in the second game. She was told to play it cool and not attract attention could not even step on the playing floor!

Class A played Class AAA and lost that game 81-57. I believe both teams had 9 players but the Class AAA definately had height advantage and another 6'5" Gopher recruit. I was amazed at the talent and the majority of the girls playing were going to Div 1, 2 and 3 schools. There were a few that were undecided but most were commited. Each girl wore they own school jerseys and the Class A team were the home team, so they wore the dark jerseys....my favorite because they were all different colors! I will post pictures tomorrow as I just downloaded them and haven't gone through them yet....

The next game was Class AA vs. Class AAAA and that was a much closer game. I can't remember the final score but it was back and forth and close the whole game. AAAA might have won by 5? Can't remember! Fun game though and I thought Class AA was going to win it the first half.

Today Class A was shorthanded and only had six girls....very hard on them as the Class AA team had their 9 girls and all were very talent girls going to Division 1 and Division 2 schools. Class A actually played close for a bit but since there was no relief for the three guards (played the entire game), it was just too much for them. They subbed the three taller girls and the three guards stayed in the entire time. So Andrea Gould (Wrenshall), Alyssa Gullekson (Fertile Beltrami) and Jessica Benson (Grand Meadow) all took turns, each one sitting and taking their turns on the court. Nicole Smart had the hot hand today for Class A and was awarded MVP honors for their team while Brittany Chambers was awarded MVP for the Class AA team.

I will fill in some more info tomorrow as there is more to talk about....here are a few pictures of the girls from Shelby's camera and the banquet....I will fill in about the banquet tomorrow and go through my action shots tomorrow....late and ready to hit the sack! Here are some cute ones from today.....some are in the locker room from today's game and the others are from the banquet this morning...one has the four roommates with Gopher Emily Fox (guest speaker) and the other picture they are with Taylor Hill (Ms. Basketball winner). Shelby roomed with Nicole Smart (Ada-Borup), Sam Lynn (Adrian) and Alyssa Gullekson (Fertile-Beltrami). Ada-Borup was the Class A State winner this year and Adrian lost to Barnum in the first round game at State this year by only a few points.