Farmington brings back a girls' basketball team with a great amount of experience from last season but are still young and need to replace quite a bit of their scoring. Coach
Liz Carpentier finds encouragement with "how we ended the season gave us a lot of confidence…we definitely made strides as a team and a lot of individual improvement in certain positions as well."
The Tigers went on the road as the sixth seed in the playoffs and beat third-seed Rochester Mayo before falling to Lakeville North, who went on to win the section. Senior point guard
Marin Blom says, "Even though we were kind of new playing with each other, I feel like we played really well and I feel like we're going to build off that this year."
Senior captain
Ellie Mogensen adds, "Last year we had a lot of younger girls and we had never played with them. But now that we had that experience last year, we're playing really well together right now, and I think that's good for us." The team held their own in a scrimmage against preseason top-five St. Michael-Albertville, "Obviously there's some things we can work on, but I think it went pretty well."
"I think right now, even in practice and over the summer, we've been playing really well together, sharing the ball. We can read each other even better than last year," believes Blom.
Carpentier states, "We've grown. We're a year older. They've matured more. They've gotten stronger. I just see more improvement from their overall play. We started some freshman last year…I think the time they got on the court was very valuable." She says the players had a good summer of basketball.
Now the work begins, "We need to replace scoring. We graduate Rose Wille (13 points per game in 2021-22) who was a big-time scorer for us. She moved on to play at the University of Wisconsin-Stout. We graduated Grace Schaffer (7 points per game) who is playing [at St. Mary's University, Winona]. The scoring column is the first question mark. And then just consistency. Who's going to step up? Who's going to be the big rebounder? Who's going to be our defensive stopper?"
"I do feel like we're going to have more balanced scoring this year…We do have some senior leadership as well.
Ellie Mogensen who is a senior captain. She's going to be asked to score more. And we have our senior point guard,
Marin Blom, who's going to be asked to score more. And then [senior]
Bella Hemann is going to be asked to play some impactful minutes for us off the bench."
Mogensen and Blom each averaged about five points per game last season. Hemann has waited her turn to contribute, "I love the sport. So, I want to continue doing it and I'm committed to them [her fellow seniors] too. I want to stick with them."
The team will take the easy basket if it's there says Blom, "Our first priority is fast break. If we can get a quick layup without setting up an offense, that's what we want. But other than that, we go into more of a high post and do different sets off of that." The team is a bit more experienced among its guards than the inside players, "We have some girls who are really talented on the post who are going to step up."
Mogensen looks to the time spent together in all settings as being beneficial, "Even off the court, getting to know the girls…I think that helps…We just did a team bonding thing. We went to [a college game of] one of the girls who graduated a couple of years ago."
"We're super close already. It's kind of similar to last year's team. So, we're very close and we have a lot of chemistry," says Hemann. "And we're super positive too. We like to lift each other up." She says the team spends extra time together whenever possible including going out to eat after most road games.
The Tigers first game is Tuesday, November 29 hosting Owatonna. It's a slightly later start than usual, avoiding a Thanksgiving weekend opener. "And I think that gives the chance, especially for our team to gel, work on some things and it also, as coaches, lets us figure out roles and who's going to play where and the needs of our team as we move forward."
FHS plays five non-conference games before opening the South Suburban schedule. After the home opener, the Tigers go to Edina December 2, travel to Stillwater December 6, host Chanhassen December 8, and welcome Rochester Century December 10. The SSC opener is a home game with Lakeville South on Tuesday, December 13.
Home games are something to look forward to for Mogensen, especially when the band is there, "I love when the band comes. They just give us so much energy and I think that helps us a lot."
"I love our gym space," Hemann says enthusiastically. "Every other gym you go to, it's dim and dark in there. But ours is so bright. It gets you excited."
The Lakeville schools and Rosemount are mentioned as big rivals by the captains. Carpentier acknowledges that North will be challenging to repeat as Section 1-4A champs, "They have a strong, veteran squad returning…We battled with them last year and I liked where we finished with them, playing them for the third time."
While every team strives for a state tournament berth, Blom says it's important to play the season one game at a time, "The goal is every night to play our best and win. That's what we want."
