Between them, Jake Hagler and Daniel Grande combined for 3,783 points in their high school boys basketball careers. Not only did the North Star teammates see every one of those points; they had a hand in setting up a lot of those points.
"I'd say we probably both saw all of them," Grande said of the points. "I'd guess pretty close to half of my points were from Jake's passes. I'm pretty sure probably less than half of his points were from my passes; Jake could create his own shots in so many different ways."
Hagler had 2,338 points in his prep career. Grande scored 1,445. Now the classmates, who graduated from North Star High this spring, are seeing their lon'g athletic association dwindling to its final days.
They'll play their final organized games as basketball teammates in the annual North Dakota Lions All-star Series this week, then will finish off the American Legion baseball season at Cando. Then it's off to college -- Grande has committed to play football at Minnesota State Moorhead, while Hagler has signed to play basketball at Jamestown College.
The Lions series will be played Tuesday in Fargo and Wednesday in Bismarck, with the girls' games at 6 p.m., followed by the boys' games. The games match the top boys and girls Class B seniors from the 2012-13 season against their Class A counterparts.
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"It's going to be so weird when we go off to college," Hagler said. "I'll have somebody else throwing the ball to me; I'll be passing to somebody else."
The pass-and-catch routine went beyond basketball. Hagler completed 372 passes as the North Star quarterback in the last three football seasons; Grande had 167 catches. And, through the years, Grande often has been the catcher when Hagler was pitching on the baseball diamond.
How many times have they gone through the catch-and-throw routine between all the sports, in all the games, practices and pick-up games?
"I don't know if you can put a number on that," Grande said. "It would be a big number, though, for sure. An astronomical number."
Said Hagler: "It's probably over a million. We've been doing this since we were little kids."
They developed a chemistry.
"A lot of times, we could tell just by a look or by each other's body language what the other was going to do or where each other was going to be," Grande said. "We knew each other's tendencies. In football, he always knew where I'd be and where to put the ball. In baseball, I always seemed to know what pitch Jake wanted to throw."
Between them, Hagler and Grande earned 11 all-state awards. Grande was all-state twice in both football and basketball. Hagler earned all-state recognition twice in baseball and football, and became the first Class B basketball player since Hunter Berg in 1995 to gain first team all-state honors three times.
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They've been best friends. They've hung out together. But they've also competed.
"We always wanted to be better than the other," Hagler said. "We went after each other in basketball practices. We still do in open gym.
"It made each of us better. But we're also best friends. We were always the last two out of the locker room, talking about the game, what went well and what we could have done better."
While the Lions series will be a finale for Hagler and Grande, it also will be a reunion of sorts. Several players on the Class A boys team, including two-time all-staters Mac Kroeplin of Grand Forks Red River and Nate Mertens, were AAU teammates with the North Star graduates.
"We know a lot of the Class A guys," Hagler said. "When we were together, we'd talk about maybe getting to play against each other in the Lions games someday."
Area girls in Lions
Also playing on the Lions B boys team is Austin Longie of Four Winds-Minnewaukan.
The Lions girls teams include several area players.
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On the A roster is Taylor Hammer of Grand Forks Central and Ellie Ripplinger of Grand Forks Red River.
They'll go against a B team that includes Cassie Thompson of Grafton, Taylor Henningsgard of Hillsboro-Central Valley, Ashtin Freije of Lakota/Adams-Edmore and Benson County teammates Sara Schwanke and Becca Eberle.
DeVillers reports on sports. Call him at (701) 780-1128; (800) 477-6572, ext. 1128; or send e-mail to gdevillers@gfherald.com .
