The last time MACCRAY was in the girls' state basketball tournmament, Brad Atchison was the head coach and Dale Peterson the 'C' team coach. That was the 1990-91 season.
Fifteen years later, they are in the state tournament as coaches at the same time again. Only, Atchison is the head coach at Willmar, while Peterson is now the head coach at MACCRAY.
Atchison has guided teams to the state tournament five times in his 29-year career. For Peterson, in his third year as head coach, this is his first time bringing a team to the Big Show.
"If I run into any problems and I see Brad, I'll tap him on the shoulder and ask him for some help," laughed Peterson, who worked under Atchison for seven seasons. "I've learned a lot from him."
Atchison won a state title in 1986 as coach of Midwest Minnesota (Clara City-Maynard). He then earned consecutive trips to state with MACCRAY (Maynard-Clara City-Raymond) in 1990 and '91. He began coaching at Willmar in the 1995-96 season and the Cardinals were state runner-up in 2004. In all, he has won 490 games in his career.
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Willmar (23-4) opens the Class AAA tournament today against DeLaSalle (22-7) at 10 a.m. at the Sports Pavilion on the University of Minnesota Campus in Minneapolis. The game was originally scheduled to be played at Williams Arena, but since has been moved after the Minnesota Gophers men's basketball team was selected to host an NIT game today.
MACCRAY (21-6) takes on Crookston (27-3) at 6 p.m. at the Target Center in Minneapolis in its quarterfinal game.
Atchison overcame injuries to several key players this season and managed to guide to state a team with modest overall offensive prowess for the second time in three years.
Laura Nielsen, a 6-1 senior post who has signed to play for South Dakota State University next season, leads the Cardinals in scoring at 16.7 points-per-game. No one else is in double figures, although 5-1 senior guard Andrea Brown is a shade under at 9.9. Only five Cardinals have reached double digits this season. Willmar averages 50.3 points-per-game, while allowing just 37.5.
"We are definitely a defensive team," said Atchison last week. "We try to be patient on offense and then turn it up a notch on defense."
MACCRAY has more offensive weapons with eight different players having scored in double figures this season. Hilary Groothuis, a 5-11 senior forward, averages 15.8 points-per-game and Tory Brouwer, a 5-10 senior forward, averages 12.8 ppg.
"Brad and I run a few things the same yet," said Peterson, who has coached junior high, C squad, B squad and varsity for 19 seasons at Clara City-based teams.
"We both like to run a 1-3-1 defense. And we run a two-guard offense and a similar delay game and out-of-bounds plays."
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And now they're enjoying similar success.
