John's Journal: Crosby-Ironton's Galovich Achieves 800th Career Win

A special moment took place Friday night at Crosby-Ironton High School, and Brainerd Dispatch sports editor Jeremy Millsop was there. Here is Jeremy's story, reprinted with permission. 

CROSBY — Pillager head coach Jim Bentson’s initial reaction was as expected.

Bentson’s Huskies were the first opponent to face the Crosby-Ironton Rangers and head coach Dave Galovich’s quest to become just the fourth high school basketball coach in Minnesota history to reach 800 career wins Friday, Jan. 5, at the aptly named Dave Galovich Gymnasium.

“I was just like ‘Of course,’” Bentson said with a laugh. “It’s nuts. It really is. He’s such a great guy, mentor and everything. It’s cool. You don’t want to be a part of any 100, but uffda. My goodness, when you come into here and say just three coaches over the last 100 years and he’s a big part of that.

“I liked it better when C-I was 2A and we were 1A, but I do have one win against him.”

That one win wasn’t Friday as the Rangers handed Pillager an 82-69 loss to put Galovich in the same company as his old student-teacher mentor Bob McDonald of Chisholm, Bob Brink of Rocori and Ken Novak Jr. of Hopkins.

“When you’re in it right now the thought process is day to day and hoping to get better,” Galovich said. “Once a person retires and looks back, I think they’ll appreciate it more than they do now. Although, I really appreciate that we had about 35 former players here from 1987 to today. It was really great to see these guys. Several of them drove several hours to get here.”

The Rangers jumped to a 46-30 halftime lead thanks to 20 points from James Stokman and turning 13 Pillager turnovers into 19 points.

C-I shot 64% (21-33) from the field in the opening frame. A Noah Larson 3-pointer handed C-I a 30-13 lead. It was part of a 7-0 Ranger run.

“I thought we had a little quickness advantage on them,” Galovich said. “We wanted to use that to our advantage. You can’t always get to the hoop. Sometimes you just draw that other defender and then kick it out. I thought we did a pretty good job of that. The shots we were taking were good shots. Some of them might have been a little quick, but in the day of the shot clock you’ll probably get a few more of those than you would in the past.”

The Huskies answered with an 8-0 run. Christian Hooge, who scored 12 first-half points, scored four in that run on second-chance points. Pillager finished the first half with 12 second-chance points as they outrebounded C-I 19-11 with seven offensive rebounds.

“They’ve got good overall size,” Galovich said about Pillager. “They have good athletes. Their size and athletic ability are things that can cause you a lot of problems.”

A Joey Ringhand 3-pointer and a Jackson Scull layin pushed C-I’s lead to 37-23, but the Huskies answered with five straight points. Ringhand then hit back-to-back buckets and Stockman hit the half’s last 3-pointer for the 16-point halftime edge.

Pillager outscored C-I 39-36 in the second half. A Hooge put-back made it 64-49 late in the half. Stockman, who was held to just eight second-half points built C-I’s lead back to 70-49.

The Huskies then went on a 10-0 run to pull to 76-65, but that was as close as they would get.

Hooge finished with 30 followed by Elijah Miller’s 16 and Parker Schaefer’s 13.

Stockman’s 28 led the Rangers. Larson finished with 18, Ringhand 14 and Scull 12.

Senior guard Jordan Mount scored six points and finished with seven assists.

“This was awesome,” Mount said about win 800. “I just feel great for Gally. I know every team before us has put in a lot of work and it all comes down to him and (assistant coach Neil) Tesdahl. They always make us go to morning practice and do all of the extra work that nobody likes, but you have to do to be a good team.”

While all focus was on No. 800 Friday’s game was also a Section 7-2A contest. Pillager fell to 0-3 against section teams, while the unbeaten Rangers improved to 3-0.

“He and his assistant coaches, they know what they want to do and still have that persona,” Bentson said about Galovich’s ability to adapt over 46 years. “You’re going to see a match-up zone. They’re going to do things Gally will do, but he’s going to have those twists.

“He doesn’t get excited. I got him to call a timeout a few years ago and I was pumped. I think we were down 18 and we got it down to nine and he called a timeout. Those are the little wins that we get against Gally. I still laugh about that time I got Gally to call timeout.”

Mount said he and his teammates were confident they could help Galovich get win 800 on the first try, but he admitted they felt the pressure to get it done.

“Once we secured that 10- or 15-point lead we felt good,” Mount said. “We knew we could hold it. He’s an amazing coach. He’s tough on you, but you need to be tough to be successful. I think he’s great. I think he’s a good coach.”

No one was more happy to get the milestone over with than Galovich, who isn’t one for pomp and circumstance and group photos, but he obliged Friday night.

“Once we got done with the Christmas Tournament I felt we could get it done at home,” Galovich said. “We had three more at home and hopefully something could materialize. To get it done on the first game was really nice because, again, a lot of people drove quite a distance -- family, friends and former players. So to get it done the first time that’s kind of special.

“Plus, it’s an early Serbian Christmas present. To all of my Serbian friends Hristos se rodi.”

Editors note: That means Christ is Born. Serbian Christmas is Sunday, Jan. 7. Merry Christmas coach.