Champlin Park Aims To Remain Undefeated
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- The best high school basketball team in the state so far has been Champlin Park.
The Rebels are unbeaten, and they're motivated by what they did not do a year ago.
Osseo took Champlin Park out in the section finals to go to state in 2014.
"We had a great season last year, ended up losing, and I think that's still in our heart right now," Champlin Park coach Mark Tuchscherer said. "We brought out the second place section trophy to start the season, and set it right next to the court."
They have gained some basketball moxie along the way. They have a strong senior class and a pair of sophomores in the starting line-up.
"We expected to be coming back with three seniors starting this year who played varsity last year, so we know we had a chance to be really good," guard J.T. Gibson said.
He knows because he's the leader, but he's not alone. Six-feet-eight-inch sophomore Theo John is a prospect developing, in part because of his teammates.
"It's fun, I mean, you never know what's going to happen," John said. "Defensively or offensively, we can make a good play and sometimes we don't, but, you know, it is what it is."
Maybe it's fun because they love the game and the competition.
"[They're] super competitive, like big time competitive, gym rats," Tuchscherer said. "For the past few years, we've kind of had that group coming through. And, you know, it's a good problem when you got to kick them out of the gym after four to five hours after school some nights."
And maybe that's why they have their sight set high. They're willing to pay the price.
"The only thing we have in our mind right now is the state championship. Really looking forward to those last six games in March, so we're preparing ourselves every day in practice," Gibson said.
J.T. Gibson has signed to play with Nebraska Omaha next year.