There is no doubt the Baraga Viking’s girl’s basketball team made school history this past season going 21-4, and winning both the district and regional titles. But the award’s didn’t end there as Baraga’s head coach Tom Goodreau was announced Co-Coach of the year by the Upper Peninsula Sportswriters and Sportscasters Association. (one day they’ll invite me to vote)

This season the Baraga Viking’s girl’s team had to work extra hard as they only had six girls on the entire roster, and majority of them were underclassmen. With everything the team accomplished, I truly believe coach Goodreau was deserving of winning this award.

Goodreau has been with the Vikings for four years, two as an assistant under former and well known head coach Keith Willis(pictured below), and two as the head coach. He also spent time as an assistant for the boys basketball and football team.

Image by: Al Dantas

According to The Daily Mining Gazette: Upon hearing the news, Goodreau was first speechless, then spoke a mile a minute.

“The way they played this year, only having six of them, they had to play disciplined. The style of basketball that I believe we should be playing, we play as a team. Any one of my six girls could have been the high scorer for us.”

“Right away we had to start with conditioning. There was no complaining or anything. They knew they had to do it because there were only six of them. Every day, they came into practice and worked hard.”

On top of all the extra hours of practice, coach Tom Goodreau preached defense. “Defensively, we did just a fantastic job.”

Image result for martina jahfetson

He said that he learned a lot of it working with former coach Keith Willis, who taught him the importance of defense.

“The turning point for us was when we played L’Anse at home. We just put it all together. Every game they wanted to prove themselves.”

Figuring out what would work was tough for the team. As a tough decision had to be made by coach Tom Goodreau. He had to move his senior point guard, Martina Jahfetson, a three-year starter on varsity, around the lineup to give freshman Reide Osterman a chance to show what she could do at the point guard role.

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Martina Jahfetson

“That really opened the girls’ eyes, because they knew, ‘Hey, right now, I might be playing small forward, but I might be playing shooting guard in the second quarter.’ The girls ended up playing multiple positions.”

“It was a real blessing to coach those girls this year,” Goodreau said. “The support from the administration and from the community was just awesome.

Baraga Fan’s Pictured behind coach Tom Goodreau hugging Erin Kamarainen.

“We had a really good crowd for that game (against L’Anse). People kept coming. The girls kept saying, ‘We have a big crowd out there tonight. We need to put it all on the line.’”

There is no doubt in my mind that this team will make another run next year. And if you want to stay up to date with everything Yooper News… Like us below:

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