Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Hurley Northstars boys basketball team waves goodbye from the bus to other Hurley students standing in front of the school with signs of encouragement as the team leaves for the state tournament in Madison Thursday morning. At right is middle and high school principal Melissa Oja. The Northstars will play the Bangor Cardinals in the semifinals at 10:45 a.m. today.
By ZACHARY MARANO
Hurley - The student body of Hurley K-12 School gathered in the high school gymnasium on Thursday morning to send off the Hurley Northstars boys basketball team before they headed to Madison for the state basketball tournament.
The pep rally started with a comment from Jay Aijala, mayor of Hurley, and special education associate and elementary athletic coordinator at the school.
"It has been an extremely exciting week around school and around our community," Aijala said. "It started, of course, last Saturday, with a game at Chequamegon, which is going to go down as one of the best games, not only in our history, but in the state of Wisconsin as well, as our Hurley Northstars were victorious over Athens to win that sectional championship."
Aijala said that the basketball from the game on March 12 will be signed by the entire varsity boys basketball team and displayed in the school's trophy case as a reminder of their 41-38 victory against Athens Bluejays.
The Northstars face Bangor in a Division 5 state semifinal this morning at 10:45 a.m. at the University of Wisonsin's Kohl Center.
Aijala said that the school started selling tickets for today's game on Tuesday and within an hour, they sold their allotment of 499 tickets. He said that tournament officials opened up additional sections to continue packing Hurley fans into the arena.
"When these boys take the floor, they're going to have an entire community behind them," Aijala said.
"You guys have been great. And we know we're not done yet," boys basketball coach Mike Swartz said to the team seated in a long row on the gym floor. "We're not done yet. I appreciate everything you've done. You guys come in early, you work hard and you put the time in. You belong there. You've earned this. This is your time."
After the pep rally, the boys team boarded a school bus and left for Madison. Other students gathered around the curb in front of the school to wave goodbye as the bus was escorted out of the city by a host of law enforcement vehicles, fire trucks and others with lights flashing and horns blaring.
In the high school gymnasium, the digital clock displayed 19:49 and the score was 20-22. This was a reference to the last time that Hurley advanced to the state tournament in 1949, when they also won the title of state champions.
If the Northstars beat the Bangor Cardinals this morning, they will advance to Saturday's state championship at 11:05 a.m. against either the Randolph Rockets or Gibraltar Vikings, hoping to walk in the footsteps of the 1949 team and bring the title of state champions back to Hurley again.
After the pep rally, the school had a half day and the other school buses left to bring the students home after lunch. School was closed today because almost 30 staff members were planning to travel to Madison to cheer for the team, according to the school's Facebook page.
