I first started at the Bemidji (Minn.) Pioneer as an intern in the summer of 1996. That would begin six years as a news reporter, sports reporter and copy editor for a small, six-day-per-week daily newspaper in northern Minnesota. I wrote a large range of stories from multiple beats, to features to sports, my favorite being the coverage of the Red Lake Reservation High School basketball team named the Warriors. Here is a collection of my stories from my time at the Pioneer.
REDLAKE -- Red Lake sophomores Gerald Kingbird and Delwyn Holthusen and their basketball teammates drove out of this small hamlet Thursday headed for the 1997 State Boys Basketball Tournament held in St. Paul and into the history books as the first all-American Indian team ever to play in the grandfather of Minnesota's state high school tourneys.
However, a handful of the team's hundreds of fans say this trip to the Twin Cities began March 14 when the Warriors won the first section championship in the school's history.
Others would say this trip started two years ago when Kingbird and Holthusen were in eighth grade and were singled out to be the team's future leaders.
And still others might say the trip started six years ago when head coach Doug Desjarlait took over the team's reins, leading the team to five conference championships, three district championships, a section championship and now one state tournament win -- all in six years.
When the success started was not what mattered most to the more than 800 fans who attended a pep rally Thursday at the Red Lake Middle School to see the players off and wish them good luck.
They were headed to the St. Paul Civic Center, with a first-round state tournament win over Section 7A champs Cherry under their belt, as one of the final four teams left in the newly-created Minnesota High School League Boys Basketball Class A.
Critics' grumblings about the High School League's decision to go to a four-class system cheapening the state tournament aside, this has been a dream of a season, which will culminate good or bad Saturday, for the unorthodox team from Red Lake -- a team which starts two sophomores, one who has started since he was in eighth grade and the other who played as the sixth man last season; two juniors; and a senior who started playing basketball only as a junior.
The fans too have enjoyed the season. Thursday, the cheered, screeched, stomped and beat drums as Red Lake dignitary after Red Lake dignitary after Red Lake dignitary congratulated the team.
"I want you to keep thinking about (the state tournament) as the Little Engine That Could," Superintendent Roger Schmidt told the team. "You kept thinking, 'I can do it. I can do it.' And now you know you can do it."
Desjarlait, who said he preferred not speaking in front of crowds, paced nervously as he told a story about this state tournament being a dream that started for him many years ago.
"Twenty years ago, I dreamt about this, but it didn't make much sense because I was a mechanic then," he said. "Then I was a carpenter, and it still didn't make sense. But now it's a dream come true."
He also spoke of the need for the players to be role models for younger kids at the Red Lake Middle School, saying they were proof that working hard makes good things happen.
Desjarlait concluded by saying he has dedicated this season to his mother, who recently died.
"I've lost a lot of fans over the years," he said. "But I know they're watching. I know they're watching."
Peter Strong Sr., a former Warrior basketball player and former Red Lake Schools Board member, was on hand Thursday as well, and said that he and his brother, 75-year-old Bill -- a member of one of the first Warrior basketball teams -- will be at the games in St. Paul.
"There are some of us old players still watching the game. They're doing everything we wished we could've done," Strong said. "We're proud of these guys for all they've done. We're proud of them win or lose."
Red Lake will play Section 3A champion Wabasso (23-4) tonight at 9 p.m. at the Civic Center.
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