After capping a perfect season by winning a second consecutive North Dakota Class A state football title, Park River/Fordville-Lankin had a 17-day break before basketball season started.
Senior Matt Dobmeier said there was no concern about a letdown after the season-long emotional high of the football season.
"It was pretty easy to get going again for basketball,'' the PR/F-L senior said. "You want to get going. I've always loved both sports.
"This is my last year. I was excited for all of our sports this year. I'm sure the other guys feel the same way.''
There has been no post-football lag for the Aggies basketball team. Park River/Fordville-Lankin entered the weekend with a 14-1 record. The Aggies will meet East Grand Forks Senior High at 2:45 p.m. Saturday in one of four games at the annual Dick Compton Memorial South Forks Lions Shootout at Grand Forks Central High School.
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The Aggies' basketball starting lineup includes three football players, Jordan Omlie (10.1 ppg) and all-staters Dobmeier (8.3 ppg, 6.3 rpg) and Spencer Rehovsky (6.1 ppg). They're joined in the lineup by Jordan Johnson (16.9 ppg, 3.6 apg) and Josh Ruzicka (5.3 ppg, 8.2 rpg). Another football player, Andy Moe (6.6 ppg), is the top reserve. Eight of the 14 players on the basketball roster were also on the championship football team.
Basketball coach Larry Omdahl said the Aggies have built off the success of football.
"I think it pushes the kids,'' Omdahl said. "They've seen the success they can have in football. They want to have that in another sport. I wasn't worried about a letdown.''
That wasn't the case a year ago. That first football title came in a season in which the Aggies went into the playoffs as the No. 2 seed out of their own region. This fall, Park River/Fordville-Lankin was the favorite, ranked first in the Class A state poll all season.
"We were sort of in shock after winning the first time,'' Dobmeier said. " We were probably riding a little bit of a (football) high for awhile in the basketball season. You hate to say it, but we probably didn't work as hard as we needed to. And when the shots weren't falling, we got down on ourselves.''
The Aggies already have surpassed their win total of a season ago, when they finished 10-13.
“We’ve always felt we could do something like this,’’ Dobmeier said. “But we’ve never been able to do it before. This year, things seem to be falling into place. Mr. Omdahl has been telling us the same things for four years. We’re just finally starting to figure it out.’’
Park River/Fordville-Lankin is succeeding by adapting to different styles.
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"We're a physical team,'' Omdahl said. "But we do like to press and try to push the pace.''
The leader of the basketball team is Johnson, a senior who surpassed 1,000 career points earlier this season. "Jordan is the one the other guys look to for the big shots,'' Omdahl said. "He's always been an excellent outside shooter. He's worked on his game and developed his ability to drive to the basket and he's got a post-up game now, too.''
But, for the most part, the football players have carried over their football style onto the basketball court.
"We play as aggressively as we did in football,'' Dobmeier said. "We just can't hit people in basketball. Somebody described us as being a hard-nosed team. I think that's about right.''
