Blossoms celebrate Worke’s milestone, but fall to FBA
Published 10:22 pm Tuesday, January 14, 2025
Elaine Schwarz lines up a shot for the Aweosme Blossoms. Rocky Hulne/sports@austindailyherald.com
Blooming Prairie’s Catelyn Bartlett makes a move against Faribault Bethlehem Acdemy’s Morgan Wilson in BP Tuesday. Rock Hulne/sports@austindailyherald.com
The Blooming Prairie girls basketball team presents their head coach John Worke a gift basket to celebrate his 400 wins. Rocky Hulne/sports@austindailyherald.com
Blooming Prairie’s Ella Smith fights for a loose ball agianst in BP Tuesday. Rocky Hulne/sports@austindailyherald.com
Blooming Prairie’s Emmerson Nelson dribbles around Faribault Bethlehem Academy’s Anna Tobin. Rocky Hulne/sports@austindailyherald.com
Blooming Prairie’s Gracelyn Anderson defends the ball. Rocky Hulne/sports@austindailyehrald.com
Blooming Prairie head coach John Worke directs his team in BP Tuesday. Rocky Hulne/sports@austindailyherald.com
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BLOOMING PRAIRIE – Blooming Prairie head girls basketball coach John Worke has coached since the 1990s, but he hasn’t coached a lot of games quite like he did on Tuesday.
Before the game, Worke noticed a lot of familiar faces from his past teams in the crowd before the Awesome Blossoms lost 58-36 to Faribault Bethlehem Academy.
His former players, and his family and supporters, were all on hand to celebrate Worke’s 400th career win, which he achieved last week.
“It was a neat start. I’m happy they gave me the recognition, but it’s hard when you have a game to coach,” Worke said. “It was good to see a lot of the kids come back. My wife had put it on facebook and to read all of the messages they put up was good.”
Worke had stepped down from coaching after a 22-year stint in 2015 due to taking the principal job at BPHS. But last year, he was able to step back into the helm as the district was looking for coaches. Worke has noticed some changes in the game since his eight-year hiatus from the bench.
“It’s been a long time. It’s kind of an emotional roller coaster. You look back and you see how much the game has changed,” he said. “We’ve had games where teams have shot 37 three-pointers against us. It’s such a different look (than it used to be).”
BP (6-10 overall) jumped out to a 12-5 lead on Tuesday and it took a 25-17 lead into the break. However, FBA (4-8 overall) opened the second half on an 18-0 run over eight minutes to take the game over.
The Cardinals took the lead for good when Brooklyn Becker hit two free throws to make it 26-25 with 14:42 left in the game and Anna Cohen buried a three to make it 29-25 with 14:13 left.
“They shot us out of our zone. Our zone worked well in the first half and they had some foul trouble,” Worke said. “In the second half (Cohen) shot us out of our zone. We had to switch to man and we got beat on that too. They were getting offensive rebounds and we were fouling.”
BP was led by eighth grader Elaine Schwarz, who posted 16 points, 10 rebounds, three blocks and three steals.
Worke led the Awesome Blossoms to state in 1999, but he’s also coached in his fair share of losses like the one his team experienced on Tuesday. Over the years, he’s learned that the season goes on, no matter the result on a given night.
“These nights aren’t good, but there’s always good nights too,” Worke said. “The kids recover a lot quicker than I do and they’ll be back and ready to go tomorrow.”
FBA 17 41 – 58
BP 25 11 – 36
BP scoring: Elaine Schwarz, 16; Claire Schwarz, 8; Catelyn Bartlett, 6; Ella Smith, 2; Ellie Stoen, 2; Gracelyn Anderson, 2
