Athlete of the Week (3/31/10)
Doug Sewall was named "Athlete of the Week" in the Mar 24, 2010 edition of the Forest Lake Press. The caption reads: "Doug came through with a season high 24 points to propell the Forest Lake Boys Basketball team to a section victory over Blaine. The Senior forward is second on the team in scoring, averaging 11.9 points per game."Sam Miller was named "Athlete of the Week" in the Mar 25, 2010 edition of the Forest Lake Times. The caption reads: "No plays were bigger in Forest Lake's section title game, than Miller's two hard shots in the lane. The Senior Captain gave the team a lead it would not relinquish. He averages 9 points on 55% shooting."
TC Hoops Czar announces his 2010 Awards (3/22/10)
The TC Hoops Czar (website), picked Zach Riedeman as the Suburban East MVP, and Dan Cremisino as Coach of the Year.
The Czar also attended the Forest Lake / Duluth East, Section 7AAAA final game. Read his write up here.
FL on their way to State (3/20/10)
Forest Lake will take on Hopkins in a first round game on Wednesday, March 24, at 10am. Click here to see the full bracket.
Listen to the audio broadcast of the Final Section game here against Duluth East.
Listen to the audio broadcast of the Second Section game here against Anoka.
Athlete of the Week (3/18/10)
Doug Sewall was named "Athlete of the Week" in the March 18, 2010 edition of the Forest Lake Times. The caption reads: "Sewall, a senior captain, took on the lead role when his team needed him most, scoring a season high 24 points in the close sectional win over Blaine on Thursday."
One of the great rights and duties of a sports columnist is to throw caution to the wind and cast fearless opinions out for all to read and ridicule.
Naturally, we’re wrong a lot. From the typos we print to picking the wrong games to cover, we’re often left banging our heads on the wall.
So I’ll be the first to admit I was wrong when it comes to this year’s basketball boys.
When the likes of Ty Cremisino, Griff Lentsch, John Young and Ben Hoidal graduated off last year’s squad, I figured another 20-win season was not in the cards. And when coach Dan Cremisino told me of his high hopes for this season, I figured I was just getting the always-sunny, glass-half-full rhetoric that is standard in prep sports.
But here we are, four months later, and Forest Lake is 22-5, SEC champs and ranked eighth in the state.
So what gives? Of course, I figured Zach Riedeman and Doug Sewall would form as good of a one-two punch as anyone around, and that has been the case and more. I expected Phil Hegseth to make a smooth transition to an increased role, and that has also been true.
In hindsight, I was focusing on the talent leaving the team, and not the talent coming back. Assistant coaches Dan Jacobs and Tim Conley are quick to praise the supporting cast around Riedeman and Sewall. After a slow start, Hegseth has been lights out. Newcomers like Tyler Bey, Evan Johnson, Jordan Berner and Tyler Rosenberger have all contributed. Everyone in maroon and gold can run the floor and knows the open post offense.
The coaching staff is another key. Cremisino and Jacobs have coached together for 10 years now at one level or another. Conley, the former FLHS head coach, calls Jacobs “just amazing” and says Jacobs and Cremisino are always on the same page.
Most importantly, all involved have hinted at a certain “it” feeling about this year’s squad. Whether “it” is the way the team has found a way to win close games or has stepped up against top competition is unknown, but the “it” factor never hurts come playoff time.
Now, granted, the season could be over by the time this hits the newsstands, and I’d once again look foolish. But with all the thrilling wins (overtime against Cretin, triple-overtime against White Bear, buzzer-beater versus Roseville) and all the slam dunks, it has indeed felt like a charmed season.
This year’s team even has the blessing of former FLHS star Todd Poepard, a member of a previous Ranger state team (1994) and the former point guard whose career and season scoring records Riedeman has dashed this year. Now working for Apple Valley school district, Poepard calls Riedeman a tremendous talent and wishes the Rangers the best, even if they match up with Apple Valley at state.
“I’m still a huge Ranger fan,” Poepard says. “I always cheer for Forest Lake, even over Apple Valley. I just don’t admit it down here.”
FL gets 2nd seed going into Section (3/8/10)
Forest Lake received a second seed position for 7AAAA Section play. They start with Blaine on Thursday, March 11. With a win, they will see either Anoka or Cambride-Isanti the following Tuesday. Click here to see the full bracket.
Athlete of the Week (3/8/10)
Sam Miller was named "Athlete of the Week" in the Mar 3, 2010 edition of the Forest Lake Press. The caption reads: "Sam scored 27 points in conference victories over rivals White Bear Lake and Mounds View for the Forest Lake boy's basketball team. The senior forward is averaging 10 points a game this season."Zach Riedeman was named "Athlete of the Week" in the Feb 25, 2010 edition of the Forest Lake Times. The caption reads: "Riedeman setting the career scoring record with 1,231 points is another highlight of what could be a special season for him and the team. He is up for Mr. Basketball and the team is ranked fifth."
FL wraps up SEC Basketball Title (3/3/10) FL Times Article
Forest Lake has clinched the Suburban East Conference basketball title. The Rangers' win at Hastings on Tuesday, combined with Cretin-Derham Hall's loss to Stillwater, gives Forest Lake (15-2) a two-game lead over the Raiders (13-4) with just one game remaining. The Rangers close out the regular season at Park on Friday.
Article by Clint Riese, Sport Editor, Forest Lake Times
Current seniors eclipsed two marquee Ranger records last week. Charlie Janssen and Zach Riedeman surpassed career totals that put them atop the leaders in Forest Lake history.
Janssen on Friday set a new high for career wins in the wrestling program, notching number 184 with a 49-second pin of his Blaine opponent in the first round of team sectionals at Coon Rapids.
The previous school record was held by 2006 state champion and current assistant coach Jordan Kolbow.
“It feels pretty good,” Janssen said. “I’ve been working at it pretty much since seventh grade. I’m honored to be in the same presence as Jordan and all the Marrs and all them.”
Janssen, who learned he was on pace for the record as a sophomore, now hopes to cap his career with a state title of his own. He has taken fifth the past two seasons.
Riedeman’s record came last Tuesday in White Bear Lake in a game where he forced overtime with a buzzer-beater and won it with another late shot in triple-overtime. A first-half free throw gave him 1,231 points, surpassing the mark Todd Poepard set in 1995.
“It’s an honor to be part of Forest Lake history now,” Riedeman said. “When I was a freshman I remember telling my mom that I was going to break the all-time record at Forest Lake, so it’s nice now that it’s actually happened.”
Going into Tuesday’s game, Riedeman needed 40 points to set the single season scoring record, also held by Poepard. He has 514, for an average of 24.5 per game. (A 2005-06 rule change lengthened games from eight-minute quarters to 18-minute halves.)
Rangers Ranked higher in the Top 10 (2/20/10)
With a win over then rated #4 Cretin-Derham Hall, the Rangers were moved up to the #5 spot, while CDH was moved down to #6. The Rangers have been ranked in the top 10 for the past three weeks. With wins over White Bear Lake and Mounds View, the Rangers should continue to be ranked.
On February 3, 2010, the Forest Lake Rangers received a top 10 ranking in the state of Minnesota AAAA division. At the #10 spot, the Rangers took on the #8 ranked Stillwater Ponies on 2/9/10. With a win over the Ponies, the Rangers were upgraded to #6 in the state, while knocking the Ponies off the list. On Friday, 2/12, the Rangers hosted the #4 ranked Raiders of Cretin Derham Hall. After a hard fought battle, the Rangers were victorious. Visit this webpage to see if this win propels the Rangers higher in the ranks.
Phil Hegseth was named "Athlete of the Week" in the Jan 28, 2010 edition of the Forest Lake Times. The caption reads; "The junior guard has had the hot hand in recent games. He went 4-5 from three point land on Saturday, 3-6 on Friday and had 12 points last Tuesday." Grinnell’s quirky system a fit for former Ranger
Article from Forest Lake Times, 2/28/10
Clint Riese
Sports Editor
When I was at college down in Iowa, one of our fellow D-III state rivals gained acclaim for its unorthodox, fun approach to basketball. The Grinnell Pioneers utilize a frenetic system of launching three-pointers and sending in subs in hockey-like shifts. Eventually, the story of the little school averaging over 100 points per game year after year found its way to ESPN the Magazine and Sports Illustrated. ESPN2 even broadcasted a game in 2005. For a state devoid of professional teams, that was pretty big news.
I’ve kept an eye on the team ever since, and so I just had to check in with former Ranger Griffin Lentsch this season. The Grinnell forward had never heard of the school until last year, and used highlights from YouTube to learn about coach David Arseneault’s system.
Fresh off an all-conference senior season with the Rangers, the 2009 FLHS grad is enjoying a productive freshman season. Before injuring his ankle Jan. 18, he led the Pioneers in scoring, averaging 18.1 points per game through his first 11 games.
Grinnell is off to a slow start at 4-10 overall, but has won two in a row. Scoring is down, compared to past years. The Pioneers have scored as many as 121 points and as few as 72. The team lost over 80 percent of its scoring from a year ago (when they went 18-7 and averaged 113 points per game) and Lentsch is among eight freshmen seeing playing time.
Lentsch did not yet know the prognosis for his ankle last Friday, but was happy to chat about his experiences so far:
Clint Riese: How did you end up at Grinnell?
Griffin Lentsch: I had an open mind.I wanted to play basketball and do track. [Forest Lake] coach Cremisino had heard about the system and how it was really shooter-friendly, so he e-mailed the coach and that’s pretty much how it got going.
CR: What was it like to learn the system?
GL: You have to break your habits you’ve been building for the last 10 years of playing...Usually when you shoot you’re told to follow your shot. Here, the shooter rotates back and plays defense. Things like that. It’s like hockey, five in five out every 45 seconds.
CR: Does each player have free will to shoot?
GL: We take the first good shot available, hoping for it to be a three. You set screens then you just re-screen.
CR: Conversely, it must be weird to allow over 100 points consistently.
GL: There is double the possessions. Everyone always says we don’t play defense. We do, we just have to twice as much.
CR: How has the transition to college ball been?
GL: It’s definitely a lot faster, everyone’s older and stronger. The one big difference is that in high school, there would be a couple people that weren’t as good as everyone else on the court...Here, every player is good. There is no weak link.
CR: Do you ever catch yourself just looking at the scoreboard and laughing?
GL: Sometimes it’s just ridiculous. It’s the first half and we’re in the 60s already.
All Minnesota teams won during the 4th annual Border Battle. Forest Lake beat Eau Claire Memorial High School by a score of 61-48. More info coming soon.
To see some clips of the game, click here.
Zach Riedeman was named "Athlete of the Week" in the Jan 13, 2010 edition of the Forest Lake Press. The caption reads; "Forest Lake High School's Zach Riedeman was higher scorer in two Rangers basketball games earlier this month, logging 20 against Cretin-Derham Hall Jan. 18 and 23 against Stillwater Jan. 5." The 4th Annual Border Battle is less then two weeks away. Here is some information on the event.
1. 8 Minute Quarters are used. Wisconsin Rules
2. All MN teams will wear their DARK uniforms. Wisconsin wears light colored for home games.
3. Tickets are available at the door for 7$for adults, 5$for students.
Current Standings:
2007: Wisconsin won 3 games to 2.
2008: Wisconsin won 3 games to 2.
2009: Minnesota won 3 games to 2.
Location
Eau Claire Memorial High School
2225 Keith Street, Eau Claire, WI
Google Map of Location
Zach Riedeman scored his 1000 career point on January 8th, 2010, at Cretin Derham Hall. Zach is 219 points away from Todd Poepard's career scoring record of 1230 points, set in 1995, for Forest Lake High School. Article from Forest Lake Times (1/6/10), Clint Riese, Sports Editor
Nowadays, it is almost unheard of for a basketball player to end up on the varsity team without having played on a traveling team at some point. The hours of extra practice and the countless extra games that club hoops provides is a crucial part of fielding competitive teams at the high school level.
Thirty years ago, though, Forest Lake lagged behind in the development of an entity to link Community Education instruction and high school coaching. When athletes from Central and Southwest junior highs would integrate at the high school, they were accustomed to playing against, not with, each other. Then they would face teams from around the area which had been developing chemistry for years.
Playing in the Skyline Conference in the 1970s, Forest Lake was able to get by on sheer skill, but the need for more development became apparent when the Rangers switched to the more competitive North Suburban Conference in 1976. Forest Lake stumbled to 0-19 by its second season in the league.
Enter new coach Steve Mahoney in 1978. The former Gophers assistant recognized the need for the players to come together before they reached high school and he mobilized a group of hoops parents to form a club.
Michael Retica, whose son Mark played for the high school at the time, agreed.
“We’re gonna get beat up a little bit,” he recalls thinking. “But guess what, the program is going to get better and in order to compete and get better, you’ve got to have something to feed into it, and Forest Lake was a growing district.”
Retica, along with David Olson and Norman Landerker, signed the articles of incorporation with the state in January of 1979, and the Forest Lake Hoop Club (as it was then known) was up and running by the winter of 1979-80. Mahoney took the lead in running the club.
“I had to have an umbrella to create something where we could bring all the kids from all the outlying areas,” says Mahoney.
The club did not charge for membership and did not cut players. For Mahoney and his high school staff, developing seventh-, eighth- and ninth-grade teams was all about getting numbers to the high school program. Current Ranger assistant Dan Jacobs was among those instrumental in getting the club up and running.
In the club’s first year, it fielded one team in each grade. By the second year, there were two teams in each grade, and three for each in year three. Extensive fundraising helped start an annual tourney in town.
The bustling club paid off at the high school level almost immediately.
“Five years after we got there we were [turned around] from rock bottom and the reason is because we did something kind of unique in that we de-emphasized the scoreboard,” Mahoney says. “When you identify with the scoreboard, you either win or you lose, so you’ve introduced losing into the equation.”
Solid foundation
Today, the Forest Lake Hoops Club (as it now goes by) provides two practices a week and about two tournaments a month for approximately 200 boys and girls in five grades. Two changes came about this winter – the addition of a fourth-grade program and the transfer of the ninth-grade program to the high school.
“It is a great start to the higher education levels of playing,” says club president John VanBergen. “The main thing is we want it to be a positive, fun thing for kids so they play [in high school].”
The participation in the annual home tournament illustrates the popularity of club basketball on a local level. The girls tournaments this weekend will feature 38 teams, while the boys event later this month will have 70.
The importance of the club is not lost on high school girls coach Jen Wagner. All of her current 19 varsity players came up through the club.
“The hoops club does an outstanding job of giving kids an opportunity to play competitive basketball for a little longer of a season, for more games and just a little more opportunity to develop skills,” she says.
These clips will only be available until Jan 15, 2010.
Coaches Singing
Coaches Dancing #1
Coaches Dancing #2
Doug Sewall was named "Athlete of the Week" in the Dec 17 edition of the Forest Lake Times. The caption reads: "It's easy to average a double-double when you actually get one every game. It's 3-3 so far for the senior post. He's been shooting at a 55 percent clip and hauling in over 14 rebounds per game." Varsity Schedule
JV Schedule
Sophomore Schedule
Tournament Webpage
Another succesful breakfast with the moms and coaches. Thank you to all the mothers for all you do for the Ranger basketball players.
Click on the photo to see a higher resolution image.
A new addition to the "Stats" - "2009-2010 Game Summaries" has been added to keep track of Zach Riedeman's milestone of reaching 1000 points this season. At his current average of 34.5 ppg, this should not take long (please, everyone knock on wood). Keep an eye on the home page, as a notice will be posted when Zach is approximately 2 to 3 games away from being the third player in Forest Lake Ranger basketball history to hit the millennium. The other two Rangers to score over 1000 are Todd Poepard with 1230 points in 1995, and our Sophomore coach Joey Ryan with 1052 points in 2003.
The Forest Lake Times Winter Sports Previews are now available here. To go directly to the Basketball preview click here. (once the image loads, click on the image to enlarge)
Breakfast with the Moms (12/01/09)
The mothers of all Sophomore, JV, and Varsity players are invited to the High School for breakfast on Dec 12. The breakfast gives the moms an opportunity to get to know your fellow mothers, meet the coaches, learn some of the plays, find out why the coach has "spirit fingers", and tour the locker room (all the good and bad that go with that activity). See the Calendar for more information.
Food Drive
The booster club will be collecting non-parishable food items before the game on Dec 5. Each student participating in the food drive will have a chance to win a prize at half time. Lets support our local food shelf while the need is great.
Congratulations to the 2009-2010 Basketball Captains, Zach Riedeman, Doug Sewall and Sam Miller
Over the past three season, a total of 22 Seniors have contributed to a very successful Ranger Basketball program.
Of these 22 Seniors, all 22 are presently enrolled in college...Believe It
Three senior basketball players recently completed their High School Football career with Forest Lake. All three were awarded with All-Conference honors
Sam Miller - All Conference
Zach Riedeman - All Conference
Doug Sewall - All Conference Honorable Mention
To participate in a high school activity, a student must pay the appropriate fee and must have on file the proper forms in the high school (and Junior High School) activities office: Click this link to read more.
Fees for Freshman
$190 Season cost
$100 Separate check for uniform deposit. This check will not be cashed unless there is an issue with the return of the uniform at the end of the season.
$50 Check made out to "Full Court Club" for car wash coupons. This is a total of 10, $5 coupons for the Shell gas station in Wyoming. You can elect to sell these coupons or use them for yourself.
$100 if you are selected to play on the Traveling Team.
Fees for High School Basketball 10-12
$315 Season cost
$100 Separate check for uniform deposit. This check will not be cashed unless there is an issue with the return of the uniform at the end of the season.
$50 Check made out to "Full Court Club" for car wash coupons. This is a total of 10, $5 coupons for the Shell gas station in Wyoming. You can elect to sell these coupons or use them for yourself.
2008 - 2009 New Inducties
- Single Season Top 10
- Ben Hoidal - FT percentage 79.6% (7th)
- Ben Hoidal - 3PT percentage 50% (1st)
- Zach Riedeman - Scoring 507 points (2nd)
- Doug Sewall - Rebounds 249 (6th)
- Career
- Ty Cremisino - Steals 99 (3rd)
- Griffin Lentsch - Blocks 25 (5th)
- Zach Riedeman - Steals 114 (1st)
- Zach Riedeman - Scoring 760 (8th)
- Zach Riedeman - Blocks 27 (4th)
- Doug Sewall - Blocks 38 (2nd)
- Single Game
- Zach Riedeman - Scoring 43 against Cretin, Feb 17, 2009 (1st)
2008 - 2009 All Conference
- All Conference
- Griffin Lentsch
- Zach Riedeman
- Honorable Mention
- Ty Cremisino
- Ben Hoidal
- Doug Sewall
- 22 out of 30 players received academic awards