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Five years after winning a state championship, the members of the 2019 Henning High School boys basketball team continue to inspire. On the fifth anniversary of that state title, I revisited the team and learned that they continue to be a very special group.

To see Mason Archibald competing in track and field is a testament to the human spirit, as well as the spirit of a competitive, friendly young man from northern Minnesota.

Arvig Park in Perham was the site of the fourth Brave Like Gabe Invitational, an event like no other. Competition was certainly part of it, but there was camaraderie, there was support, there was fundraising, there was remembrance, there was love, so much love.

Skip and Cathy Dolan have three kids and eight grandkids, and the whole lot sits a couple rows behind the Annandale Cardinals bench. Above the bleachers, up on the wall, is a very fitting sign: “Home.”

The growth of high school girls wrestling in Minnesota has been remarkable. This season is the third one since the MSHSL officially sanctioned girls wrestling, and more than a thousand females are participating, from schools large and small all over the state.

Bands from Section 2A Subsection 8 gathered for the annual Large Group Contest. Yes, the MSHSL is involved in athletics, but it also proudly oversees all kinds of fine arts activities, ranging from theater to speech to debate to visual arts to choir and band.

Casey O'Brien is a six-time cancer survivor. He has endured 27 surgeries, countless rounds of chemotherapy and radiation, and he has spent nearly a full calendar year in the hospital.

The Rostbergs and Lundeen combine for 108 years of coaching high school football in Minnesota, and they continue to set a high standard. None of the three will be around forever, but their names will live on in the facilities at their schools.

The 1,000th game of Wendy Kohler’s coaching career was marked with a brief ceremony before tipoff. The current Cardinals players stood alongside their coach, holding a banner that read, “Congrats Wendy! 1,000 Games Coached.” Many of her former players, including several mothers of current players, cheered from the stands.

During Zach Goring’s days as the head boys basketball coach at Apple Valley High School, he blew a whistle all the time. He’s doing the same thing now, but the coach whose teams played in four state championship games and won three titles – and whose rosters included three current NBA players -- is now blowing his whistle as a basketball official.

Sam Helgestad, a senior at New Prague High School, is not alone, and neither are his mother, Karry, and older sister Lucy. The family has been embraced by the community in town and beyond.

Tommaso Costantini is a foreign-exchange student who grew up playing rugby in Italy, and dove right into American high school sports by playing football last fall and wrestling this winter. He was a starting linebacker for the Eagles by the midway point in the season and getting to the state wrestling tournament was another memory that will last a lifetime.