Pacesetter 9th Grade Girls

Red Lake's 9th grade girls accomplished a very challenging feat by winning the Pacesetter Region 8 Championship tournament, which was held in Bemidji, Mn. However, it is this teams 3rd time winning it, 5th gr, 6th gr, 9th gr and qualifying to go to the State Tournament, held this year in Maple Grove, Mn on June 24th.

The format is similar to the high school boys and girls post-season regional tournament, where the winner advances to the MN State tourney as 1 of 8 teams that will play to become the Champion of Mn! It is designed to give the younger players something to work for and the winner goes on to the Great 4-state Championship to face the winners of the Iowa, SD, ND and MN State Tourneys at the Xcel Energy Center this summer! The only difference is that schools aren't separated by the enrollment class system, but all schools from 1A-4A can play in this, so it gives us a chance to go against schools we normally wouldn't play and offers top notch competition.

The girls played well from the opening tip at 8:40am on a Saturday against Norman County East, and continued the good play against Kelliher/Northome to go 2-0 and earn the top seed in pool A, earning them a 1st-round bye in the bracket play.

Game 1 was a rematch with NCE, but it started a lot different as it took us a while to heat up and also was a very physical game, but we got on track for a 30-15 win to advance to the Championship game! The girls came out on fire and playing very well against Bemidji in the first half, but in the second half Bemidji turned it up and mounted a nice comeback, before our girls got some key stops and buckets to claim the 'ship with a 42-33 victory!!

The team was made up of:

L-R Adriah Sayers, Autumn Holthusen, Kaylynn Chaboyea, Marlene Blue, Lashaun Roy, Gerika Kingbird and were coached by Gerald Kingbird and Chris Jourdain