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There was no girls' basketball when I was in high school. No girls' hockey tournaments. No college recruiters sitting in the bleachers scouting 16-year-old phenoms.
Minnesota didn’t sponsor high school girls’ sports at all when I graduated in 1973. If you were a girl who could play — really play — the system didn’t care. There was no varsity, no stage, no packed arena waiting to roar for you.
Fifty-two years later, I’m watching two local sophomores — Taylee Manion and Chloe Johnson — step onto national stages so bright you almost need sunglasses just to read the headlines. And all I can think is: My God, we didn’t just come a long way… we sprinted an entire lifetime in one generation.
These two aren’t just athletes. They’re the kind of student-athletes schools brag about, communities rally behind, and future kids grow up idolizing. They get their homework done, shake the hands of younger fans, treat adults with respect — and then go out and dominate their sports like seasoned pros. That combination doesn’t happen often.
Start on the court.
Johnson, the No. 2-ranked point guard in the nation for the Class of 2028, controls games with the kind of command you don’t see in Minnesota high school gyms very often — if ever. She doesn’t just score. She dictates the entire geometry of the court. Defenses bend around her. Coaches reshuffle their game plans. Fans stop talking and start watching.
And people forget: she’s not just a basketball machine. She’s a thoughtful, impressive young woman who handles cameras, questions and expectations like she’s already doing NIL deals at a Big Ten school. A true student-athlete with the emphasis on both words.
Then walk drive across town to the Proctor arena and you’ll find just as much electricity.
Manion, Proctor/Hermantown’s unflappable blue-line anchor, was named to the U.S. roster for the 2026 Under-18 Women’s World Championship — the youngest player on the roster. Read that again slowly. The youngest player on Team USA, and she’s a sophomore. USA Hockey doesn’t hand out sweaters to kids they “hope” might figure it out. They select players who have it — poise, vision, the calmness of someone who’s been through battles most defenders twice her age avoid.
Last season she helped the Mirage post 11 shutouts and a 1.70 team goals-against average, chewing up the heaviest minutes without blinking. That’s not hype. That’s what she actually did. She plays like someone who’s already been on the big stage, and the big stage is now coming to her — Nova Scotia in January, the top teenagers on the planet, the sorting hat of women’s hockey. And she’s ready.
So here we are — in the same winter, in the same community — with two generational phenoms, both sophomores, both on paths toward Division I stardom and likely professional careers if their health holds.
The Northland hasn’t seen a winter like this. And maybe won’t again.
Ask yourself this: Can you even imagine the hype — and the crowds — when these two phenoms hit their senior seasons?
Marshall's gym jammed like section finals on random Tuesdays in January, people driving down from Ely and Hibbing just to see Johnson run a half-court offense live.
Mirage hockey games sold out before warmups. College scouts stacked three deep behind the glass.
This is what progress looks like. This is what opportunity looks like. This is what happens when girls aren’t told to sit in the bleachers — but instead handed the keys to the gyms and arenas.
I grew up in a sports world where girls were invisible. Now the biggest stars in town — the most electrifying, can’t-miss, soon-to-be household names — are two sophomore girls who are rewriting what a Northland athlete can be.
And I’ll tell you this much: It’s time.
