Head Coach Dan Baird will be challenged this year when his team faces opponents of towering size, but he is sure his squad of girls will be one of the quickest and most athletic.
The girls will be sporting new varsity uniforms with 11 athletes starting the season on the 12th trade roster. Baird has 27 girls in the program from varsity to JV to C-Squad.
Assistant coaches will be Alyssa Stevens (C-Squad), Dominic Squires (JV), Scott Gudmundson and Hokan Bengtson. Their opponents in the Granite Ridge Conference (their final year before moving to the Mississippi 8 next year) are Cathedral, Zimmerman, Milaca, Mora, Foley, Little Falls and Albany.
Added to this year’s schedule are locals Annandale and St. Cloud Tech while they lose playing Mora and Rocori for the season.
A new rule change for this upcoming season is the new “restricted arc rule” patterned after the NCAA for the MSHSL. The rule states, “A secondary defender cannot establish initial legal guarding position in the restricted area for the purpose of drawing a player control foul/charge when defending a player who is in control of the ball (i.e. dribbling or shooting) or who has released the ball for a pass or try.”
The restricted-area arc will be a solid single-colored two-inch line formed by a semicircle measured from the center of the basket to the inside edge with a radius of four feet and extending in a straight line to the front face of the backboard.
Baird’s top players who are expected to carry the scoring are guards Julia Bengtson and Courtney Nuest. He also has freshman Adeline Kent who he is expecting to “score a lot of points.”
Jenna Mittelstaedt, a junior, is a varsity girl lost for the season with a knee injury.
Megan Gamble is Baird’s tallest player at 5'10.
“Our strength will be our press,” Baird said. “Last year our opponents averaged 7.0 more turnovers a game then ourselves.”
Baird expects this year’s squad to reach the 20-win plateau and compete for the GRC title as well as advance in the Section 5AAA playoffs. The team’s most formidable challengers on the schedule will be Hopkins, Alexandria and Willmar.
“Hopkins is a top ranked AAAA school,” he said. “Willmar and Alexandria will be ranked top five preseason AAA schools. Annandale, Big Lake and Cathedral will also be nice tests.”
Baird enjoys coaching and encourages the youth to pick up a basketball and have some fun if they ever want to sport a uniform with a Bulldog on it.
“Fall in love with being in the gym,” he tells the youngsters. “Our current roster is full of girls that put a lot of time into their craft (ballhandling, shooting, agility, weights). These girls are intrinsically motivated which is nice to see.”
Baird says as head coach, he works hard for his girls and he expects no less from them.
“My biggest goal as coach is to create a positive culture while teaching a growth mindset to set these girls up for success with this sport and their future.”
The varsity roster consists of: Aly Gruenes, Whitney Schug, Cayla Paumen, Alana Lindquist, Courtney Nuest, Julia Bengtson, Adeline Kent, Lexi Masog, Megan Gamble, Jackie Yoerg, Jenna Mittelstaedt, Dani Nuest and Amber Vogl.
The team kicked off the regular season Tuesday against Willmar and Thursday against Delano (see results in a separate article in this week’s Citizen-Tribune).
