In the giddy aftermath of Edina's 5-2 victory over Rochester Mayo in the Class 2A team championship match, senior captains Caroline Ward and Meghana Vasireddy let slip the reason for Edina's 15-year stranglehold on the title.
Secrets. A lot of them.
"We have so many traditions and secret things we do," said Vasireddy, who plays No. 2 singles for the Hornets. "We can't tell anyone about them, but they help build the team."
Prodded by a nosy reporter, Ward, Edina's No. 1 player, conceded a small secret.
"We have a secret song," she admitted. "Every team comes up with a new one every year. It has to be something we all can get motivated to."
The song is?
"Um," Ward hesitated as Vasireddy looked on, unsure if she should go any further. "OK, it's 'Good Feeling' by Flo Rida. And we have a secret dance to it. But we can't do that here. It's secret."
The light-hearted mood of Ward and Vasireddy came in obvious contrast to their demeanor during Wednesday's championship match.
Edina defeated Mayo twice during the regular season, but neither match was so lopsided as to discourage the Spartans. In fact, Mayo had a plan to end Edina's prodigious streak.
"We wanted to sweep the doubles and steal a singles point," assistant coach Jeff Demaray said. "During the season we beat them at No. 2 and No. 3 singles and at 1, 2 and 3 doubles. Just not at the same time. But they were just too good today."
As the Spartans have witnessed in the past, Edina becomes more than just a team of high school tennis players at tournament time.
The Hornets, molded and shaped by their highly respected head coach, Steve Paulsen, and battle-tested from a brutal schedule, are a model of precision. Edina players always play their best when it matters most.
"That has to be because of our coach," Ward said. "He takes a lot of the pressure off of us."
Ward and Vasireddy were so focused in the finals that they each swept their match in straight sets, finishing at precisely the same time.
After winning, the duo bounced around Baseline Tennis Center, cheering on teammates and preparing for a victory celebration that would include many of the Hornets' secret traditions as a way of passing the torch to the next set of team leaders.
"We have about 15 secrets, which is perfect because this is our 15th championship," Vasireddy said. "We could add another to make 16 for next year. Why not?"
And what, it was asked, would happen if a younger player betrayed the classified information?
"We'd have to do something," Vasireddy said.
"Yeah, but nothing bad," Ward said. "We're not savages."
Just champions.
Class A: Blake follows Edina's lead and wins titleThe first thing Blake coach Jeannette Vickman did when her team qualified for the Class A tournament was to call Steve Paulsen, who coached Vickman -- then named Jeannette Cluskey -- at Edina in the late 1990s.
"I asked him for some tips on what to do at the state tournament," Vickman said. "So now we're doing everything the way Edina does it."
Including win championships.
Blake, making its first trip to the Class A tournament since 2004, ended Rochester Lourdes' quest for back-to-back state championships with a comfortable 6-1 victory over the Eagles in the final.
"Steve really helped me stay grounded as a coach," said Vickman, in her seventh year at Blake. "He's helped me be more confident and map out a plan for the team."
Clearly, the plan worked as Blake swept through the tournament field with little resistance. The Bears lost only three individual matches and got excellent results from their doubles teams, which went 9-0 in tournament play.
"It's all about playing straight-up tennis," she said. "It doesn't matter who the opponent is, you have to play to your strengths, be aggressive and not forget your game."
