Northern Star: Jack Battaglia

In Battaglia's senior year, he leads the team in points and three pointers made.

CLOQUET, Minn.- The Cloquet Boys basketball team has dominated in their 2024-25 campaign and part of that success comes from senior guard Jack Battaglia and his ability to create plays for his team.

“If not the best, one of the best passers I have ever coached. Shoots the ball well from three, can attack the basket, he is over 80 percent at the free throw line. Doesn’t turn it over very often.”, said Cloquet head coach Steve Battaglia.

In Battaglia’s senior year, he leads the team in points and three pointers made. But he understands he couldn’t do it without his teammates.

I am scoring, but my teammates are helping me create shots. But somethings people don’t really see is my other teammates, they’re doing more of the dirty work. Whether Noah Hansen guarding the best player every night or James having eight, nine assists every night or Jacob or Max having ten rebounds a game, said Jack Battaglia.

For the senior guard, Cloquet basketball is a family affair as he shares the court with his Dad who is the head coach of the Lumberjacks and his Grandpa who is an assistant coach.

“It’s fun, It’s fun being around him and my grandpa as the assistant coach. But there are also some hardships to it too when you’re on the bench and he’s yelling at you and then your grandpa is yelling at you too, said Jack Battaglia.

“He’s either getting it from me or getting it from Grandpa. He really can’t avoid it. It’s a cool deal, we have had a ton of fun with it,” said Steve Battaglia.

In a family of coaches, Battaglia has become a players coach for the Lumberjacks.

“He is kind of an extension of a coach on the floo, he grew up coming to practice with me. So he’s been doing this for 13 years, coming to games on the bus with me before he was in school,” said Steve Battaglia.

After being around Cloquet basketball his whole life, Jack has one more goal before his high school career is over.

“It’s a team sport, I am trying to win tournaments. You don’t get a medal for individual awards, scoring or anything. I wanted to win the team award and get to the state tournament,”said Jack Battaglia.

Cloquet is next in action on Friday at Hermantown.