Today
Girls Basketball – vs. Bloomington Kennedy at Esko tournament, 2:45 p.m. Game Notes: The Hawks are 2-7, the Eagles 3-6. Hermantown players to watch are junior center Olivia Johnson, sophomore guard Bailey Hermanson, senior guard Bailey Zagelmeyer and junior guard Mikayla Sweeney.
Wednesday
Girls Basketball – TBD at Esko tournament, 2:45 p.m.
Boys Hockey – host Delano, 3 p.m. Game Notes: The Class 1A/No. 1-ranked Hawks (4-1-2) are 0-1-1 in their last two, including a 3-1 loss to Class 2A/No. 9 Rosemount on Saturday at Hermantown Arena. Class 1A/unranked Delano is 7-2-0. Hermantown scoring leaders include junior forward River Freeman (10 points), senior forward William Esterbrooks (9) and super-sophomore forward-defenseman AJ Francisco (8). Senior goaltender Dane Callaway is 4-1-2 with a 1.40 goals-against average and .951 saves percentage.
Thursday
Boys Hockey – host East Grand Forks, 3:30 p.m. Game Note: Class 1A/No. 5 EGF is 7-4-0.
Boys Basketball – vs. Delano at Delano Invitational, 5 p.m. Game Notes: The Hawks (4-4) are led by 6-foot-5 senior power forward Abe Soumis, one of the state's elite players and a rising college prospect. He had a game-high 33 points to power Hermantown past North Branch 75-65 last Thursday night at Hermantown Gym. Senior guard Peyton Menzel added 14 points for the Hawks. Delano is 6-2.
"Heading into the Christmas tournament at Delano, we feel like we're finding our groove and getting back into the swing of things, playing our style of basketball again," said Hawks coach Andy Fenske. "We're going through those growing pains early on, which we've started to overcome. We are far from being prepared for March basketball, but we are optimistic that we've righted the ship. Delano is going to be a tough match-up for us. They're bringing a solid squad back from last year and are looking like they truly are a top-10 team right now. We will follow them up with Monticello on Friday afternoon who's got a squad trying to find their identity.
"As we learned after Hibbing (a 78-56 Hawks' road win) on Tuesday night, we can't look past a single opponent. The boys are playing some great basketball and we're finding we have many threats on the offensive side right now, having four different players score over 20 in a game. We still have moments where we have our lapses, but we're just over a month into the season. We aren't anywhere close to playing our best basketball, but we're definitely on our way. These boys are hungry to get out and prove something here next week to see where we stack up against top talent in the state."
Friday
Wrestling – at Champlin Park, 8:30 a.m.
Boys Basketball – vs. Monticello at Delano Invitational, noon. Game Note: Monticello is 0-6.
Boys Hockey – at Shakopee, 3 p.m. Game Note: Class 2A/No. 10 Shakopee is 8-2-1.
