Individuals made their marks in 2009, while the only team with postseason success came from RRCC

Even though a handful of athletes reached the state tournament — Joe Baron and Ben Shofner in boys swimming, Glenn Walls and Derek Riley in boys golf and Tim Myles, Shawn Filipiak, Jake Jensen and Alicia Hendrickson in track and field — numerous teams failed to reach expectations in the final year of the decade. No high school teams reached state, and there was even a team discontinued at Rainy River Community College ... before getting reestablished.

One of the lone bright spots for a team was the RRCC women’s club hockey team capturing its second straight national title.

Two Broncos, Aaron Skoglund and Danika Stelton, also cleared the 1,000-point plateau in basketball to highlight more individual accomplishments.

Nordquist was in one of the biggest sports stories of the year, as well, but it had nothing to do with performance. The legendary coach stepped down after 34 seasons because of an injury — just two weeks before the football season — and even that didn’t go down smoothly. The Falls School Board has left a door open for Nordquist to return, and the speculation will continue until the hall of fame coach steps down for good.

Here’s a recap of 2009:

January

• L-BF softball coach Mike Imhof was named the 2008 Section 7A Coach of the Year. And although the performance came in 2008, it wasn’t announced until 2009.

• A new course for the 29th Freeze Yer Gizzard Blizzard Run highlights a race won by Ryan Evans, an 18-year-old senior at Centennial High School.

• FHS improved to 52-0 all time against Ely/Babbitt-Embarrass/Tower-Soudan on Jan. 27 with a 19-0 victory in boys hockey.

February

• With 28 points against Chisholm on Feb. 3, Aaron Skoglund became the 13th player in Falls High School history to surpass 1,000 points. Fellow 2009 graduate Danika Stelton joined the prestigious list soon after on Feb. 13 with 21 points against Cherry.

• Two years after the football team was discontinued, news went public on Feb. 13 that RRCC’s women’s basketball team was getting cut.

• In one of the most memorable home games of 2009, the Voyageurs women’s basketball team, a week after finding out the program was getting cut, pulled off an emotionally charged comeback in a 52-50 upset victory over Hibbing on Feb. 18. The program would later be reestablished 38 days after getting the ax.

• On Feb. 25, RRCC got the go-ahead to establish a baseball team.

March

• Hibbing-Chisholm once again ends International Falls’ boys hockey season with a 4-2 victory in the Section 7A semifinals. The end of the game featured a 10-minute delay as Willie Corrin was ejected for fighting, Matt Youso was hit with a double minor and Jordan Christianson was called for cross checking.

• Broncos sophomore Sydney Gordon was named to the AP All-State honorable mention girls hockey team in Minnesota on March 3, a month after she was diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease.

• Shofner and Baron participated in the Class A state boys swimming and diving championships and finished ninth and 10th, respectively. Shofner was ninth in the 100-yard butterfly and Baron 10th in the 50 freestyle.

• RRCC’s women’s club hockey team defeated St. Scholastica 4-2 on March 15 at the ESL Sports Center in Rochester, N.Y., to capture its second straight national title.

“That was one of the best games ever,” sophomore co-captain Stevie-Lee Langford said last year. “They thought they were going to win and we came out of no where and took it to them.”

• Broncos junior Willie Corrin and senior Jace Baldwin were named to the AP All-State honorable mention boys hockey team in Minnesota on March 18.

• The Broncos baseball team arrived in Florida on March 29 and practiced at the Cocoa Expo Sports Center in preparation for a week-long trip.

• Broncos senior Aaron Skoglund and L-BF senior Mason Imhof were named to the AP All-State honorable mention boys basketball team in Minnesota on March 31. They were two of only eight players to earn the recognition from Section 7A or 7AA.

April

• Josh Koenig, the former athletic director and boys basketball coach at Falls High School, was named as the first baseball coach at RRCC on April 8.

• The 1966 International Falls boys hockey team was voted the best all time in Minnesota on April 9 after winning a “Minnesota Hockey Greats” promotion established by the Minnesota Wild in association with AT&T.

• On the same day — April 22 — the Broncos softball team established a single-game school record with four home runs, and RRCC freshman Carley Lake tied the single-season school record with eight round trippers. Lake was later named NJCAA Player of the Week for her efforts.

May

• After one of the strongest regular seasons in recent memory, the Broncos boys golf team got ousted in the Section 7AA tournament after letting a one-shot lead after Day 1 turn into a 35-shot defeat. Glenn Walls and Derek Riley qualified for state individually.

• Stelton padded her 2009 athletic resume by getting named to the MNFCA All-State second team in Class 2A for her success on the softball diamond. When the award was announced May 27, Stelton became the first player in school history to be named to an All-State softball team.

• The top-seeded Broncos baseball team got upset by Esko on May 28 in the round before the final four in the Section 7AA tournament. The Broncos haven’t advanced past the second round of the section tournament since 2001.

June

• Walls tied for seventh place in the Class 2A state tournament on June 4 after carding an 81 on the second day. Walls’ 71 from the first day had him tied for the lead. Riley finished tied for 45th in his first state meet.

• Myles tallied a Bronco-best 11th place finish in the high jump at the Class A track and field championships. Three others finished 15th — Filipiak in the high jump, Hendrickson in the pole vault and Jensen in the pole vault.

• Weeks after the Bronco baseball team experiences a great spring trip to Florida, the Minnesota State High School League agrees to ban any round trips of more than 600 miles.

• On June 17, Broncos senior Jacob Casareto earned most valuable player honors in the Iron Range’s 7-4 victory over Duluth in the Kernz & Kompany All-Star game at Ordean Field.

July

• The baseball honors continued for Casareto into July as he was one of 25 players named to the Class 2A All-State team.

• A record number of participants — 193 — finished the Bronco 5K on the morning of the Fourth of July.

• Tyler Hill captured the championship at the 55th annual Smokey Bear Invitational at the Falls Country Club on July 12.

August

• Nordquist confirmed his retirement on Aug. 3 after 34 seasons running the Broncos football program. The long-time coach injured his back in 2008 and his body failed to cooperate with numerous treatments. Nordquist stepped away eighth on the all-time wins list in Minnesota with 275.

• Derek Fisher won the 2009 Men’s Club Championship on Aug. 11 over his good friend, Andrew Katrin. Katrin triple-bogeyed the final hole at the Falls Country Club to open the door for Fisher, who captured his first golf championship since he was a senior in high school in 2004.

• Punky Stadum won her 12th Women’s Club Championship on Aug. 12, narrowly defeating Sylvia Cochrane and Martha Karsnia by one stroke at the Falls Country Club.

• Koenig worked 15 games in 10 days as an umpire at the 2009 Little League Central Region Championships in Indianapolis. His tripped was capped on Aug. 15 by closing the tournament behind the plate in a game aired on ESPN.

• New Broncos football coach Jay Boyle, only the third head coach in the program since 1974, opens practice on Aug. 17.

• While the rest of the state of Minnesota opened the 2009 prep football season on Aug. 29, the Broncos were still left practicing for another week after never finding a team to replace Duluth Central from the 2008 schedule. The shortened regular season proved costly, as the Broncos failed to reach the section tournament for the first time since 1996.

September

• L-BF’s 18-game win streak during the regular season in football came to a close Sept. 18 with a 26-22 loss to Babbitt-Embarrass. The previous loss in the regular season came in the season finale against Cook in 2006.

October

• Boyle won his first career game on Oct. 2. The Broncos piled up 532 yards on just 56 plays in a 48-22 win over Eveleth-Gilbert on homecoming.

• L-BF’s volleyball team won its fourth straight championship — in four years — at the Bigfork Tournament on Oct. 10.

• Broncos senior Stephanie Christianson finished 11th overall at the 2009 Iron Range Conference meet to earn her fifth career All-Conference honor in cross country.

November

• No significant sporting events to report.

December

• In Tony Couture’s return to International Falls, the Broncos defeated Couture’s Little Falls Flyers 3-0 on Dec. 5 at Bronco Arena.

“That was definitely one of the highlights of my hockey career as a player and coach,” Couture said after the game.

• Derek Dowty, the third leading scorer in Falls High School basketball history, collected his first victory as head coach on Dec. 8 when his Broncos defeated Eveleth-Gilbert 67-60 in the season opener.

• It took 11 seasons, but on its 15th try International Falls finally defeated Hibbing-Chisholm 2-1 in girls hockey on Dec. 15 with a gutsy overtime goal from junior captain Mackenzie Raboin. The Broncos had been 0-14 against the Bluejackets entering the matchup, which started during the 1999-2000 season with a 19-0 Hibbing-Chisholm victory.

• The 2009 Daily Journal sports season ended Wednesday night with International Falls’ girls hockey team finishing second in the Sertoma/Home Federal Shootout in Rochester.