Updates archive

# 🏀 Game 2: Fargo North 90, GF Central 50

**Date:** Friday, December 14, 2001 **Location:** SPARTANDOME (Home opener) **Result:** WIN (2-0) **Game Link:** [Watch Full Game & View Stats on northspartans2002.com](northspartans2002.com/season/2001-12-14-gf-central)

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Hey Spartans,

Welcome to **Game 2** of the archive series!

First, a quick apology—I forgot to mention in the last update about the video quality for Game 1 at the Fargodome. That first half was pretty rough to watch with all the static on the old VHS tape, though thankfully it cleared up in the second half.

For this Game 2 home opener against Grand Forks Central, the tape skips around a bit during the first three quarters, but the **good news is the entire 4th quarter video quality is great!** ;)

My dad and I watched it together today and were really impressed with our defense. Central struggled that year, but the coaches' emphasis on that baseline-help scheme paid off early in the season. The 4th quarter also gives us our first solid look at **Aberle, Ouren, Boelke, Bridgeford, and Ehrmantrout**—the core group that anchored the 2002–2003 team the following year.

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### 📊 Game Highlights & Stats

We put on an offensive clinic in our home opener, dropping **90 points** and knocking down **12 three-pointers** on 40% shooting from deep.

- **Tommy Leikas:** 21 PTS (5-for-7 3PT) | 5 AST | 3 STL - **Tyler Koenig:** 16 PTS | 6 REB | 2 BLK - **Josh Persons:** 16 PTS (4-for-7 3PT) | 4 REB - **Jon Erdmann:** 7 PTS | 4 REB | 3 STL - **Bench Highlights:** Ehrmantrout (7 PTS), Aberle (6 PTS), Boelke (4 PTS), Ouren (2 PTS, 2 AST), Bridgeford (3 REB, 3 AST)

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### 📰 In the News & Media Archive

> *"Fargo North used a blistering 12-three-pointer night to dismantle Grand Forks Central 90-50 in its home opener."* > — ***The Forum* (Dec 15, 2001)**

> *"The Spartans' suffocating pressure turned early turnovers into fast-break transition points, leaving Central with little room to execute."* > — ***The Forum* (Dec 15, 2001)**

- *The Forum* ran headlines the next morning: **"North routs Central"** and **"Spartans easily take care of Central."** - Media coverage includes TV reports from **Scott Peters**, **FOX’s Jeremy Jorgenson**, and **CBS’s Steve Hallstrom**.

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### 🎥 Watch Game 2 & Check Out the Archive

Check out the full game footage (especially that crisp 4th quarter!), view the box score, and read the original news clips:

👉 **[northspartans2002.com/season/2001-12-14-gf-central](https://northspartans2002.com/season/2001-12-14-gf-central)**

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### 👥 Get Your Parents Involved & RSVP!

- **Share with Your Parents:** Forward this to your parents so they can catch the highlights and subscribe on [northspartans2002.com](northspartans2002.com)! - **Do YOU Have Any Pictures or Videos from 2001–2002?** Do you or your parents have any media sitting around from that season? If you've got old photos, videos, or newspaper clippings, I’d love to get them added to the site—and this is a great opportunity to get them digitally archived for free! A huge thanks to Coach Offerdahl, who shared his mom's scrapbook from that year. It's absolute gold! - **RSVP for Reunion Weekend:** We are 5 months away from Reunion Weekend in March. If you know your travel plans, make sure to hit **RSVP** on the site!

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💬 *Got any memories from this home opener? Hit reply and share your stories!*

Game 3 is right around the corner!

**- Jon Erdmann**

# 🏀 Game 1: Fargo North 64, Fargo South 37

**Date:** Friday, December 7, 2001 **Location:** Fargodome (Neutral) **Result:** WIN (1-0) **Game Link:** [Watch Full Game & View Stats on northspartans2002.com](northspartans2002.com/season/2001-12-07-fargo-south)

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Hey Spartans,

And so it begins! Today we release **Game 1** of our 25-0 state championship run.

On Friday, December 7, 2001, we kicked off the season under the lights at the Fargodome against crosstown rival Fargo South. Coming off the hunger of the previous season's heartbreak, we set the tone for what was to come with a commanding 64-37 win.

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### 📊 Game Highlights & Stats

Our defense set the bar early, holding South to under 25% shooting from the field (13-of-55). On the other end, we controlled the pace and built a 27-point lead by the final whistle.

* **Tyler Koenig:** 18 PTS | 17 REB | 6 BLK * **Jon Erdmann:** 17 PTS (4-for-6 3PT) | 3 REB * **Tommy Leikas:** 11 PTS | 3 AST | 3 STL * **Josh Persons:** 10 PTS | 9 REB

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### 📰 In the News & Media Archive

* *The Forum* headline the next morning read **"Koenig, North dominate"** and **"Spartan's Koenig sparks win over Bruins"**, highlighting Tyler's massive double-double inside the arc. * Full local media coverage includes Dan Hammer's **KVLY news report** and complete game footage.

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### 🎥 Watch Game 1 & Check Out the Archive

You can watch the full game footage, view the complete box score, and read all the original *Forum* clippings right here:

👉 **[northspartans2002.com/season/2001-12-07-fargo-south](https://northspartans2002.com/season/2001-12-07-fargo-south)**

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### 👥 Get Your Parents Involved & RSVP!

1. **Invite Your Parents:** Our parents were in the stands for every minute of this run. Share this link with them and encourage them to subscribe on [northspartans2002.com](northspartans2002.com) so they can follow along with every game release! 2. **RSVP for Reunion Weekend:** We are officially **5 months away** from our March reunion in Fargo! If you know your plans, please head over to the site and hit **RSVP** so we can lock in numbers.

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💬 *Who remembers playing at the Fargodome for Game 1? Reply to this email with your favorite memories or stories from opening night!*

Game 2 comes out next week—stay tuned!

**- Jon Erdmann**

Hey Spartans,

Hard to believe Reunion Weekend is just five months away! Starting today, I’ll be sending weekly(ish) emails as we release each game from our season on the site and relive the road to 25-0.

Each game release will include:

- Complete game footage - Game recaps and stats - Newspaper clippings and TV news clips

A huge thanks to TL for the TV clip archive and Derek for the game footage. We wouldn’t be able to put this together without you!

## Before 25-0: March 10, 2001

Before we dive into our championship run, we have to revisit where the story really started: that Saturday night at the Bismarck Civic Center.

We had beaten Bismarck High 76-56 in late December, but the rematch in the Class A state championship game was a different story. Bismarck held us to just 15 second-half points, and we came up short, 47-42.

As Eric Peterson wrote in The Forum’s “Bismarck tips North for ‘A’ title”:

> “Defense wins championships. Bismarck High defense wins back-to-back championships. The Demons held high-powered Fargo North to just 15 second-half points... The Spartans missed a chance to grab their first basketball title since 1985.”


[View the full-size newspaper clipping](northspartans2002.com/uploads/clippings/theforum-press-72233b.jpg)

Senior captain Tyler Dahlen—“Stalin”—led us with 13 points and eight rebounds. Afterward, Coach Offerdahl talked about how tough it would be to replace him and fellow senior captain Travis “Tricky” Anderson.

That loss hurt. But for the group coming back, it also gave us plenty of motivation for what came next.

## Summer in Denver, Then a Little Swagger

By December 2001, the expectations—and our confidence—were pretty clear. As Dan Hammer put it:

> “IF there's such a thing as a swagger for a high school team, the Spartans have it. The Spartans are the team to beat in Class A basketball in everyone's mind - including their own.”

Then there were those infamous “Who’s playing for second?” jerseys, which seemed to make their way onto every local news station.

Does anyone remember who first said that, or when it became our slogan? I distinctly remember it being part of our “what happens in Denver stays in Denver” trip in the summer of 2001. We got to test ourselves against teams from outside North Dakota—and, as I remember it, we did pretty well.

That was also the trip when we bought Coach Offerdahl the WP42 hat. And wasn’t that Coach Anderson’s first time on an airplane?

Reply with your memories from Denver or that preseason—the stories, the details, and anything I’m remembering wrong. It would be fun to fill in those gaps together.

## The Preseason Preview Is Live

The preseason news clips and videos are ready to watch:

[Watch the preseason preview](northspartans2002.com/preseason)

Check them out and get ready—Game 1 is coming next week!

## Bring Your Parents Along

Our parents were there in the stands through all of it. Please forward this email and encourage them to subscribe at [northspartans2002.com](northspartans2002.com) so they can relive the season with us.

## RSVP for Reunion Weekend

As soon as you know whether you’ll be in town in March, please **RSVP** at [northspartans2002.com](northspartans2002.com) so we can plan accordingly.

Looking forward to reliving this season with all of you—and seeing everyone in March!

– Jon Erdmann

Here's something to whet the appetite: Dan Hammer reporting on the cockiest team in ND since the 1989 Fargo South Bruins:

The Fargo North Class of 2002 reunion site (northspartans2002.com) is officially live!

This will be our central place for reunion details—schedule, locations, RSVP information, and last-minute updates—but it is also becoming something much bigger: a complete archive of the 2002 Spartans basketball season.

The goal is to document the entire run, game by game, with recaps, stats, newspaper articles, TV news clips, photos, and anything else I can dig up. Is that a little overkill? Absolutely. But if you know me, you know this is exactly the kind of project I can’t help but dive into.

More importantly, I think it will be pretty incredible to have all of this preserved—not just for us, but for our kids and future generations. Someday they can see what our team, our school, and that season meant to us—and maybe get a small reminder that their parents were, in fact, pretty cool once.

Or, if we’re being honest, maybe this is simply my personal attempt to convince my own growing children that I was once a cool-ass dude. Probably.

Please bookmark the site, subscribe for updates, and check back as more of the season archive comes together. And if you have photos, newspaper clippings, video, stats, stories, or anything else from that year, I’d love your help adding it to the collection.

-Jon Erdmann