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Sometimes you look at a date of when something happened and it blows your mind.

When I was scrolling through social media and I saw that it’s been almost 10 years since the Lyle-Pacelli girls basketball team earned its first trip to the state tournament as a co-op.

I remember that team quite well and the thought of some of its seniors being in their late 20s made me feel older than usual. The Athletics, who went on to capture a state title in 2018, were a very special group for many reasons.

Most impressively, L-P provided a blueprint on how to build a program from the ground up. When I arrived in Austin in 2007, it was highly inconceivable that the L-P girls would ever play in a state tournament, but the team gradually improved every season. First came a couple of regular season wins, then came an improbable play-in game win in the Section 1A tournament. It’s a credit to the program’s coaches and players for sticking with it when times were tough to keep things positive.

By the time Courtney Walter and her younger sister Brooke Walter were playing on varsity together, along with Sarah Holtz, the team was looking like a contender. With the Walters and much of the roster hailing from Lyle, pairing with Holtz, a Pacelli student, the team learned to play together on the court, despite the fact they went to different schools.

Anyone who watched that team remembers Holtz’s explosiveness to the hoop, Brooke’s awareness as a freshman point guard, and Courtney’s ability to hit the big shot.

To add to the passage of time was the fact that Madison Truckenmiller also played on that team. She was the first of three Truckenmillers to play for L-P over the years, with her sister Kendal playing on the state champion team in 2018, and her brother Jake playing in the state baseball tournament for L-P in 2023. Their father Carl is the current head boys basketball coach of L-P.

L-P will honor the 2015 team that went to state at halftime of their girls varsity game on Dec. 20 at Pacelli High School and hopefully it’s a chance for the current L-P players to see that value of dedication and hard work.

The 2015 team did not inherit a top level program, but by the time they were finished, L-P was well on its way to becoming a power in Southeast Minnesota for a four-year stretch.