Josephson, Hennens, Sussner get basketball awards

Lots of awards were handed out to Minneota girls basketball players on Monday night.

One of the awards was Assistant Coach Dale Kockelman being named "Assistant Coach of the Year" in Section 3AA.

Coach Chad Johnston said, "Being surrounded by good peoplle makes my job easier." He noted the addition of Al Panka as an assistant who sits on the bench and converses with players in an effort to bring better understanding of what's happening. He also said volunteer assistant Emily Stienessen helped because often girls want to talk another girl and she brought the coaching staff another dimension.

The coach said the 22-7 season found the Vikings losing only one game by more than nine points — and that was the first-game loss to BOLD.

"There was growth. This team did unselfish things. If I look at the journey, it was great this year. There's a lot of character in this group," he said. He said the idea was not to focus on the losses — but to, "Remeber the journey. "It's more than wins and losses — it's personal growth. In those terms it was a very successful year.

Minneota's new captains for next year are Morgan Hennen and Lydia Sussner (center). They were named Monday at the Basketball Awards ceremony.

Beth Hennen (left) was named the Most Valuable Defensive Player; Morgan Hennen the Most Improved player and Charlie Josephson (right) the Hardest Worker (two-times); Most Valuable Teammate All-Conference Team.

Lydia Sussner (second from right) won the team’s Most Valuable Offensive Player award, was all-conference and the South Camden Division’s Most Valuable Player.