Cloquet Seniors Fueled by On-Court Connection

Five-game winning streak ahead of regular season finale

CLOQUET, Minn.- With the postseason quickly approaching, the Cloquet girls’ basketball team knows they’ll be leaning on their five seniors to carry them through sectionals.

After winning their first eight games of the season, the Lumberjacks spiraled, losing seven in a row. “We started off really strong and just kind of, like, lost what we’re good at,” said Quinn Danielson.

Cloquet has since returned to form. With one game left in the regular season, the Jacks have won five straight. “I think it was good that we hit that rough patch because we learned how to face some adversity,” says Carly Johnson. “So now, when we face adversity later, like coming up in playoffs, we know kind of how to handle that.”

“Coach (Heather Young) mentioned after a tough loss against Proctor that we don’t have many games left and it’s kind of running down for us.” In their latest stretch of wins, senior Ava Carlson scored her 1,000th point. When I asked Carlson what her role is on the team, she had a simple answer. “Just to do my job, get rebounds, work in the paint, and know my teammates are there for me, and I’m there for them.”

“She just brings such a leadership role to the team,” smiled Kiley Issendorf. “And she is just very vocal and gets those points up for us.”

Carlson is set to play college volleyball at Augsburg University. Her teammate Leilani Fonoti will also be an Auggie, but she’s sticking with hoops. “Offseason, on season. Basketball is my sport.” says Fonoti, who, unlike many of her teammates, only plays one sport. “I’m out there screaming in your face, like, ‘Let’s go work harder, like we’re here to win,’ you know what I mean?”

“She’s just a girl that gives energy to our entire team,” says Danielson. “You see her get hype and the rest of us are hype. She works super hard on offense and defense and is just an overall good player.”

Fonoti and Carlson are two of Cloquet’s five seniors this season. Once you add Danielson, Issendorf and Johnson, you’re looking at a tight-knit group of girls who have grown up playing as one.

“We’ve been together since forever, like, youth travel ball winning all those tournaments playing against older girls to now, so we really have a good clique.” says Carlson.

“I feel like our chemistry is just like no other,” says Danielson. “We’ve literally been together since we could touch a basketball. So, it’s just like my best friends not even on the court. But off the court, in the classes and in other sports.”

“They’re just like, my day ones,” Issendorf explained. “(We’ve) been playing ever since we were young. And we just have so much chemistry and I just love playing with them.”

It’s also clear that their connection on the court will have a hand in their hunt for a section title.

“I think we have the experience, and we know what we need to do to get to the section final,” Issendorf says. “I think we just need to keep doing what we’re doing.”

“I think if we just do the little things well, like our defense really carries us and that leads us into success on offense,” surmised Danielson. “If we do the little things, we’ll be able to get there.”

“We just got to have confidence in ourselves and really trust ourselves.” says Johnson. “I just feel like just keeping that mindset positive and really working hard every day will be the key.”

Cloquet fell one game short of the State Tournament in the last two seasons, falling to Grand Rapids in both years in the Section 7AAA Championship.