Thursday was a big day of basketball for Hayfield High School, with the girls team defeating against Cass Lake-Bena 67-57 in the Class 1A state quarterfinals at Maturi Pavilion and the boys team facing Goodhue for the Section 1A title Thursday evening in Rochester. The Hayfield boys are the defending state basketball champions, and that’s not the only recent state title for Hayfield.
Kasey Krekling coached the Vikings baseball team
to the Class 1A state championship last spring at Target Field. That team went
26-0 and the Krekling-coached Hayfield girls basketball team takes a record of
32-0 into Friday’s state semifinals against Minneota at Williams Arena.
That’s an impressive two-sport winning streak of
58 consecutive games for Krekling, a 2007 Hayfield graduate who teaches second
grade in his hometown and is in his sixth year as girls basketball coach.
Krekling’s streak reached 50 games on Feb. 11 when
the Vikings won a home game against United South Central. The basketball
players were well aware of what was happening.
“The girls
kind of figured out when it was getting close to 50,” Krekling said Thursday. “They
told me in the locker room, ‘We want to get you to 50,’ because it was at 45 or
something like that. I kind of lose track because it's two totally different
sports.”
Hayfield sophomore
Natalie Beaver, whose 22 points Thursday was second on the team to sophomore Kristen
Watson’s game-high 29, said Krekling is “a great coach. He pushes us but we
know he means the best for us. And he really goes above and beyond for
everything. He won't get outworked by any other coach. The film he watches and the
amount of time he puts in outside of our practices, it means a lot.”
Senior Aine Stasko, who had 13 points and seven rebounds Thursday, said, “He's really smart. He knows what he's doing and he knows how to get us a win. It's nice that we play well together and we work hard, but he's like the brains behind all of it. He deserves a lot of credit.”
Krekling, 33, said, “It just means that we have really good athletes in Hayfield right now. I'm very lucky to do what I do. I know this is a once-in-a-lifetime run. I'll be honest; I can't expect this ever again.”
A New Position For Minneota
Seeding the teams in most state tournaments is
done by the participating coaches, and the top half of the Class 1A girls
basketball tournament turned out to be a doozy this year. Those four teams came
to state with a combined record of 112-9.
Hayfield, the only unbeaten team in the state
regardless of class, was seeded fifth among the eight 1A teams. Cass Lake-Bena
had a pre-tournament record of 28-2 and was seeded fourth. Minneota, a perennial
state tournament team that was not seeded among the top five and came in with a
record of 26-4, rallied to defeat No. 1 seed Mountain Iron-Buhl 51-48 in
overtime on Thursday. The Rangers were 27-3.
“I think this
is the first time we've been in this position,” said Chad Johnston, who’s in
his 21st season as the Minneota coach, referring to not being seeded.
Minneota
trailed 26-14 at halftime Thursday before outscoring Mountain Iron-Buhl 31-19
in the second half to force overtime. The Vikings had trailed previously in
several games this season, including in a four-point loss to
Tracy-Milroy-Balaton in early February.
“We were down
21 at halftime (vs. TMB) and we played probably the worst half of basketball we’ve
experienced,” Johnston said. “And we worked our way back within one in the
second half, but we just couldn't get over that hurdle. So I think they had
confidence in what they're capable of doing. Staying confident, staying
positive and believing in yourself is a key part of it.”
The Busiest Coach In Basketball
Mountain-Iron Buhl’s Jeff Buffetta is a rarity
as someone who is the head coach of both the girls and boys basketball teams at
his school. This is the third season in which he has held both jobs.
The Rangers boys saw their season end Wednesday night
in Duluth with an 86-80 loss to Cherry in the Section 7A playoff semifinals. The
boys team had a record of 21-8; had they won on Wednesday they would be playing
for the section title in Duluth at 7 p.m. Friday. The Rangers girls will play Cass
Lake-Bena in the consolation bracket at 10 a.m. Friday at Concordia University
in St. Paul.
The Luck Of The Irish
The best Irish name at the girls state tournament
on St. Patrick’s Day: Ireland Stassen, Minneota junior forward. She had six points,
six rebounds, five assists and three steals in the Vikings’ win over Mountain
Iron-Buhl.
--MSHSL media specialist John Millea has been the leading voice of
Minnesota high school activities for decades. Follow him on Twitter @MSHSLjohn
and listen to "Preps Today with John Millea” wherever you get podcasts.
Contact John at jmillea@mshsl.org
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