Author: Ryan Williamson

With a two-month window and spotty spring weather, the Minnesota spring high school sports season is generally a race to the finish. Thanks to the pandemic the push to the end has been taken up a notch. The spring sports seasons have been condensed, including the postseason. In a normal season, postseasons are a little more spread out. But not this year. Just about every spring sport has consequential action. To prepare for a wild week of sports involving EPHS squads, here’s where we are at in terms of postseason action. Boys’ Golf Monday is the second round of the…

It’s the time of the year when school is wrapping up, and students are heading off to summer. But for many athletes at Eden Prairie High School (EPHS), there is one last thing to do and that is finish their spring sports season. Over the next few weeks, a number of spring sport section and state tournaments will be happening across the state. Some will include EPHS athletes. To preview the upcoming action, we are breaking down each team as they begin their postseason journey. Our first preview is the EP softball team. Regular-season record: 12-8, 8-4 in Lake Conference…

As a 10-year-old hockey player, Grace Kuipers stood out from the rest of her peers—literally. “I saw (Kuipers) when she was at the U10 level,” said EPHS girls’ hockey coach Jaime Grossman. “She jumped in and was three times faster than any other player.” Since then, Kuipers turned into a top-performing hockey player with a future in Div. I hockey after a standout career with the Eden Prairie girls’ hockey team. A standout from the start As the coach of the highest-ranking EP girls’ hockey team, Grossman routinely checks out the younger players who soon may star for the Eagles…

At the end of a championship game, tears are most often reserved for the losing team. But on the ice of the Xcel Energy Center, the tears being shed were happy ones. They came from the Eden Prairie boys’ hockey team. The Eagles had just captured a state championship, a moment that was a long time coming for many players, including senior forward Carter Batchelder. A long waitMore than a decade before Batchelder took the ice for the Eden Prairie varsity squad, the golden age of the Eagles’ boys’ hockey program was underway. With no state championships prior to 2009,…

There is something that I have always loved and dreaded about heading into a big-time sporting event. Whether it be the NFL playoffs or a high school state tournament, that sense of intensity and high stakes nature always makes me giddy. On a Saturday night in early March 2020, my mom, dad, brother and I filed in, shoulder to shoulder, along with tens of thousands of other people to watch the Class 2A boys’ hockey state championship game between Eden Prairie and Hill-Murray at the Xcel Energy Center. As we made our way through the packed crowd, that sense of…

Just one day prior to Saturday’s Class 2A state championship game, the Eden Prairie boys’ hockey team found itself in the middle of a high-scoring battle in the semifinals. The game itself had to be decided in overtime. In said championship game, the Eagles once again headed into overtime. However, Saturday’s game did not match Friday’s in term of offensive prowess. EP found itself in a 1-1 battle with Lakeville South in the state final. Playing three periods and into a second overtime, the Eagles once again found some offensive magic. Jackson Blake scored a little more than two minutes…

About 10 years after the Eden Prairie High School boys’ hockey team won its most recent state championship in a game for the ages, the Eagles won an epic game in the 2021 Class 2A state semifinals that will soon stand closely behind it. Eden Prairie played a knock-down, drag-out fight against Maple Grove on Friday. After a game filled with plenty of back-and-forth, the Eagles eventually won another potentially epic state tournament game, 6-5, and live on to play Lakeville South in Saturday’s Class 2A state championship game.

Tied at one after two periods, the top-seeded Eden Prairie boys’ hockey team took things up a notch on Wednesday in the Class 2A state quarterfinals against St. Thomas Academy. The Eagles exploded for five goals in the game’s final 13 minutes as Eden Prairie went on to defeat the Cadets 6-2 at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul. With the win, Eden Prairie advances to Friday’s semifinals. In the opening period, the Eagles opened the scoring thanks to their power-play unit, which is scoring more than 30 percent of the time. Drew Holt, a member of Eden Prairie’s top…

About one year ago, Eden Prairie boys’ basketball coach David Flom and his team gathered at Eden Prairie High School to celebrate their undefeated 2019-20 season that was cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Fast forward one year later, and once again Flom and that group of players are once again celebrating a historic season. This time, it will be for the whole state to enjoy. The 2019-20 Eden Prairie boys’ basketball is the subject of a new documentary titled “The Perfect Season: Interrupted.” The 30-minute film debuts on FOX Sports North on March 26. Before the tip-off of…

For the third consecutive season, the Eden Prairie boys’ hockey team is headed back to the Xcel Energy Center for the state tournament. On Wednesday, the Eagles’ faced off against Lake Conference rival Minnetonka in the Section 2AA final. Despite trailing by two goals in the second period, top-seeded Eden Prairie eked out an overtime victory and captured the section championship and moved on to next week’s state tournament. The Eagles had an easy trek to the section final as they defeated New Prague in the quarterfinals 9-1 and then besting Holy Family 6-0 this past Saturday in the section…