7th-grade boys 3rd in Pacesetter Minnesota Invite Youth Basketball Tourney
The Mountain Lake Area (MLA) Wolverines 7th-grade boys basketball team played to a third-place finish in their grade bracket at the Pacesetter Minnesota Invitational Youth Basketball Tournament, with games played Saturday, June 20 on the campus of the College of St. Benedict in St. Joseph, near St. Cloud.
In addition to the squad from Mountain Lake, other 7th-grade boys teams in the bracket were from Willmar, Pine City, Minnesota Valley Lutheran (MVL), Cannon Falls, Esko, Waterville/Elysian/Morristown (WEM), Pillager, Tracy/Milroy/Balaton (TMB), Dilworth/Glyndon/Felton (DGF), St. Charles, Janesville/Waldorf/Pemberton (JWP) and Norman County West.
Teams playing in the Pacesetter Minnesota Invite Youth Basketball Tourney qualified by losing only one game in their respective regional tournaments.
Boys in grades 5, 7 and 9 – and girls in grades 6 and 8 – participated in the tourney.
The 7th-grade team from Mountain Lake advanced after finishing as Region 2 Runner-Up following games played at Minnesota State University-Mankato on Saturday, April 18.
On that day, Mountain Lake defeated Waseca in the first round, 30-18 to move on to the quarter-finals. The Wolverines topped Waterville/Elysian/Morristown, 34 t0 30, sending them to the semi-finals. Facing Minnesota Valley Lutheran, the Mountain Lake squad claimed a 15-point win, 52-37. The club faced Mankato East in the championship game, dropping that contest by eight, losing 28-36. The champion team and runner-up both move on – the champ to the Pacesetter Minnesota Youth Championship Tourney – and the runner-up to the Pacesetter Minnesota Invitational Youth Basketball Tournament.
In their opening round game of the state invite youth basketball tourney, the MLA 7th-grade boys received a bye, and, with a last-second three-point thriller in the quarter-finals, defeated Pine City 39-38 to move on to square-off against Cannon Falls in the semi-finals. Although they dropped that game by two points, 26-28, the team rebounded for a win to claim 7th-grade boys 3rd-place overall in the youth invite basketball tournament by downing Norman County West, 21 to 16.
Winning the 7th-grade boys invite tourney championship was the team from DGF, topping Cannon Falls (who had defeated MLA by just two points in the semi-finals), 35-22.
The team thanks MLA Boys Basketball Coaches Ryan Jans, Justin Thompson, Tim Snyder and Shawn Naas for their support and guidance.
The Pacesetter Minnesota Youth Championship Tourney on Sunday, June 21, also at St. Ben’s, featured the boys, grades 5, 7 and 9 – and girls, grades 6 and 8 – who were regional champions. On Saturday, June 13, 5th-, 7th- and 9th-grade girls teams and 6th- and 8th-grade boys squads who were region runners-up also played at St. Joseph in their respective age bracket championships. The region champs from those age groups faced-off in the championship tourney on Saturday, June 14.
The champion and runner-up in each age bracket of the Pacesetter Minnesota Youth Championship Tourneys are invited to represent Minnesota in the Pacesetter Great Four-State Championships at the Target Center in Minneapolis on Sunday, June 28. There they will compete against the top teams in their respective age brackets from Iowa, North Dakota and South Dakota for the overall four-state titles.
About Pacesetter
Pacesetter Sports began in 1980 by offering eight high-quality, low-cost basketball camps to 400 campers by sending top coaches directly to the host schools. Pacesetter Volleyball Camps were added in 1986 and soon Pacesetter was offering over 100 area camps to over 5,000 young people each summer.
Pacesetter also began hosting regional summer basketball tournaments for varsity players and now hosts two major varsity basketball tournaments, the Minnesota Invitational Tournament and Minnesota’s most prestigious summer tournament, The Sweet Sixteen.
The Pacesetter Minnesota Youth State Basketball Tournament for grades 5-9 was added in 1993 and annually fields about 700 teams.
In 2010 Pacesetter added youth basketball state championships for grades 5-9 in Iowa, South Dakota, and North Dakota with the top two teams from each state invited to play in the Great Four-State Championships at the Target Center in Minneapolis. Participation is growing as over 200 teams from the three states entered Pacesetter state tournaments in 2012.
Pacesetter Director Jeff McCarron was a member of Minnesota’s final one-class state high school champion at Sherburn in 1970 and the Minnesota Gopher Big Ten Champions in 1972. McCarron was also a charter owner in 1995 of the International Basketball Association that merged with other leagues to become the current NBA (National Basketball Association) Developmental League.
McCarron received his early camp mentoring from John Thomas, his college coach at Augustana College in Sioux Falls, South Dakota and an ex-Boston Celtic, through four years of teaching and directing summer basketball camps from 1976-1979.
The current Pacesetter “Fundamentals for Champions” basketball camp program is a compilation of teachings and experiences from championship basketball teams and coaches at all three levels: high school (Minnesota State Champions), college (Big Ten Champions) and professional (NBA Champions) levels.
Since 1980, Pacesetter has sought top high school and college coaches to direct summer camps for both volleyball and basketball, and hundreds of the Midwest’s finest coaches have stepped forward to share their knowledge with young athletes. Pacesetter added residential intensive training basketball camps in 2008 by offering 3-day, 26-hour Pacesetter Shooting Camps, Pacesetter Championship Basketball Camps, and “Best of Pacesetter” Basketball Camps. Most of these camps fill each summer with 48 players.
