Fridley girls' basketball back at full strength

Fridley was decimated by injuries last season, but gutted its way to a winning record. That experience will help this season.

By DAVID La VAQUE, Star Tribune

Last update: November 19, 2008 - 8:29 AM

Jenna Freichels was in no mood for pleasantries.

Injuries and illness rendered her and three other Fridley basketball regulars inactive at Totino-Grace. Near the end of Fridley's 72-32 loss, the public address announcer frayed Freichels' last nerve.

"He said something about, 'Our best wishes go out to Fridley,'" she said. "It was supposed to be nice, but that just made us want to get back on the court so much more."

Eight players missed significant stretches of games last season -- a few players more than once. Undaunted, the Tigers clawed out a winning season (15-13) and a showdown with Totino-Grace in the Class 3A, Section 3 championship game. They led 26-20 at halftime but fell to the eventual state champions.

"It helped our confidence to make the section finals," senior Erin Green said. "It was a wake-up call in terms of what we could accomplish this year."

Official practices began this week, a time when all 426 teams in Minnesota are buzzing with optimism because everyone is undefeated. Fridley's players are happy to be uninjured.

Freichels is twice as psyched. An ACL injury wiped out her sophomore season. She injured her ankle in the first game last season and did not see game action until mid-January.

She was joined on the bench at times by her Class of 2009 mates Green (mononucleosis), Liz Leighton (ankle, concussion) and Andrea Sampson (knee). The group posed for a picture in which each player featured their injured joint or appendage. Though good for a laugh, the photograph captured a group of friends at a low point.

"It was really hard," Freichels said. "We had never dealt with being hurt and having to sit out."

Fridley's season suffered as well. A 6-1 start vanished as injuries mounted. The blowout loss at Totino-Grace was part of a 1-6 stretch in which the Tigers lost games but not each other.

Coach Jim Miller lauded the leadership of last season's senior class, a group "who never let the emotional aspects of games get to them." To Miller's point, Fridley trailed by 18 points against St. Anthony Village but came back to win.

Green emerged as the team's go-to scorer. She averaged 14.1 points per game and scored 21 of her team's 40 points in the section final against Totino-Grace. Freichels regained her form during the playoffs, scoring 11 points against Chisago Lakes.

Miller expects both players to get more opportunities this season. This group, he said, can shoot the ball with better accuracy. Teams that choose to double- and triple-team Green again this season could get burned by another player.

"I definitely think we'll open the floor up this season," Green said. "We will be able to do more with the game plan."

Fridley opens play this season at 7:15 p.m. on Dec. 2 in its gym against Totino-Grace, the private school located across Moore Lake. Coach Shannon Hartinger said her team is focused on winning its first game of the season, something the Eagles have not done the past two seasons.

Green said her team, though outnumbered, "let the last six minutes of the section championship slip through our fingers."

"I think people sometimes look back and say, 'What if,'" she said. "But that's in the past and we just have to keep our confidence up."

David La Vaque • 612-673-7574