The Kindred Girls and Four Winds-Minnewaukan Boys basketball teams both capped perfect seasons with a state championship.
The Vikings and Indians are well represented on the North Dakota Associated Press Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association’s list of year-end winners.
Kindred was named Women’s Team of the Year and Abby Duchscherer senior, winner of the Vikings’ Miss Basketball Award, was named Female Athlete of the Year. The Women’s Team of the Year co-coaches were Jamie Zastoupil of Century Volleyball and Jason Schwarz of Minot Basketball.
Four Winds-Minnewaukan was named Men’s Team of the Year and longtime Indians head coach Rick Smith was named Men’s Coach of the Year. Dickinson’s Troy Berg was named Male Athlete of the Year.
Women’s Team: Kindred Basketball
The Vikings went 25-0, winning the Region 1 and Class B state championships.
Three Kindred players will compete in college – Duchscherer in softball at Alabama, Terryl Johnson in basketball at Minnesota State-Moorhead and Tina Freier in basketball at Jamestown.
The Vikings beat their opponents by a margin of 35 points per game and held their foes to less than 38 points per game.
The other finalists were Minot Soccer and Century Volleyball.
Female Athlete: Abby Duchscherer, Kindred
Duchscherer stood out in three sports for the Vikings.
The Miss Basketball award winner averaged 19.5 points, 9 rebounds, 4 assists and 4 steals per game to help the Vikings win a state title. In track and field, she won a state title in javelin throw and was all-region selection in volleyball. A softball star, she played for a Sioux Falls-based club team throughout high school and will play for Alabama.
The other finalists were Logan Nissley from Century and Annie Nabwe from Jamestown.
Female Coach: Jamie Zastoupil, Century Volleyball and Jason Schwarz, Minot Basketball
Zastoupil led the Patriots to a 37-2 season. Century won its third straight state title and made its 11th straight appearance in a state title game. The Patriots defeated Bismarck in the National Finals after the Demons handed Century its only two losses of the season. Macy Fridgen and Logan Nissley were named to the States first team and Delani Clarke was named to the States second team.
Schwarz guided a young team of Majettes to the school’s first state title in over 40 years. Minot went 22-4, with three losses to defending champion Century and one to Bismarck. They captured the state title by breaking Century’s 51-game winning streak in the Finals, a 75-68 Minot victory.
Matt Pfau of Minot soccer was also a finalist.
Men’s Team: Four Winds-Minnewaukan Basketball
Four Winds-Minnewaukan fired only one senior from the previous season, but the Indians went 27-0 and won the state Class B title.
The Indians beat defending state champion Kindred 69-49 in the championship game.
The other finalists were Bismarck wrestling and Minot basketball.
Male Athlete: Troy Berg, Dickinson
Berg was a multi-sport star for the Midgets.
He was a first-team all-state football selection and led Dickinson in rushing and passing. Berg was named Senior Wrestling Athlete of the Year, finishing third at 160 pounds. And he was baseball’s West Region Senior Athlete of the Year, hitting .462 with 21 RBI and 38 runs scored and 17 stolen bases.
He will play baseball in the GPAC in Jamestown.
The other finalists were Paul Olson from Kindred and Trey Brandt from Beulah.
Male Coach: Rick Smith, Four Winds-Minnewaukan Basketball
Smith led the Indians to an undefeated season and a state title despite losing four starters the previous year until graduation.
Four Winds-Minnewaukan averaged 80 points per game and limited their opponents to just 48. They had only one decided single-digit game all season, which came in the season opener. , against Enderlin, very well ranked.
Other finalists were Jamestown Football’s Bill Nelson, Minot Basketball’s Dean Winczewski, Bismarck Wrestling’s Jeff Schumacher and Mark Lardy, and Thompson Baseball’s Nate Soulis.