-Another year was filled with personal and team accomplishments-

As a fan of Minnetonka sports, I am proud of what every Skippers team has done over the previous year.  It’s hard to sum up how special these 12 months have been in just a few words, but I’ll try.

Over the past calendar year, Minnetonka teams have won 3 state championships and have come close in many more.  The girls’ alpine ski team started off the year in strong fashion, edging out Bloomington Jefferson for its first title since 1993.  Boys’ swim and dive also had a great performance in March to win the state title over Eden Prairie.  Most dramatic of all was probably the state championship for the girls’ hockey team, beating Edina 3-2 on a goal by Amy Peterson with 37.9 seconds remaining.

Along with the team championships came a few remarkable state championships by individuals.  In track, Piper Jensen won the girls’ state competition for the triple-jump and Christian Skaret won the boys’ 1600 meter run.  Skaret is now running for the University of Minnesota and left behind a very promising track team.

All of those state championships brought a lot of attention to Minnetonka, but there were also a bunch of teams that fell just short.  A total of 6 teams won their section championships and advanced to state tournaments and there were also 7 more teams that finished runners-up in their sections.

As for this fall, the girls’ tennis team won their section to get into the state tournament, along with Senior Jessa Richards advancing to the singles tournament.  Richards remembers it as a very successful year, saying that her favorite memory was the section finals against Eden Prairie and “all the girls competing hard in order to bring us back to state for the 5th year in a row.”

On a different note, a handful of Minnetonka football players represented Minnesota in the 2011 National 7-on7 Tournament this summer in Cleveland, Ohio.  Senior wide receiver Gabe Boyce says that “finishing 3rd in the tournament” was his favorite memory from the past year.  The Minnetonka football team proceeded to go 8-3 this season, narrowly falling to Eden Prairie in the section final.

            Overall, it was a very successful year for a variety of Minnetonka sports.  I will personally remember it as a year when longtime friends and classmates emerged as big-time stars.  Looking forward, 2012 also promises to be an exciting year.  As athletic director Ted Schultz puts it, “I can’t wait to see Minnetonka students representing our school in such great ways.”