Upon seeing St. Thomas Academy on a schedule, many outstate small school programs who would put a big star on their calendar as it would be the only big city name team they would face all year. That’s not the case with Perham who spent their summer playing teams of all kinds at Pacesetter events, Breakdown events, and team camps. In other words, big name schools do not scare the Yellowjackets.

Perham impressed at Tubby Team Camp Perham facing Holy Angels and Robbinsdale Cooper amongst others and at the Breakdown Fab 4 the Yellowjackets played both Benilde-St. Margaret’s and Apple Valley to the wire.

They return the vast majority of their state title team including four starters. Strong, agile, and underrated state wide, Jordan Bruhn is a 6-foot-2 point guard who attacked middle consistently on all the teams named above. He will have Jordan Cresap and Eli Beachy on the wings to hit treys and 6-foot-6 Mark Schumacher inside to finish at the rim.

As good as Perham is as a team the Cadets will have the best player on the court in 6-foot-5 shooter Thomas Sjoberg. For the Cadets Sjoberg consistently hits from the outside plus scores around the rim, rebounds, and plays solid defense. Sjoberg, the son of Cadets’ Coach Mike Sjoberg, should have a consistent big to work with in A.J. Piram plus quality guard play from Nick Waldvogel and Mitch Newburg.

This will be a good test for both squads because the Cadets are consistently one of the best defensive teams in the state while Perham is a defending state champion who should be even better a year later.