John's Journal: After 46 Years, Coach Lien Makes It To State

Oh how the tears have flowed for Jim Lien. And by Jim Lien. The 77-year-old coaching lifer realized a dream this week when the Walker-Hackensack-Akeley girls basketball team qualified for the state tournament for the first time.

Jim and Pat Richter, co-head coaches of the Wolves, and assistant coach Katie Benjamin led the team to a 24-6 record after capturing the Class A Section 5 championship last week with an emotional win over Braham at St. Cloud State.

“When we heard that buzzer ring, it brought tears to his eyes,” Richter said of Lien. “It brought tears to a lot of eyes.”

Jim has been coaching for 46 years, starting in the 1970s. This is his 37^th season with the Walker-Hackensack-Akeley girls; he also coached boys basketball for several years back when the school was simply Akeley and the team was the Akeley Anglers.

After the Wolves lost to Mountain Iron-Buhl in Thursday’s state quarterfinals at Maturi Pavilion, Jim remembered several previous opportunities to get to state that fell one step short.

“I think I've been in section title games six other times, with the boys three times and with the girls three times,” he said.

His coaching record is almost impossible to believe. His teams have won 734 times and fell short 404 times. But getting to state, finally, unbelievably, after all these years and more than 1,100 games, well, that’s pure magic.

“It's hard to put into words,” he said. “It's a great experience for the kids, for myself, for the community, for everybody. It's really special. It's a real dream come true.”

Lien uses a cane to get around, and he’ll ride an elevator instead of climbing stairs if that’s an option.

“He just brings such a great spirit to the game, and the kids love him because of it,” Richter said. “And obviously, his wealth of knowledge is something special.”

Mountain Iron-Buhl coach Jeff Buffetta has known Lien for years, and he said watching online as the Wolves won the section title was emotional for him.

“Nobody's more deserving,” Buffetta said.

Why keep coaching? The answer is simple.

“These kids right here,” Jim said, motioning toward juniors Aubrey Morrison and Ava Welk, who joined the coach in the postgame media session.

“I remember when I was really little and he told me I was going to be his next point guard,” Aubrey said. “I was in like fourth grade. He's awesome. He's a really good coach. He means a lot to us.”

Ava added, “We've had him forever and he's just been a great coach. And he's been supportive ever since we were really little, telling us how we're going to do when we're older.”

There are no seniors on this year’s team, which means there will be high hopes for next season. Will Coach Lien be back?

“As long as I’m healthy,” he said with a smile.

The Busiest Coach in Minnesota

Buffetta is a rarity because he has been the head coach of both the girls and boys basketball teams at Mountain Iron-Buhl for five years. He will be quite busy on Friday when the Rangers girls play Buffalo Lake-Hector-Stewart in the state semifinals at Williams Arena at 2 p.m., after which he will make the three-hour drive north to (hopefully) coach the MIB boys when they meet Cherry in a 7 o’clock Section 7 championship game in Hibbing.

Lodermeier Mania In Goodhue

Josh Wieme has been the head girls basketball coach at Goodhue for 16 years and has a career record of 392-93. The Wildcats are a small-school powerhouse, winning Class A state titles in 2016 and 2017 and finishing second in 2010 and 2019.

They defeated Mayer Lutheran 65-38 in Thursday’s state quarterfinals and will meet Underwood in the semifinals on Friday.

One family name that has been synonymous with Goodhue basketball is Lodermeier. If you Google “Lodermeier Goodhue basketball” the first three items to appear will be college biographical pages for former Wildcats Lexie, Elissa and Sydney Lodermeier.

The current team includes junior Kendyl Lodermeier and ninth-grader Mackenzie Lodermeier. Elissa is playing at Wisconsin-Stout, Lexie played at Upper Iowa and Sydney at Winona State.

A simple question was posed to Wieme after Thursday’s game: How many Lodermeiers have you coached?

He took a second, then said, “There's the four sisters, Sydney, Lexie, Kendyl and Mackenzie. Their first cousin, Elissa Lodermeier, who’s playing at Stout right now. And Elissa’s sister, Maddie, she didn't finish but she was on the team. Oh, I’m sorry, there’s Ann Lodermeier, who was a starter for my first three seasons.”

Follow-up question: Do the Lodermeier families have any sons?

“Yes. Jackson is in seventh grade.”

Tough And Ready

Nobody in the state tournament is wearing more armor this week than Underwood senior Ezrah Baker. The 5-foot-8 guard is playing with a large brace on her right leg and a protective facial mask.

She suffered a torn ACL in the summer of 2022 and had her nose broken in the third game this season.

“She plays tough, too,” said Rockets coach Brian Hovland after a 64-52 quarterfinal win over Southwest Minnesota Christian. “Defensively I think she did a really good job on 15 (Southwest Minnesota Christian’s Ana Veldkamp); 15 likes to attack the basket and she’s super strong, and right away defensively (Ezrah stayed with her).”

Baker finished with three points, six rebounds, three assists, four steals and no turnovers. Underwood has moved up a notch over last year’s state tournament, when the Rockets lost in the quarterfinals.

Defending 3A Champions Look Strong

Benilde-St. Margaret’s, which is the No. 1 seed in Class 3A, came to state with a 21-game winning streak and 24-5 overall record. The Red Knights’ losses, all in November or December, were against Providence Academy (top seed in 2A state tourney), Hopkins (top seed in 4A), Eden Prairie, Alexandria (No. 3 seed in 3A) and DeLaSalle (No. 2 seed in 3A).

The Red Knights defeated Minneapolis Roosevelt in Wednesday’s state quarterfinal and Stewartville in Thursday’s semifinals, setting up Saturday's championship game against DeLaSalle.

The Red Knights were shorthanded early in the season, with senior Olivia Olson and junior Kendall McGee both sitting out with injuries. McGee remains sidelined with a knee injury suffered in last year’s state semifinals. McGee and Olson, who will play basketball at Michigan next season, were among 10 Class 3A players who received first-team all-state honors last season.

The Red Knights are at state for the third consecutive year and are the defending 3A champions.

After averaging 24.5 points coming into the tournament, Olson scored 35 Wednesday in a 75-40 quarterfinal win over Minneapolis Roosevelt, with eight rebounds, four assists and four steals. Against Stewartville she had 32 points and seven rebounds.

“It's kind of surreal because we've been here, this is our third year now in a row,” Olson said. “And so just the experience that our team has had, I think that’s helping us know where to go. It means a lot to me, too. I love this team. I've been a part of this program for five years and my goal is to go out with a state championship again and I know that that's everyone else's goal and we're going to work as hard as we can to get it done.

“It doesn't get old. It's always a great feeling when you win a section championship. You all rally together, and we worked so hard to get here. It's just a great feeling and we know that our work has paid off but we still aren't finished yet.”

Olson is the only senior on the Red Knights roster.

The Joy At Roosevelt High

One of the happiest and most joyous sights on the first day of the state tournament was the team from Minneapolis Roosevelt, along with the Teddies’ cheering section and band. The team played with toughness and intensity, the band was outstanding and the fans never stopped cheering for the Teddies.

Roosevelt had never played at state before, although the school has a storied history in boys basketball, winning state titles in 1956 and 1957, finishing as state runner-up in 1991 and last getting to state in 1997.

The Teddies came to state with a record of 23-7 before losing to Benilde-St. Margaret’s, who led by just six at halftime before pulling away. After the game, Teddies coach Tyesha Wright stood with seniors Olivia Wren, Jaida Walker and Cady Davis as she spoke with the media.

“I'm very proud of them,” she said. “Jaida Walker has been around Roosevelt since seventh grade and Cady Davis and Olivia Wren, they've been around since their eighth-grade year. I'm very proud of them. We promised them that we'd at least get to the state tournament and we accomplished that goal.”

Benilde-St. Margaret’s coach Tim Ellefson said, “My hat's off to Roosevelt. I'm kind of a sentimental guy so watching them come in and play like they did was awesome. They scared us, they gave us everything we could handle.”

--MSHSL senior content creator John Millea has been the leading voice of Minnesota high school activities for decades. Follow him on Twitter @MSHSLjohn and listen to "Preps Today with John Millea” wherever you get podcasts. Contact John at [email protected]