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State tournament notebook

By Ron Haggstrom and Amelia Rayno, Star Tribune, 03/24/11, 10:05PM CDT

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Once a Jaguar, always a Jaguar

Dave Montbriand had such fond memories of his playing days at Bloomington Jefferson that he figured it would be in the best interest of the Belgrade-Brooten-Elrosa program to carry on the Jaguar tradition.

The Belgrade-Elrosa and Brooten school districts combined during the 1988-1989 school year. Montbriand was an assistant coach with the boys’ basketball program at the time.

With any combined district comes change. For Belgrade-Brooten-Elrosa, it meant new school colors (blue and silver) and a new nickname (Jaguars), identical to Bloomington Jefferson’s.

“Those were my suggestions,” said Montbriand, who was a multi-sport athlete at Jefferson and graduated from the school in 1979.

“They didn’t go for the school song though,” Montbriand added with a smile. His team is the only unbeaten left in the tourney.

Still upset

Believe it or not, Zach Lofton’s 31-point day had a sticking point with the star senior guard. Apparently, he took an elbow to the hand the previous day at practice and claimed his jump shot was “off.”

“When I shoot, it hurts a lot,” he said. “I air balled out there like twice; that was crazy. That’s why I was so mad. I usually don’t do that.”

Playing for coach

Two years ago, New Prague was on its way to its last state tournament appearance when its season was abruptly struck by tragedy. Seven-year coach Jeff Gravon died in 2009, losing his battle with cancer.

A couple years later, with many of the same players still on the team, the Trojans found themselves at the tournament again, and once more honored their former leader.

Before tipoff, the players knelt in a circle. Signs calling to make Gravon proud perched in the crowd.

“It always is an emotional thing,” coach Tim Dittberner said, his eyes welling with tears. “These guys, all the way down through the program, he was a big part of this … he’s in our hearts the whole time.”

Grade school buddies

When Orono faces Columbia Heights in the 3A title game Saturday, Jordan Smith said he feels confident having a bit of an inside scoop on the high-scoring Lofton. Smith played on the same team with him for a couple years in grade school.

“I don’t know if I’m going to defend him, but we have a couple guys out there who are really good at getting up and getting in guys’ heads, so I think we’ll be able to do that,” he said.

State Tournament News