Paul Lindsay can’t help but be excited for his girls basketball team for the 2104-15 season.

 

With a dozen girls on his varsity squad and just one senior, the future looks bright in his eyes and in theirs.

 

“We have good size and good team quickness,” said Lindsay. “We are strong at the guard position and some players have greatly improved. I think we’ll be a pretty tough team to beat this year.”

 

Lindsay has been the girls head coach since taking over for Justin Hegna in 2008. This may well be his best team he’s fielded since taking over the helm and he is determined to make the girls basketball program prolific like it was when it won a state championship in 2007.

 

This year he has a trio of towers in the middle in Alex Johnson, Carlee Kobow and Kalley Anderson. They cause matchup problems for opposing coaches as teams try to figure out how to penetrate or loft shots over the colossal centers.

 

At guard, Lindsay can utilize the talents of Whitney Raygor, Amanda Lindsay (Paul’s daughter), Alexa Hanowski, Rachel Vogel and returning point guard and scorer Abbigail Morrell, who sat out last year for personal reasons.

 

The last few years, the girls team has had the Thiesen  girls (Mauren and Maesyn) dominate the floor with their amazing basketball skills but the Thiesen family moved away from the area and the girls are playing elsewhere. That doesn’t seem to bother Lindsay nor the rest of the team.

 

“There’s not one kid on this team that sees themselves as a superstar,” Lindsay says. “It’s a group of kids that have a lot of basketball experience through AAU and varsity play and they understand what it means to be a team.”

 

And that “team play” is evident when one talks with the team leaders.

 

“We have a nice mix of girls who have been around awhile and play well together,” says guard Vogel. “There are no egos on this team and we look forward to playing and practicing with each other every day.”

 

“Yeah, we have good relationships on and off the court and that connection can take us as far as we want to go,” says Raygor. “The chemistry with this team is really good.”

 

With Kobow, Johnson and Anderson’s height and the speed and ball handling skills of the deep guard play, this team’s confidence is oozing as they get set to start play this week.

 

“Our strong suit, of course is our height and speed and I think our defense may be our strongest point,” said Kobow. “Me and Alex are not afraid of opposing teams and their players and we plan to occupy space under the basket and make it hard for them to score.”

 

Amanda Lindsay feels the same way.

 

“Yeah, our big girls should have big years and I think our defense should be better,” she says. “We’ll be more aggressive and look to cause lot of turnovers.”

 

Lindsay has a couple new assistant coaches this year on the sidelines along with Scott Gudmundson, who is entering his third year as a volunteer coach.  Brianna Mastey, Reyan Robinson and Heather Fahsl (who also is the school’s trainer), have returned to bring their basketball knowledge and experience to a championship-thirsty team.

 

“It’s always good to hire former players to come back to the program, especially former players that were successful in high school and then went and were successful in college.

 

Lindsay hopes Mastey, Robinson and Fahsl’s energy, knowledge and love of the game rubs off on his relatively young team.

 

“I’m excited to have those girls with me and Scott brings insight into a lot of situations both during the games and at practice,” said Lindsay. “He’ll bring a kid to the side and teaches them one-on-one and helps them fix their situation or just encourages them. He has a great rapport with the girls.”

 

“I love our coaches,” said Raygor. “I think they all have great knowledge of the sport and they push us to get better each and every day.”

 

“I love how much experience they bring to the team and every day I’m constantly learning new things,” said Amanda.

 

Foley is considered the Bulldogs’ toughest foe in the Granite Ridge Conference this year and if the “Dawgs make sections, Delano and Orono could prove to be formidable.

This year’s team is confident their play will improve as the season progresses.

 

“I think our team so far is looking pretty good,” said Kobow. “I’m confident we’ll be above .500 this year and fight for the conference championship.”

 

The team consists of Hanowski, Morrell, Vogel, Lindsay, Raygor, Renae Tripp, Payton Bernstrom, Johnson, Kobow, Anderson, Haley Benda and Madison Kerzman.

 

 

Raygor had 15 points including two three-pointers to lead Becker past Delano in a nonconference game Thursday night at home.

 

Morrell and Johnson each had 10 points for the Bulldogs (1-0) as nine players for the home team made the score sheet.

 

Erin Norling had 15 points for Delano (1-1).

 

Becker scored 30 first half points and 21 in the second, but it was their tenacious defense that dominated the play. Head Coach Paul Lindsay rotated his players in and out of the game effectively and caused the Tigers confusion on who should take the shot and when. Most of Delano’s scoring came from in tight but many of their shots were either blocked or missed the rim completely as they tried to penetrate through the speedy guards and the brooding centers.

 

The Bulldogs shot 11 of 20 from the charity stripe.

 

Raygor 15, Johnson 10, Morrell 10, Vogel 5, Lindsay 4, Anderson 4, Kobow 3, Kerzman 2 and Hanowski 2.

 

Norling 15, Brooke Lemke 9, Bria Barfnecht 7, Makenna Giese 4, Greta Halonen 2 and Kalley Koch 2.