A Letter from our Athletic Director

Hello Tiger Families,

I would like to take this opportunity to write to you all, a recap of this year’s High School Tiger athletic teams and our amazing Student-Athletes.

Where to start; Covid… Wow!  That’s really all anyone needs to say in order to fully grasp what not only our student-athletes, but what also our families and coaches had to encounter, battle, and transform literally their everyday life!  The amount of courage and fight our student-athletes had shouldn’t have surprised anyone, but they did.  Not just because they showed up, but because they continued to battle and better themselves and their respective teams by not allowing Covid to tell them what they could or couldn’t achieve.  They didn’t allow Covid to limit how hard they could work and what goals they could or couldn’t reach.  They accepted the challenge.

With all of the reasons in the world to not show up, to not work hard, to not push their limits, TCA/GRS Tiger Athletics had our most successful year in school history and set many firsts.  Now, what one defines “success”, is open for interpretation.  Success can be defined in an assortment of varieties.  Personally, success to me, is showing up, working hard and being rewarded for your hard work.  If you don’t know me, I am a very competitive person on all levels!  Some would maybe say more than one should be, but that is what drives me.  The Tiger culture that I am trying to embody and instill in our coaches and student-athletes, is that we want all of our student-athletes to find that drive or figure out what drives them, not necessarily to win, but to be better.  As a human, as a student, and as an athlete.

Onto this season’s accomplishments.

Girls Soccer:  EMAC Conference Champions, along with their first ever Section play-off win.  Our Assistant Coach, Alexa Oberembt was selected as Assistant Coach of the Year in Section 4A.

Boys Basketball:  Section 4AA Runner Up. First time in school history that our boys program was playing in the Section 4AA Championship game to go to state.  I know runner up doesn’t sound too appealing, but do not dismiss how hard and far these young men and coaches worked to get there, only 8 kids on the active varsity roster.  The average roster size of our opponents were 15-17 kids.

Boys Volleyball:  State qualifiers for the first time in school history!  Our boys volleyball team finished in the top two in our section to automatically qualify for the State Tournament next week at Shakopee.  These young men have battled all season, even with the stress and disappointment in knowing that the General Rep Assembly with member schools in the MSHSL, missed the decision to become a fully sponsored Varsity sport by 3 schools votes.

Girls Track/ Monique Udo:  Monique Udo is the first Tiger Track and Field Student-Athlete in TCA/GRS school history to make it to the State Track and Field Track Meet.  Monique won the women’s high jump in the Section meet to advance to State.

Boys Track:  Another school first, our boys Tiger Track and Field team won outright the EMAC Meet last week at Concordia- St Paul University.  We have some boys competing at the Section Meet tomorrow, with a good chance at qualifying for the State meet.

All of these accomplishments are a direct reflection of how hard these Student-Athletes have worked and the time they have committed to their craft of being better.  No matter what life throws at them.  They chose to be better.

I have so much appreciation and respect for our student-athletes and their families and all of our coaches and their families.  It truly takes a village.  This year was not easy.  But the silver lining out of all of this is that it’s going to take a lot more than Covid to stop us.

We are all Tigers.

Respectfully,

-Coach V