Over 50 basketball teams warm up at the St. Cloud Breakdown tournament
It may be the offseason, but high school basketball gyms in central Minnesota have not been quiet this summer.
Varsity teams have been practicing and playing in tournaments all summer and this week over 50 varsity and JV teams from schools across the state played several games around St. Cloud, offering them a chance to compete before winter starts.
The teams, both boys and girls, were organized into pools by Breakdown Sports, the company that also organizes the Granite City Classic. Teams played several games each. With 20-minute halves with a running clock, they went quick with some squads playing back-to-back on one of the nine courts used for the tourney at the two public high schools and the Whitney Senior Center.
Both Albany Husky teams played. Last year the boys went 29-1 and the girls 28-1 en route to a pair of Class 2A final appearances and a boys championship.
The Husky boys have lost graduates like Tanner Reis, Ethan Borgerding and Tysen Gerads, who is committed to play at Minnesota State Moorhead this winter, but they have a solid core of young guys coming back with varsity experience. Second leading scorer Ezekial Austin will be back for his junior season as will Samuel Hondel, who had 10.8 points per game last year.
Jack Rieland will be a senior. He said he expects Albany to have another successful season and said the hoops teams had been to about five Breakdown tournaments, an average number for many area teams during the summer. Albany went 3-0 in St. Cloud and posted a team picture on social media in celebration.
Rieland said playing several games in a day isn’t exhausting, but he’s been practicing both basketball and football this summer, conditioning and preparing for both seasons at the same time. Many of his teammates and other athletes at the basketball tournament play several sports and go to more than one practice in a day.
Summertime basketball is about learning, many coaches agreed.
Sauk Rapids-Rice's second-year head boys coach Jason Allen said he had several impact players missing from his lineup because of football camp or vacation. The Storm have held practices for students in seventh-12th grades four days a week this summer and Allen said they have won a few Breakdown pools. He was most excited for the chemistry and relationship-building that he and the team have fostered after meeting each other last year.
During the season Allen will take individual things from games to improve on during practice the next day, but that’s not possible in the offseason. He’ll sometimes have points for specific players to work on, but saves most of the team-based coaching for the winter.
Foley girls coach Jay Storkamp uses the time to evaluate his new roster, experimenting to get a snapshot of who will play the best, where, and in what situations.
“What people work well together, what are their strengths or their weaknesses, that's basically what summer is all about,” he said. “A lot less focus on whether or not you're winning and a lot more focus on what kind of product are you putting out there. How are we doing blending together two groups that didn't play together last year?”
With the start of school and the fall sports season fast approaching, the tournament in St. Cloud was the endcap of the summer season for most teams. New Apollo coach Deon Pierce said it was nice to end on a high note hosting games on the team’s home court after the Eagles had no summer regimen last year.
The Eagles have focused on improving individually as players during the summer months, especially on defense. Pierce said it was an easy transition into the job because he has worked with or coached many of the athletes before. He was previously an assistant at Tech and said he enjoyed working with the North side squad.
“Sometimes you don’t play these highs schools during the regular season, so this is really good for them to get their exposure and play different teams and different styles of play,” he said. “... You also see where your team’s strengths are and where their weaknesses are.”
This article originally appeared on St. Cloud Times: Over 50 basketball teams play in the St. Cloud Breakdown tournament
