A review of the past week in Providence Academy Athletics.
MSHSL Athletic Schedules and Spring Break:
As everything this year, the Winter and Spring schedules for athletics have been reorganized a few times since the start of the school year. As of right now, it looks like the end of the Winter season schedules have been set. As you can see in the graph below the dates for section and state tournaments for girls and boys basketball and girls and boys hockey will take place during our scheduled Spring Break. Please let myself and your respected head coaches know if you have any questions.
Be Blessed and Go Lions!
Mr. Messmore
Director of Athletics
Spring Sports Registrations!
Spring sport registrations will open on Friday, February 5 and close on Friday, March 5. Spring sport registrations will include:
Upper School:
- Track and Field
- Baseball
- Softball
- Boys Tennis
- Boys Lacrosse
- Boys and Girls Golf
- Clay Target/Trap Shooting
- Sports Performance: Weight Training
- Girls Lacrosse: Registration will be through Mound Westonka High School
Middle School:
- Track and Field
- Girls Volleyball
- TackleBar Football
Registrations can be found at: Providence Academy Athletics Registration
Nordic Ski:
The Heritage/Providence/Rivertree/West Lutheran Nordic team has been racing for two weeks now. Last week included two skate races, one for varsity at Battle Creek park in St. Paul and the JV raced at Elm Creek park. With many new skiers this year, it was great to see them get some experience racing. This past week saw two more races in perfect Nordic ski conditions of fresh snow and sunny, windless temps in the teens. The varsity raced to good showings in a 5K classic race at Elm Creek park Tuesday and the JV skiers skied about 3.5K at Como Park golf course Thursday. Our kids are making significant improvements in technique and judging by their smiles they seem to be enjoying skiing. Next week continues with two more races, varsity at Hyland Tuesday and JV at Elm Creek Wednesday.
Girls Hockey:
Scoring details can be found at MN Hockey Hub
Boys Hockey:
Week of January 25th
The Providence Boys hockey team travelled to TCO Sports Garden to meet up with the second in Class 1A ranked Gentry Academy.
The Junior Varsity team started the night off, and played very well lead by Sophomore goalie Nate Miest (West Lutheran) who was very active between the pipes. Ultimately the team fell in a loss to GA, but continues to improve game by game.
The Varsity team was prepared for a fast paced highly skilled opponent, with game plan in hand. Plagued by injuries and key members missing from the lineup the Providence team played very well and executed their game plan in the first period. Senior Captain Joshua Koskie (PA) made highlight reel saves throughout the game, however the Lions ultimately fell to Gentry Academy’s depth and power. For their next game boys are on home ice, taking on Rochester Lourdes Saturday Jan 30th. Please support your Lions through their social media outlets Twitter @PAlionshockey1, Instagram pa_lions_hockey and team website www.providencehockey.org
Scoring details can be found at MN Hockey Hub
Girls Basketball:
This week Lions had their second home game of the season where they took on conference foe Blake. The evening started with a JV game where the first half was tightly contested. The Lions held a 2 point lead going into halftime. The second half though saw the Lions hit a hot streak shooting the ball and the defense got ramped up as well. The JV squad went on to secure a big conference win to go onto 2-0 on the year for conference play. The Varsity game against Blake was a similar story. The Lions and Bears battled back and forth for much of the first half. In the second half, the Lions were able to take a big step up on the defensive end and held the Bears to only 10 points. The Lions secured their second conference win by a score of 72-27. The Lions were led in scoring by 7th Grader Maddyn Greenway who poured in 26 and Freshman Brooke Hohoenecker who poured in 17 points and 3 three pointers.
On Thursday the Lions traveled to Stillwater to take on the Lions of St. Croix Prep. The JV team was dominant from the tip off scoring 10 points in quick succession including 2 early 3’s from Carissa Miller. The Lions were able to keep their foot on the gas for most of the game and came away with a big win on the road after a long bus ride. The Varsity Lions got off to a slower start in their game. Although, with a more controlled approach to the game the Lions were able to widen their lead and go into the second half leading 17-43. The second half the Lions were able to get going early with some quick points in transition and continued to play great second half defense allowing only 6 points. The Lions secured their 6th win of the season and moved to 6-0.
They were led in scoring by Sophomore Grace Counts who scored 18 points and grabbed 13 rebounds and 9 steals. 7th Grader Maddyn Greenway also had 18 points and 5 assists to go along with them.
Next Wednesday the Lions will travel to Minnehaha Academy to take on the undefeated Redhawks.
Scoring details can be found at MN Girls BB Hub Follow @PA_GirlsHoops to stay up to date with everything Providence Girls BB.
Boys Basketball:
The High School Boys team’s record is 3 – 3 after losing two games this week to Blake and St. Croix Prep, both teams are ranked in the top ten of the state. Blake, ranked 7th beat us 81 – 46 at Blake. It was close up until halftime, when our center JP Luedke went down with an ankle sprain which really changed the flow of the game.
We went into St. Croix Prep’s game with 3 starters not available. JP will be out for at least 3 weeks, Baeddan Ongori has been out since the first game with tendonitis in his Achilles’ heel, were hoping for Baeddan’s return in the next couple weeks. Liam Carney has strep throat which will keep him out until next week.
With all that, our team battled hard against the 10th ranked team in the state, as the score was 37-34 at halftime. St Croix went on a little run in the second half and built their lead to 14 points, we got it back to 9 but that was as close we could get. I couldn’t be more proud of our effort as we mixed line ups throughout the game and competed at a high level with a very talented team.
Our JV and C team each have one loss – the future is bright.
Chris Miller is the Head Coach of the JV team and Jake Wachholz is the Head Coach of C Team, two outstanding coaches who are tremendous with kids. Darren Kent is my Varsity Assistant who is top notch, so with Darren, Chris and Jake your boys are in good hands and I’m so thankful for them.
As always the health and safety of our players are our top priority! As a coach there is nothing worse than seeing one of your players get hurt, it’s a helpless feeling. JP and Baeddan are in their senior years so let’s hope they can heal up and get back to lead our team for the stretch run in March.
Next week we play two home games, Twin Cities Academy at 7pm on Tuesday night and Tartan HS (Class 4A school) on Friday night at 7pm.
Middle School Teams/Coaches:
- Varsity Middle School 3-1 – Steve Brown, Thomas Gorilla
- JV Middle School 3-1 – Thomas Gorilla
- Middle School B Squad 1-2 – Mike Kreklow
We have some very talented young men in our Middle School program and can’t thank our coaches enough for their time and commitment in developing these young men.
Go Lions!
Coach Brown
Scoring details can be found at MN Boys BB HubFollow @PA_BoysHoops to stay up to date with everything Providence Academy Boys BB.
NFHS Network:
Remember to follow @PAheadmaster, @PAcademyATH, @PA_MSathletics, @PALionsAD, and @ProvidenceLions for the most current updates regarding Providence Academy Athletics.