It’s a place they’ve never been before, and also a place they’ve always wanted to be.
But when the Viborg-Hurley Cougars stepped into the Huron Gym on Wednesday, it was not mission accomplished.
Rather, the mission’s only begun.
“We reached our goal, but we need to evaluate because we made it to the state tournament.” Head Coach Molly Mason said. “We’re here for business. It’s lights out and we’re here for a championship. We’re not content by just making the state tournament. ”
Indeed it was the goal for the Cougars to reach the state tournament. Three of the players were managers for the team in Viborg-Hurley’s most recent state tournament appearance in 2015, but no player on the team had ever reached the mountaintop themselves.
And they wouldn’t have reached it without all the hard work and dedication the athletes put into the offseason.
“It’s been great! They’ve worked hard for it, they’ve put in extra time and we knew there is so much more we can be doing and it was built this summer,” Mason said. “They put in the work for it and put in the extra time. Weight room, camps, open gyms, workouts and the girls put in the time. Going into our game last week, I let them know they’ve earned it.”
The Cougars showed early this season that they were well prepared and had put in time to succeed, defeating Bridgewater-Emery, Scotland, Deubrook Area and Dakota Valley all before Christmas Break had ended.
“We had some really tough games and I actually told my assistant coach that if we come out of Christmas break .500% I’ll be really happy, just because we knew we had such a tough schedule,” Mason said.
The Cougars then went to Madison to play the top team in Nebraska C-2 Class, Crofton. Viborg-Hurley lost the matchup, but learned a lot about their team.
“That Crofton game was tough, but we kind of came out of that game like ‘gosh if we play a team like this, every single game?!” Mason said. “The loss wasn’t a big deal but it made us so much better, and helped us understand what we needed to do to play the level we wanted to play at. “
The Cougars continued to put in the work during the regular season, and now enter the state tournament with an excellent 18-4 record. One of those losses, though, was against White River, Viborg-Hurley’s first round opponent. This time around however, the Cougars think they will be well prepared.
“First of all, we can’t let (Caelyn) Valandra-Pru score 46 points,” Mason said. “During our first game against White River, we started the game in a zone and found ourselves getting into foul trouble. We weren’t moving our feet, adjusting. Man defense was successful, and now going into tomorrow’s game, we are going into some other options.”
And while they have spoken on unfinished business, what will be the key to getting past White River and the rest of the top teams in Class B for Viborg-Hurley?
“Focus. That’s my biggest thing going into each game and preparing for each game is focus,” Mason said. “There is so many times in sports that you kinda lose track of what you need to do, and each girl knows what their role is on this team and all they need to do is go out and focus on their role.”
“If you focus, good things will come.”
This article is part of our series of State Tournament Previews.
