College Basketball: Ridgewater coach is back in the saddle

Nov. 20—WILLMAR — Carrie Ogdahl never felt like she left Ridgewater College, mainly because she didn't, currently in her 27th year as an instructor.

But there was a part of her missing, having coached at Ridgewater for 20 years before walking away after the 2014-15 basketball season.

Now, after six years of not coaching, Ogdahl returns to the sidelines to which she built a 274-236 record with three national tournament appearances, coached seven All-Americans and, in its prime, helped boost the Ridgewater women's basketball team to be known as one of the top programs in the Minnesota College Athletic Conference.

"I think a lot of it was just the relationships, I really missed the relationships with the kids," Ogdahl said. "I haven't left Ridgewater. I've been here and I've never stopped teaching. So that probably made it easy.

"But just seeing the kids going by my office and being here but not being on this part of it, I just really missed being able to have and build those relationships and being able to have an impact on their lives."

Ogdahl's return came with some challenges.

The first: Her official return season in 2020-21 was suspended due to the COVID pandemic.

The Warriors are playing this season. However, the challenge Ogdahl now faces is having eight players, all freshmen, on the active roster.

Five of the players are from the West Central area, with two Willmar graduates, 5-foot-9 Ashley Prahl and 5-foot-4 Abby Berskow, on the roster.

"I would say we're all pretty hard workers and we're all very talented," Berskow said. "But I think the fact that we have such limited girls, it's hard for us during practice to really play as a team."

The Warriors have played twice this season, losing 56-40 to the Dordt College JV, and 112-28 to the Northwestern of Iowa JV.

"Both of those teams were good four-year schools," Ogdahl said. "They're their JV teams. We had six girls for back-to-back games. That's tough. Second night we had Northwestern, really just size wise, physical wise, it's just a different level."

However, the number of players does not match up with the amount of determination the Warriors' possess.

"They've got a lot of heart," Ogdahl said. "We have five-six girls that are here consistently or are working hard. Improving on the things that they can improve on and I'm just trying to keep their hopes up and I've been really proud of that so far."

Josie Knutson, a 5-foot-4 guard from Brooten, is looking to help bring success to the Warriors. Knutson was part of the Belgrade-Brooten-Elrosa team that took second place in the Class A state high school tournament last season.

Knutson is averaging 6.5 points per game.

"I feel like we definitely have a lot of fun," she said. "Especially with how the last two games have gone, our attitudes could have been extremely lowered and we could already have been ready to give up. But I still feel like we work hard, we come to practice and we have fun. And I feel like when we're here we get better."

Knutson talked about what the team took away from the first two games.

"I feel like we learned the things that we need to work on; boxing out, we can talk some more," she said. "One big thing is probably being in shape being that we only have six-eight girls. But that will come with time I think. The rest will follow."

Berskow, who is averaging 7.5 ppg, described the first part of the season as a learning experience and says the team may lack numbers, but has a strong bond on and off the court.

"We are all very close so that has really helped with our chemistry and clicking on the court," she said. "We really just make sure that we do stuff outside of practice to make sure that we get those connections forming since we can't practice together. We just try to get close outside and just really try to have that team chemistry and connections."

Ogdahl has already begun building strong positive relationships with her players.

"They work very hard to get us practice times since it's been very hard to get us all here," Berskow said. "But they're really special. Carrie, she's a really good coach and I know she coached here before. She's got a lot of talent and wisdom and a lot of stuff for us to learn off of. (Assistant coach Brooke Meyer) played for Carrie so she knows how she coaches. That's also very special to have that."

With the smaller roster, Ogdahl says adjustments were made to help best suit the Warriors this season.

"I think what's fun is I've kind of had to change the defense that I like," she said. "I like a lot of ball pressure and denying the wings, those types of things. And we can't really do that because it sets us up to kind of get beat.

"And if you don't have a lot of people to run in and out, you have to change it. So it's put us into a help position and I think they have more awareness for where the ball is. We're not chasing other girls around and defending them."

The veteran coach also says the players will have some more opportunity to play freely this season.

"I always tell these girls there are no preconceived ideas of what you can or can't do, like you get a lot in high school," she said. "Like, 'you pass, you shoot.' No. Here's a chance to just come out and play basketball. If I don't want you shooting, I'll eventually tell you to not shoot. But there are a lot of positive things that we've done and we're doing."

Ogdahl believes the Warriors could be in good shape when it comes to NJCAA play and conference play.

"If we can get our seven-eight players here and we can stay healthy, we've got really competitive basketball players," she said. "I think within our juco college conference, our conference is tough. But they're more at a level like we are at.

"I know that sounds funny, but if you play those JVs that we just played, those are four-year athletes," she added. "Those are scholarships athletes that are typically on weight-lifting programs. Whereas, I think when we're going up against our juco schools, we're going to be very, very competitive."

The Warriors host Concordia JV at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday at Ridgewater.