MVL has a

new coach,

but same

old height

By BOB VARMETTE

Journal Sports Writer

NEW ULM -- Dave Biedenbender must have thought he'd died and gone to heaven. After 12 years as an assistant coach, Biedenbender gets his first varsity head coaching job at Minnesota Valley Lutheran.

Biedenbender, who previously coached in Overland Park, Kan., and Manitowoc, Wis., takes over a girls program that was the Class 1A runner-up last season under coach John Barenz. He inherits a team that has four of its five starters back.

And Biedenbender gets to unleash the Twin Towers of Doom. The Chargers' twin posts -- 6-foot-1 senior Sarah Gronholz and 6-foot sophomore Jessica Merseth -- will return for a second season of dominating the Tomahawk Conference.

"I think they're great players," Biedenbender said. "They feed off each other. If you don't guard one, then the other one's coming through. Are you going to switch on those two? They're obviously a main cog in our offense."

Merseth led MVL in scoring last season, averaging 14.1 points per game. Gronholz was second with 13.7 points per game.

Gronholz led the Chargers with 9.4 rebounds per game. Merseth was second with 7.8 rebounds per game.

Gronholz also led the Chargers with 4.3 blocked shots per game.

Gronholz and Merseth were the Twin Towers of Doom. Having one good player that's 6-foot is tough enough to stop -- two were nearly impossible.

But to Gronholz and Merseth, being big is no big deal.

"We're over being tall," Merseth said. "I don't go on the floor thinking, 'OK, I'm six feet. Alright, let's play basketball.'"

When the Chargers host the Nicollet Raiders at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, the Twin Towers will begin a journey they hope will culminate in a return appearance at the Class 1A state tournament. With two other starters back from last season -- junior point guard Leah Morgan (8.7 points per game) and senior Erin Czer (10.1 ppg) -- expectations figure to be high, but there is no pressure that, this season, the Chargers must go back to the state tournament and this time win the title.

"It's a goal," Gronholz said. "I made it a goal at the very beginning, but then I put it in the back of my head. ... I just feel pressure because of the pressure I put on myself. I am a senior, and it's not a heavy burden, but I feel pressure to be a leader. It's my own pressure."

And neither Gronholz nor her partner in height feel pressure to deliver the Chargers to the promised land by lighting it up every night.

"Everybody has the game," Merseth said. "If I don't score, I'm not feeling pressure because (my teammates) are picking up the slack. That's how it is. If somebody has a bad game, somebody else will have a good game."

Said Gronholz: "I think we're all offensive threats. Leah's has got the prettiest shot ever and Erin can score, too. When they pack it inside, I think we got an outside game, too. If they want to do that, all the power to them, because then we got the outside."

Biedenbender knows not to mess too much with a good thing. The Chargers will still be a team that will look inside to Gronholz and Merseth first, and then capitalize outside when teams try to take away the Twin Towers.

Defensively, the changes, according to Biedenbender, will also be minor. He calls them adjustments and refinements.

And having a new coach has done nothing to lessen the optimism of either Gronholz or Merseth.

"I think it's a bonus to have a new coach," Merseth said. "We have the things that we learned last year from coach Barenz. Coach Biedenbender brings what he thinks about the game and he teaches us that. So we've learned from two people. We have a different flavor this year, a different style."

The most important things, though, remain substantially the same. Gronholz and Merseth are back; so are Morgan and Czer.

"We all know how to work together," Gronholz said. "We have that chemistry back that we had last year. We still have the work ethic that we had last year. I think we're OK."

More than OK more than likely. The only real question confronting the Chargers will be depth.

Biedenbender has added 6-foot-1 sophomore post Angie Unke to the varsity to help inside. Senior Gretta Nelson will back up Morgan at point guard, but after that there are roles to fill left open by the departure of last season's two seniors -- Heidi Madsen and Hannah Enter.

"We've done some things to bridge that gap," Biedenbender said. "We've got seven. We've got to find one or two more people that can step up. I'm not concerned about it. I think it's going to work its way through."