Challenging the defending State champs

As the road to state starts, the girls basketball team has developed many different ways to prepare. One of the most unique ways the girls prepare scrimmaging against a team of senior boys on an intramural team. It is designed to help the girls gain skills from different competition that they’re not used to seeing.

Geoff Cooper and Derrick Johnson, seniors, are two of five who will be competing against the girls in the Lindbergh Center during the upcoming week of the State tournament.

“The girls are considerably better than us in many areas of basketball, but we try to emulate some of the teams they are likely to face during their bid for the state championship. For example, we learned various offensive, defensive, and miscellaneous plays that the Wayzata Girls Basketball Team likes to run. We used this, along with our height, to try to prepare the girls for the challenges that they would face,” Cooper said.

There are many benefits that the girls basketball team will experience. Another benefit is simulating a sense of real competition and urgency to focus and masters skills before the important games.

“We hope to help the girls be as best prepared as possible for their upcoming games, and help them bring a state championship back to Hopkins,” Johnson said.

Bill Cosgriff, head coach, emphasizes on the importance of practicing with the boys.

“The boys can give a bigger stronger, faster, more difficult competition,” Cosgriff said. “We don’t look for dramatic improvements, but scrimmaging the guys gives the girls an opponent to focus on.”