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North Branch head boys’ basketball coach Bill Baumann had mixed emotions about the 2005-06 season. The 27 year veteran coach said, “Overall, I was excited, but, at the same time a little disappointed in the season.  I thought we played extremely hard despite being at constant disadvantage because of our lack of size. 

“I was disappointed because we just didn't finish off some games.  When you have a nine game losing streak in which you lose by an average of four points, it gets a littlefrustrating.  You would have hoped we could have pulled one or two of those games out.”

Baumann had nothing but praise for his only senior, Travis Peterson. Peterson was this year’s Viking Award winner.  “This is an award that is given to the player with outstanding effort on and off the court. As far as I'm concerned this award could be renamed the “Travis Peterson Award!” 

“Travis was the consumate team player.  He came to work everyday in practice and gave a 100 percent effort on the court.  He did all the little things that need to be done for the team.  He boxed out, played defense, got on the floor for loose balls and just did all the little things that you need to get done without a complaint.  He will be sorely missed next year.

“The future could be pretty bright if we get to work in the offseason. With Travis being the only seniorwe will be losing, we will be returning a lot of experience. 

“We defeated the two teams in the section finals (Chisago Lakes and Torino Grace) the last week of the regular season and we led Robbinsdale Cooper at their place with under four minutes to go in the game and Cooper played in the 4A State finals,” the coach concluded.

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