John's Journal: Minnesota Newcomer Is No. 1 Player On No. 1 Team

This hasn’t been the dream of a basketball season that Tommy Ahneman may have envisioned. But there’s still plenty of time to create some wonderful lifelong memories for the top-ranked senior in Minnesota, who plays for the top-ranked team in Class 4A.

His time in Minnesota will be brief. The 6-foot-11, 253-pound senior at Cretin-Derham Hall in St. Paul was playing basketball at Sheyenne High School in West Fargo, North Dakota, a year ago. He was named the 2024 Gatorade Player of the Year in that state after averaging 20 points and 13 rebounds in leading Sheyenne to the big-school state championship. Next season, he will play basketball at Notre Dame.

When his father took a job in the Twin Cities, the family moved last summer. They were already very familiar with the landscape because Tommy’s mom, Erin (Ditty) Ahneman, grew up in Hastings. She made the game-winning shot when Hastings defeated Osseo in the 1996 Class 2A state championship game and went on to play basketball and golf at North Dakota State in Fargo. That’s where she met her husband, Ben Ahneman, who was a football player for the Bison.

At Cretin-Derham Hall, Tommy Ahneman returned last week after missing eight games with a knee injury. The Raiders’ only loss this season, an 89-70 decision against East Ridge on Feb. 7, was Ahneman’s last game back on the sideline.

Playing in 14 of Cretin-Derham Hall’s 22 games, he is averaging 17 points on 70 percent shooting and is pulling down 10 rebounds per game. He’s part of a very talented and balanced young team as one of just three seniors on the roster.

Ty Schlagel, a 6-7 sophomore, leads the Raiders with a 20-point scoring average, 6-3 junior JoJo Mitchell is next at 17 points per game and 6-6 senior Monteff Dixon averages 12 points.

“It's a fun team,” said Raiders coach Jerry Kline Jr. “They like each other and they like being around each other. There’s enthusiasm in sharing the ball and we're at our best when we make that extra pass, like a lot of teams are.”

After beating Woodbury 65-42 on Friday and defeating DeLaSalle 74-60 on Saturday, the Raiders (21-1) have four regular-season games remaining. After that, the road to the Class 4A state tournament won’t be easy in Section 4, which includes unbeaten and third-ranked Tartan (22-0), East Ridge (16-5) and St. Paul Central (17-5). But nobody at Cretin-Derham Hall is squinting to gaze down that road.

“We don't want to look ahead,” Ahneman said. “We’re focused on the rest of the season.”

Kline said, “It really is one game at a time, and that's important because you can't look too far ahead, or else we all know what can happen if you do that. You want to make sure that you respect each team.”

Ahneman’s parents aren’t the only family link to athletic success. His paternal grandfather, Tom Ditty, who died in September 2022, was a 1964 Delano High School graduate who played basketball and baseball at St. Cloud State and is a member of the SCSU Athletic Hall of Fame. Tom coached basketball and baseball at Hastings and was a scoreboard operator for Vikings and Twins games at the Metrodome. Tom’s passing left his wife Barbara alone in their Prior Lake home, and that was a factor in the Ahneman family’s move from Fargo.

Tommy’s knee injury happened during a Jan. 10 game at Woodbury. He didn’t require surgery but has been through lots of rehab and physical therapy. He wears a brace on the knee and is getting more comfortable on the court.

“There’s a little bit of a restriction on minutes right now but hopefully I’ll get back to 100 percent by March, when it really matters,” he said. “We're just going to PT, getting it stronger, trying to get back.”

“I think having Tommy back is certainly a huge positive, but getting him into game shape, we've got a long ways to go,” said Kline, a 1993 CDH graduate who is in his 21^st year as head coach of the Raiders. “He knows that, so it’s a work in progress. He’s doing the extra stuff he needs, he's doing his treatments, things like that.”

Ahneman didn’t know much about Cretin-Derham Hall before the move but he was familiar with Mitchell and Schlagel through AAU basketball.

“It's been very easy, everybody’s been very receptive,” he said. “I knew it was going to be good basketball-wise, and school has been great, too.”

Before signing with Notre Dame, Tommy’s final list of colleges also included Wisconsin, Nebraska, Iowa and Minnesota.

“(Notre Dame) only has one big returning next year and they have a very good coach (Micah Shrewsberry) who knows what he's doing,” he said. “And what they're building there is really exciting to me. So I can't wait to get there.”

First, of course, will come the final stretch of his final high school season. Cretin-Derham Hall has a storied history in boys basketball, having made 16 trips to state and winning championships in 1991, 1993 and 2018, along with runner-up finishes in 1992 and 2021.

“We've been blessed to have a lot of good teams,” Kline said. “They're writing their story, and it's unwritten, and we'll see when it comes to March where it's at.”

If Ahneman is feeling any pressure, he doesn’t show it.

“It's just basketball,” he said. “You always kind of have that target on your back.”

--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]