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The North Branch boys' basketball team completed its season with an awards banquet Thursday, March 29.

Viking head coach Bill Baumann started the awards ceremony by thanking the parents, players and coaches. Then he introduced ninth grade coaches Larry Schlagel and Chris Kelly, who introduced their team and discussed their 9-16 season (A team) and 3-13 season (B team). B-squad coach John Gunderson followed by introducing the 10th grade players and recapped their 10-9 season. JV coach Jim Van Eerden was next on the agenda. Van Eerden introduced the JV and Varsity Reserve players. The JV finished 4-3 and the Varsity Reserve finished 9-10.

The assistant coaches echoed a common theme. All the coaches talked about how the teams had struggled in the early stages of the season. However, each team finished the season, improving as the year progressed. All the NB teams had winning records in February.

Before Baumann recognized varsity volunteer coach Jeremy Miller, he introduced managers Sara Fletcher and Alex Sundley and emphasized how vital their contributions were to the program.

Baumann then introduced the varsity players and discussed the season. He reported that, record-wise (11-16), the season was disappointing and frustrating as the team had the lead or had the chance to take the lead in the final minutes in seven of its losses. He also noted that, in three of their losses, the Vikings had stretches of over six minutes where they didn't score.

On the positive side, Baumann shared that the Vikes had beaten state tournament participants Spring Lake Park and Duluth Central on their home courts. The Vikings also played state tournament runner-up Benilde St. Margaret's tough on its home court, falling in the last few minutes.

"Though the season was frustrating record-wise," Baumann said, "it was very rewarding working with the young men. They were very hard-working and never gave up, even though they were frustrated with losing during the season." He thanked the seniors and described them as some of the hardest workers he has had in coaching. "They would always play hard and give their best effort for what ever the amount of time they were on the court."

The coach commented on some of the individual accomplishments of some of this year's Vikings.

Senior Nick Perrin - ended his career tied for eighth overall in career scoring, seventh in three-pointers made, 13th in assists and 12th in steals.

Senior Justin Novak - finished 33rd in scoring, 10th in assists, second in steals and 25th in three-pointers made.

Junior Jake Chambers - finished the year fifth in career scoring, eighth in three-pointers made, 17th in assists and 25th in steals.

Team Awards

Special Team Award:

Jake Kovarik

Will to Win:

Mark Johnson

Rookie of the Year:

DJ Charley and Eric Sampson

Defensive Player of the Year: Justin Novak

Viking Award:

Nick Perrin

North Suburban Conference

All- Conference:

Jake Chambers

Honorable Mention:

Justin Novak & Nick Perrin

Academic All-Conference:

DJ Charley, Mark Johnson, Nick Perrin

The banquet concluded with Coach Baumann talking about what the underclassmen needed to do in the off season and again thanking everyone for a very enjoyable year.

Players on North Branch Tournament roster:

* denotes letterwinner

Seniors:

Justin Novak*

Jake Kovarik*

Nick Perrin*

Mark Johnson*

DJ Charley*

Juniors:

Jake Chambers*

John Lindstrom*

Bryce Hunter*

Dillon Kost*

Eric Sampson*

Dan Ginal

Kirk Dahle

Jared Grams

Scott Ostrom

Sophomores:

Ryan Norman*

Aaron Good

Mike Dahl

Deon Farr

Drew Lundquist

Freshman:

Kyle Grote

Other participants who

finished the season:

Juniors: Allan Xiong, Jeremy Franco, Victor Oyesile.

Sophomores:

Dan Schoess,Jake Larson, Matt Becklin, Brandon Kvale, Joe Johnson, Mitchell Vang, Nick Rasmussen

Freshmen: TJ Leason, Sean Franks, Anders Dahlberg, Kosta Moore, Fred Kennicutt, Ben Kampff, Erik Chouinard, Marcus Cortez, Adam Thao, Eric Ostrum, Preston Kesselring, Anders Lindstrom, Joe Klun

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