GIRLS TEAM OF THE YEAR FINALISTS — What a year for the H-DNL

By barstoolfanatics on March 23, 2024 • ( Leave a comment )

Photos by Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com – The Eureka Loggers

By Ray Hamill — Remarkably, all nine H-DNL varsity girls basketball teams qualified for the North Coast Section playoffs this year, and even more remarkably none of them lost to an out-of-area team until the second round.

Indeed it was as memorable a season on the local girls basketball courts as we’ve maybe ever seen.

Particularly when you consider that the H-DNL won a state championship in the sport for the first time ever, just three days after a first-ever all-local NorCal championship game.

The atmosphere at the latter epitomized the excitement fans here felt all year long and it was a night that may not be matched for decades.

When all was said and done, however, three teams really stood out above all others, and that makes them our finalists for the 2023/24 Humboldt Sports Girls Team of the Year.

The Arcata girls enjoyed a memorable season that saw them reach a NorCal final for just the second time in school history.

A young squad should only get better, so don’t be surprised to see them make another run at a state final again next winter.

The Eureka girls were the best team in the H-DNL during the regular season and suffered just one loss against local opponents all winter on their way to a third straight Big 5 and Dick Niclai tournament championship double.

It has been a glorious recent era for the Loggers and with the pool of players they have right now don’t expect that to end anytime soon.

And don’t forget the St. Bernard’s girls, who made H-DNL history by winning a Division-4 state championship, beating far bigger schools along the way.

The Crusaders also dominated on the way to a Little 4 championship and came close to knocking off Eureka in the Dick Niclai final.

So here then our three finalists for girls team of the year.

We’ll announce our boys and girls players of the year next week, along with our boys and girls teams of the year and boys and girls coaches of the year.