The East Grand Forks Senior High girls basketball team expects an adjustment period as it tweaks its style to deal with the departure of Green Wave all-time leading scorer Chelsey Frydenlund, who is redshirting at UND.
That's just the beginning of change at Senior High. The Green Wave also will have to get accustomed to a new classification.
Senior High has begun its first season as a member of Minnesota Class AAA after years at the AA level. The team's regular-season schedule will remain relatively unchanged, but Senior High now will face a higher level of competition when it hits the postseason.
"You'll see bigger, stronger kids at AAA," said Senior High coach Durene Frydenlund. "They also possibly play better competition in more populated areas. Come tournament time, we're going to have to be ready to be strong and hopefully be playing our best basketball."
Senior High's new section includes Detroit Lakes, Fergus Falls, Little Falls, Thief River Falls, Sauk Rapids-Rice, Alexandria and Sartell-St. Stephen.
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It's a challenging section, which includes two teams ranked in the state's first poll. Fergus Falls is ranked No. 3 in the state, while Sartell-St. Stephen is ranked 10th.
The Wave will go into the postseason without much experience against Class AAA opponents.
"Changing your schedule is very difficult," Frydenlund said. "Teams have their conference, and they don't veer far from that. We might have been shifted up, but we won't necessarily see those teams."
That adds value to Senior High's games against North Dakota Class A opponents, which can be likened to the Minnesota Class AAA level. The Wave opened their season with a 64-49 loss to Minot.
"I'd take a game like that over a not-so-competitive game, just to make you better," Frydenlund said.
On the court, Senior High is still getting comfortable playing without Chelsey Frydenlund, who was the program's go-to player for a number of years. She led the Wave to a 24-6 mark a year ago.
"Chelsey was very vocal in her position," Frydenlund said. "Being around the program as long as she was, that'll take some time. Now, we'll have to have more of a group leadership. We're getting there. It's not where we'd like it to be, but this is a great group of kids."
Miller reports on sports. Reach him at (701) 780-1121; (800) 477-6572, ext. 121; or send e-mail to tmiller@gfherald.com .
