Nobody was
saying the girls basketball team from Mountain Iron-Buhl was carrying a jinx,
but the Rangers’ history at the state tournament sure could have made you
think.
Year after
year, the Rangers followed a pattern: Great regular season, whip through the Section
7 playoffs, head down from the Iron Range to the Twin Cities for the state tournament
… and come up short of a title.
They came to
state in 2011 for the first time since 1994. They were the Class 1A runner-up
in 2012. They returned in 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 and were runner-up again in
2017. Another appearance came in 2018, then 2019, 2021 and 2022.
The
Rangers were proud of their matched pair of second-place medals, but nobody
wants to keep going to the well and seeing someone else pull up gold.
Maybe
the 13th consecutive trip was the magic number. Because they climbed
the final mountain on Saturday, defeating BOLD 52-21 at Williams Arena to finally,
finally, finally have gold medals on blue ribbons placed around their championship necks.
The team’s star and scoring leader,
junior Jordan Zubich, summed everything up nicely afterwards, saying, “We’ve
been down here so long. I said when we were in the lines getting our medals, ‘Holy
crap, guys, we just broke the streak! We broke the MIB curse!’ It's crazy.”
Crazy? There is for sure some
craziness to the story. But their championship is definitely a testament to
hard work, dedication, community support and a coach who has been leading the
way for a quarter of a century.
That coach, Jeff Buffetta, has a
file on his computer that contains the names of every team member who has
played at state. That’s 13 years of names, 13 years of kids, and he said he
doesn’t remember the exact number off the top of his head, but all those players
– some who have been out of high school for a dozen years – were on his mind
Saturday.
“I’m very proud of the success of
our program,” he said. “I think back over the last 13 years and our trips here
and all the assistant coaches we've had and all the players that we've had that
dedicated all the time and showed these guys what it's like to show up every
day and put in the work. And it was just awesome to see them finish it off.
“I really believe that all of them were
here with us today and were enjoying it every bit as much as if they were still
playing. It's pretty awesome for everybody.”
The state championship continued a
stellar school year for MIB athletics, coming on the heels of the football team’s
first state title last fall.
The Rangers girls basketball team lost
to Maranatha Christian 49-37 in the 2012 title game and to Goodhue 73-51 in 2017.
This week they defeated Minneota 65-50 in Thursday’s quarterfinals and
Belgrade-Brooten-Elrosa 61-57 in Friday’s semifinals. They finished with a
record of 30-3.
The championship victory was
grounded on unrelenting defense. BOLD shot just 17.4 percent, making eight of
46 field-goal attempts; MIB shot 42.9 percent (21 of 49).
“The whole thing is the focus on
defense,” said Buffetta, a 1994 MIB grad. “These guys, they like to gripe once
in a while about the basic defensive drills and all the things that we do. If
you watch the defensive discipline and intensity like they had today, you don't
worry about missing shots, you just play defense and create offense off the defense.
I think they were locked down the whole game today.”
Zubich led the scoring with 15
points, followed by juniors Gabby Lira and Hali Savela with 10 apiece. Lira,
who is 5-foot-8, also had a game-high 13 rebounds. BOLD (26-6) was led by sophomore
Lainey Braulick’s eight points.
Sage Ganyo, the only senior on the
MIB roster, finished with nine points, six rebounds and one of the biggest
smiles in the building.
“It means the world,” Sage said. “This
has been my dream since I was in the womb and just to have it come true, it means
so much. I'm just so proud of these guys.”
The pride has always been there for
the Rangers. They have become one of the premier programs in the state and
expectations will be higher than ever next season.
But for now, they’re experiencing
what everyone has dreamed of for all these years.
“I didn't quite know what it would
feel like,” Buffetta said. “It feels good.”
In one of the most touching postgame moments, MIB’s Savela was asked
about achieving a championship on a team that includes her mother and assistant
coach, Dawn Savela. Her sister Macy, who is five years older, played on a
string of state tournament teams. Tears came to Hali’s eyes as the question was
asked.
“It's really special,” she said of her
mom. “She's always been there for me. And it's just so awesome to be able to share
this with her, and my sister up there supporting us in the stands. It's really special.”
BOLD was playing in its first state championship game, and the
Warriors knew what kind of a challenge the Rangers presented.
“Well, that obviously didn't go
quite how we wanted but that's the game of basketball,” said coach Brian
Kingery. “Sometimes you just can't put the ball in the hoop and today we didn’t.
You do that against a team like Mountain Iron and they can make you pay.
They're a good team. They got a lot of capable players, they play good defense,
and today we came up short.”
Amid the disappointment, Kingery
flashed a smile while standing on the court, holding the second-place trophy as
the Rangers received their first-place medals. He leaned over to the player
standing next to him in line, senior Lily Dean, said a few words and smiled.
“You have to appreciate each moment
that you're given. And these opportunities don't come by all the time,” he said.
“And today, it was an opportunity. Yes, it didn't go our way but I'm not
disappointed with our girls. I'm proud of our girls. The way they played and
conducted themselves on and off the court, they are great, great kids. And
that's what I'm proud of. So I was joking with Lily there and we were just
having a little laugh. And sometimes you need that. It's not just about being a
coach. Sometimes it’s just about being a person to somebody else.”
Kingery, a science teacher who also
is the head coach of the Warriors baseball team, has daughters who are in sixth
grade (Mya) and third grade (Harper). He said the experience of coming to state
and playing at Williams Arena will be felt long after this weekend by everyone.
“My daughters both said, ‘I want to
play here someday.’ That’s awesome.”
He was asked
about the success BOLD has experienced in several sports in recent years, and
instead of talking about winning he focused on what goes into winning.
“The goal isn't necessarily to win a
state title. It's to be a competitor. And you compete because you have to
compete in life every day. You want a job, you want to get into college, you
want to find a special someone, it doesn't matter. It's competition. And so we
try to create a competitive environment to push kids to see what they're made
of. And by doing that, we've created a winning culture.”
Providence
Academy Repeats As Class 2A Champ
The
Providence Academy Lions, playing in the 2A title game for the third year in a
row, captured their second consecutive championship with a 74-60 win over
Albany.
Two years
ago, Albany defeated the Lions 57-43 in the title matchup. Albany, which also
won championships in 1980, 1983 and 2008, finished this season with a record of
30-2; Providence Academy also closed at 30-2.
Ninth-grader
Maddyn Greenway led the Lions with 31 points, five rebounds, five steals and
four assists. Grace Counts had 17 points and 16 rebounds, and Hope Counts added
seven points and 10 rebounds. Albany was led by Alyssa Sand with 29 points and
21 rebounds. Tatum Findley had 11 points for the Huskies.
--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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