It’s been almost two years since the Menahga girls basketball team has lost a regular season game. The Braves are off to a 14-0 start again this year, and they have their eyes set on another trip to the state tournament.

“The goal is to get back to state and make our mark,” Cierra Ahlf, Menahga Senior Guard, said.

The Menahga girls basketball team is well on their way to achieving their goal. At 14-0, Coach Pulju gives all the credit to his players’ hard work.

“When the girls work as hard as they do nothing surprises me,” Cody Pulju, Menahga Girls Basketball Head Coach, said. “They beat me to work every single day, they are here at 6:30 a.m. they’re working their butts off getting shots up. So, nothing surprises me.”

Menahga was eliminated in the first round of the state tournament last year, but they say that their nerves got the best of them, and they should be better prepared if they make it back to state this year.

“The first time at the state tournament you are a little nervous; it’s a different environment,” Megan Hendrickson, Menahga Senior Forward, said. “I think it will help us having experience now.”

In preparation for postseason play, the Braves gave themselves a tougher schedule this season with a big matchup scheduled for February 9th.

“We play Eden Valley-Watkins who is super good, they’re ranked third for double-A, so that should be a good matchup,” Alyssa Peterson, Menahga Senior Guard, said.

“We’ve had a lot of tough road games, and I think it will help us down the stretch,” Pulju said.

Another big thing that has helped Menahga is their new coach. Since Pulju joined the team three years ago, the Braves are 67-8.

“We see refs that look at us like, ‘wow, they really know the fundamentals,’” Ahlf said. “[Coach] has changed the aspect of the game and we really work as a team and row the boat.”

You heard it at the end: the Menahga girls basketball team has bought into the team motto of “rowing the boat”.

“It’s a mantra that is bigger than yourself,” Pulju said. “It’s having your oar in the water at all times, it’s having your back to the future, nobody can row a boat by themselves, and as long as everybody is on the same page rowing in the same direction, we’re going to be alright.”

We’ll just have to wait and see if the Braves can row their boat all the way to the state championship.

By — Anthony Scott