John's Journal: Goodhue, Caledonia And A Night Of Girls Hoops

GOODHUE – It was a quarter to nine on a school night and the basketball court at Goodhue High School was hosting its usual postgame group chats. As players talked with family and friends, the mood was ebullient in the wake of a big win for the Wildcats girls basketball team. This was nothing new in this town of 1,245 souls surrounded by rolling farmland between the Twin Cities and Rochester.

Goodhue is a powerhouse in girls hoops. Look up into one corner of the gym and see state championship banners from 2016, 2017 and 2024. The Wildcats were state runners-up in 2010 and 2019 and have made 10 total trips to state, the last nine under coach Josh Wieme, now in his 17^th season.

On this Thursday night in Goodhue, the postgame klatch followed a big win over a bigger school. The visiting team from Caledonia, way down in the southeast corner of the state, made the two-hour drive for what has become an annual non-conference matchup to watch. Goodhue is in Class A and Caledonia is in Class 2A and no one would be surprised to see both squads at this year’s state tournament in March. Caledonia has been to state seven times, five of them under current coach Scott Sorenson, won a state championship in 2009 and finished second in 2019.

On this night, the Wildcats held off the Warriors 64-60 in a back-and-forth game that included big leads, big swings and monstrous momentum. The teams have taken turns making the long drive to play each other in recent years, and everyone knows it pays off for both.

“It's worth it because it's just a good game,” Wieme said. “These teams are playing very hard.”

The gym was not full; four hours on the highway for a Thursday game that lasted less than 90 minutes is a real commitment for fans of the road team. But everyone in the gym had a comfortable seat. The Goodhue band and a handful of students sat on bleachers aboard the stage, while across the court in the main seating section luxury ruled. Those are plush, padded, fold-down theater seats, including a section inside the door marked especially for senior citizens, saving them from climbing up concrete steps.

In front of the stage is where everything happens. The teams sit on folding chairs, with water bottles and bags stowed behind their heads on the stage. The scorers table crew sits on the edge of the stage, with the padded table resting on the floor. It’s a great setup underneath lights that are bright enough for an NBA arena. Four giant ceiling fans did their work, making sure everyone was comfortable on a 36-degree evening.

Like all small towns, these events are family affairs in Goodhue. The scoreboards include signs from local sponsors, including Gadient Plumbing & Heating and Lodermeier’s (Implement, Grain Equipment, Buildings). Those names may ring a bell for people who have watched the Wildcats play in recent years. In last season’s state semifinals, Elisabeth Gadient became the second girls basketball player in Goodhue history to reach 2,000 points (the first was 2014 graduate Makayla Miller). Gadient scored 31 in the state championship win over Mountain Iron-Buhl and this season she has been in the starting lineup at Minnesota State Mankato. And a long line of Lodermeiers have been a mainstay of the team, including senior Kendyl and sophomore Mackenzie on this year’s outfit.

Kendyl led the Wildcats with 24 points against Caledonia, while Mackenzie and Natalie Thomforde each scored 13. Caledonia was led by Aubrie Klug with 21 and Nicole Banse with 20.

On Goodhue’s first defensive stand of the night, Wieme’s voice rang out: “Good! Good!” There was an absence on the other bench. Carl Fruechte, longtime head coach of the always-tough Caledonia football team as well as a girls hoops assistant, was in North Dakota to see his newest grandchild. Carl’s son Isaac -- a former Gophers and Vikings player and now offensive coordinator at the University of North Dakota – and his wife Kenzie had just welcomed Jovi Lucille Fruechte to the world (joining siblings Ike and Zeke) and Grandpa Carl was allowed to skip a game for family time.

Caledonia scored the first seven points, with Banse hitting two free throws and a three-pointer. While Goodhue was on offense early, the ball got loose near center court and the crowd let out a collective “Oooooooh” as it was corralled an inch or less away from an over-and-back violation.

Banse had nine points in the opening three and a half minutes and Caledonia was on a roll. The Warriors led 11-3 before Goodhue countered. Thomforde hit a pair of threes to make it 14-14, it was 24-24 as players battled for loose balls and tussled on the floor at times. Lola Christianson – ninth-grader and twin sister of Aubrey – hit a three for Goodhue, as did Mackenzie Lodermier, as did Aubrey. The Wildcats kept up the scoring pace and held a 39-30 lead at halftime.

The Warriors are a team filled with long, lean, hustling players. Kensey King and Sienna Augedahl are both 6-foot-1 and Klug and Josie Foster are 5-10, making Banse the smallest starter at 5-8. Jessica Stendel comes off the bench at 6-2, and all those long arms, long legs and quick feet gave the Wildcats fits at times. Kendyl Lodermier is 6 feet tall, Thomforde is 5-11 but the smaller Wildcats were at a definite disadvantage in that area.

“I thought our kids had to adjust to their length and traps,” Wieme said. “We see a lot of good players and good defenses, but they have a little extra length. I thought we were getting good shots, but maybe we weren’t real comfy with them. And when one goes down it gives everybody a little confidence.”

The shots kept falling for Goodhue right out of the gate in the second half. Kendyl was strong in the offensive lane, spinning away from defenders and scoring. She keyed a Wildcats surge that turned into a 17-pount Goodhue lead with 11 minutes to go in the second half. Then it was the visiting team’s turn to muscle up. Klug dropped in a quartet of three-pointers, the last one putting Caledonia ahead 58-57 with two minutes to go. Ava Wallaker hit three free throws to give the lead back to Goodhue, 60-58 with 1:36 on the clock. There were no more lead changes after that. Kendyl banked in a leaner from the lane at 49 seconds, Caledonia had to foul and the home team hung on, to great whoops from their fans.

Goodhue improved to 16-4, with two losses to Class 3A Stewartville, one to 3A Byron and one to 2A Crosby-Ironton. Caledonia (ranked sixth in 2A) moved to 18-3 after its first loss to a Minnesota opponent. The Warriors’ earlier defeats were against Waverly-Shell Rock (Iowa) and La Crosse Aquinas (Wisconsin).

“They don't change a lot,” Sorenson said of the Wildcats. “They just turn up their pressure a little bit more and just communicate better. I didn't feel like we did what we needed to do to get open players by setting screens. We ghosted a lot of them, and I think that affected us from getting into a flow and our spacing was not what we've seen in the past. It's disappointing but I don't feel like we played our best.”

Goodhue is the top-ranked team in Class A. It seems every year that the Wildcats have a strong mix of veterans and talented younger kids; Kendyl is the only senior who saw serious minutes Thursday.

“All these kids got great experience last year,” Wieme said. “Aside from Kendyl, most of them were in supporting roles, and I think we’re starting to see more from them now. The kids who were supporting players last year are getting a chance, and they can show that this team could maybe be a bit more balanced than last year's. Last year’s team kind of figured it out. Sometimes it's a little bit of luck or a little bit of magic when it all comes together.

“We've always kind of had that next sophomore, that next freshman, at least getting a sniff, getting a little bit of run. Right now we have a real nice JV team and a couple freshmen and an eighth-grader, and they're seeing it in practice. They're going against Kendall, they're going against Natalie. You can't beat that.”

Asked about the tradition of girls basketball in Goodhue, Wieme mentioned that it goes back further than some might realize. There were very good teams in the 1980s and many of Wieme’s early players were daughters of those athletes. The 1996 Minnesota Miss Basketball was Goodhue’s Sue Fiero, who went on to play and become head at Minnesota-Duluth.

“That history was something that we wanted to lean on and embrace, even though it kind of felt like a long time ago,” said Wieme. “We don't change a lot, and so there's a lot of consistency, whether it's summer, whether it's practice plans, whether it's the games. I think all that helps a little bit.”

The goal every year is to leave their small gym and get into big arenas … Section 1 playoff contests at Mayo Civic Center in Rochester and Williams Arena or Target Center for the state tournament.

“(Tradition) means a lot, but it also sets the bar really high, and it sets goals right at the beginning of the season really high,” Kendyl said. “So we have to own up to it and work every day in practice and in games to get there again.”

--MSHSL staff member John Millea has been the leading voice of Minnesota high school activities for decades. Follow him on Bluesky at johnmilleamn and listen to "Preps Today with John Millea” wherever you get podcasts. Contact John at [email protected] or [email protected]