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.
Dec. 9, 1998
By Devlyn Brooks
RED LAKE -- Red Lake Warriors basketball ... it's fantastic!
The state's second-ranked Class "A" Warriors proved Tuesday night the NBA is not needed to see excellent basketball, as they routed Cass Lake-Bena 101-52.
No one in Red Lake missed the monster slams of Shaquille O'Neal. They had the Warrior's Delwyn Holthusen who slammed home two huge dunks before he sat at the end of three quarters.
And the comparisons don't end there.
Reggie Miller's three-pointers? Child's play. Sophomore point guard Clyde Perkins shot 5-of-8 from behind the arc in three quarters as well.
Dennis Rodman's battling boards? He has nothing on junior Byron Graves who was a force under the net for Red Lake.
Michael Jordan? Who needs him? Red Lake had All-State guard Gerald Kingbird dishin' to the big men and nailing two treys of his own.
And it wasn't just the starting cast who played well. The Warriors substituted in three more from the bench that performed equally well without a letdown in momentum.
"It's great to see the program (perform this well). This is their year," said Panthers coach Dan Ninham, who after the same sounded as if he, himself, had become a fan. "They have so many weapons. They are so disciplined, so well-coached and every player knows their roles. There shouldn't be anybody close to them."
The Warriors -- who look to have more depth than even in the past two years during which they made it to state -- rolled to a quick 30-8 lead after one quarter, leading 20-2 at one point.
Junior Joe Nayquanabe, a transfer student from Mille Lacs, led the team much of the quarter, shooting 4-of-6 and scoring nine points -- one more than all of the Panthers.
The tempo of the first quarter set the overall tone as the Warriors harassed the Panthers on defense, creating turnover after turnover, and toyed with them on offense as six Warriors scored in the first stanza alone.
The second period didn't get any easier, as Holthusen accelerated his game, adding 10 more points to give him 16 at the half, including a two-handed jam that had the hundreds of Warriors' fans rocking and rolling.
"Organized chaos," one fan called it. Another didn't have words.
The Panthers were rarely heard from again, except for one 6-0 run in the second -- their largest of the night.
After taking an 83-42 lead at the end of the third, Warriors coach Jack Desjarlait sent in the reinforcements who added another 18 to complete the 101-52 win.
The Warriors' 6-6 big man finished with 29 points on 13-of-18 shooting from the floor and 3-of-3 free throw shooting to lead Red Lake.
Perkins finished with 17 points and Nayquanabe had 15.
The Panthers were led by seniors Jonas Northbird with 13 and Kevin Erickson with 12.
"In our last three-year run, I think we have the most depth this year," said Warriors assistant coach Bill Rutledge after the game. "Sometimes we tell the kids you gotta play against yourselves because that's the biggest thing we've got to do, is not let down."
When pressed to think of just one thing that might have went wrong, he paused, smiled and said, "The kids played well."
Well?
If Tuesday's performance can be described as just playing "well," who needs the NBA?
Cass Lake-Bena 8 16 15 13 -- 52
Red Lake 30 26 27 18 -- 101
CASS LAKE-BENA (52)
Jonas Northbird 6-9 0-3 13, Kevin Erickson 6-13 0-0 12, LeRoy Fairbanks 2-4 0-0 4, Roman Brown 2-6 1-3 5, Zack Staples 1-3 0-1 2, Tim Lindgrin 0-2 0-0 0, Dominick Ross 2-4 0-0 4, Corey Wuori 2-4 1-2 6, Kyle Raisch 2-5 0-2 4, Mike Schaaf 0-2 0-0 0, Justin Johnson 1-3 0-0 2. Team totals: 24-55 2-10 52.
RED LAKE (101)
Harold Graves 1-2 0-0 2, Joe Nayquanabe 5-10 3-4 13, Delwyn Holthusen 13-18 3-3 29, Gerald Kingbird 5-9 1-1 13, Clyde Perkins 6-10 0-0 17, Dave Rosebear 1-2 0-0 2, Scott Pemerton 1-2 0-0 2, Dustin Thunder 0-2 0-0 0, Chris Branchaud 0-1 0-0 0, Robert Head 5-8 0-0 10, Gary Strong 2-4 0-0 6, Byron Graves 2-4 2-4 7, Jon Mountain 0-4 0-0 0. Team totals: 41-76 9-12 101.
3-point baskets -- CL-B 2-16 (Northbird 1-2, Erickson 0-6, Fairbanks 0-1, Staples 0-1, Lindgrin 0-1, Ross 0-1, Wuori 1-1, Schaaf 0-1, Johnson 0-2), RL 9-26 (H. Graves 0-1, Kingbird 2-5, Perkins 5-7, Rosebear 0-1, Thunder 0-1, Head 0-2, Strong 2-3, B. Graves 0-1, Mountain 0-4). Total fouls -- CL-B 1; RL 14. Fouled out -- none.
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