Best Southwest High School Sports Moments This Season

Patch asked Southwest Alumni Foundation President Jodi Wishart Anderson what her favorite sports moments were from the Southwest High School 2010-2011 season. A 1990 graduate of Southwest, she's re-engaged with the school (in a big way) in the last year.

Apart from the top three moments listed below, Anderson said the record of Southwest's outstanding achievements is long: "Girls state championship in high jump, third straight city title in dance, baseball playoffs, volleyball sectionals, softball city champs, girls golf city champs, and we have the largest math team in the state."

Here are Anderson's picks:

Southwest Football Shows Class
"I was thrilled with our co-conference championship in football this year. John Biezuns was named football conference coach of the year and we had a finalist for Mr. Football Minnesota—the first ever for a Minneapolis school. As wonderful as our accomplishments were, I was moved and proud when our players showed such class and respect when players from opposing teams were injured throughout the year by taking a knee on the field while the player was tended to."

Southwest Soccer to Championship Game
"I followed our soccer team all the way to the Dome—what a great season of amazing skill and sportsmanship. But I was brought to tears when former teammates and their families of our current boys head coach, Jamie Plaisance, were also at the Dome cheering for him and the team until the end—standing and yelling for all they could, even though the purple fell in the final game to lose state."

"You would have thought we had won the World Cup for the emotion and pride from those alumni. While the team played a strong season, it was a tremendous opportunity to be brought along by the players and coach on the journey, and an incredible reward to see the pride from Jamie's former teammates."

Minneapolis Hockey Resurgent
"Cinderella has nothing on our Novas boys hockey team. I began the season as a skeptic—I just ordered my personalized Nova jersey for next season. It was so meaningful to share in Alumni Night when all of the city schools were represented and came together with our shared decades of hockey history. And what a thrill when this first-year team won their conference championship."

"But the standout moment of the season was when we scored on Eden Prairie in sectionals. The Novas went on to lose that game, and Eden Prairie went on to win state. But in that goal was the promise for the future of Minneapolis hockey. And in that moment I came to realize that in the Novas runs over 70 years of Southwest Purple Pride—just as strong and true as if they were out there in jerseys with Indian logos or Laker anchors. I also understood the tremendous opportunity we have to come together as a city of schools in support of this team."