 show greatness on the court, but also off the court, representing all of you with their success. However, we would also like to thank and recognize all the fans and the students and adults for their support and excellent sportsmanship for the girls' run. And here are your 2006, 2007 Lady Raiders. I have a facility to seat all of our students and guests. I believe many other student achievements will be celebrated in a similar manner in the future. Bringing home a state championship trophy is a great achievement worthy of this gathering. Yet from my perspective as principal of this great school, today's assembly is about more than basketball. Lady Raiders, through your dedication and victories, you allowed North High School to show our class, our cheerleaders, drumline band, dance team, our student body, and community at large. WIAA executives, other schools, and people from around the state went out of their way to congratulate us and you, you as basketball players and you as people. You showed a competitive mental toughness, yet we're all so kind and caring. You showed a keen focus, yet we're able to see the big picture. You had individual talents that were melded to become a team. You are a model for all good things that North is and has to offer. To the parents present today, thank you for entrusting your daughters to our care. You have much to be proud of. Coach Runes, thank you for allowing me to say a few words to your team after Saturday's game. The bond you and your assistant coaches have with the girls and they with you will last for years, if not forever. It is my sincerest wish for the Lady Raiders to continue to show us how to be mentally tough, yet kind and caring, have a focus, yet keep track of the big picture, and how to take our individual talents and meld them into a team. Just this afternoon, Mr. Stangle received the following. I'd like to read a few of these. Way to go. Dear Coach Runes and the Lady Raiders, congratulations on a great season of basketball. Here are some letters from my second grade students. I hope you will enjoy. Sincerely, Cheryl Driscoll, second grade, shared in elementary. Midwinter, I believe the Churchill girls would remember. I called them to the office. They thought they were in trouble again. But midwinter, I had a chance to visit Cooper Elementary School, where my wife teaches, to a second grade. And I had my North High stuff on, and the second graders said, do you go to North? Yeah. Do you know Shelby? Do you know Dana? They live near us. They used to go to Cooper. And then the other kids said, Shelby and Dana go to North High School? How many students do you have at North? 1,600. Another little boy raised his hand. How tall are they now? I said, how about this tall? They were, ooh. So that was an early indication during this season how much the girls did more than just basketball, the impression on the elementary school kids. I called them in. I said, do you know? This is the type of impact you have. And I believe the other girls have the same type of impact in the schools once they came. Now, here is the most recent testimonial to this being more than basketball. I've chosen a few. You can have the rest. Please read those. They are very, very, very special. Written from a second grade perspective on a writing prompt about the Lady Raiders. Here are a few with pictures. Dear friends, I think you girls are the best ever. Congratulations on your hard work. Love, Ivy, PS. I'd better practice my basketball. Dear NHS Girls Beatball team, you must be very brave to play in the tournament. I'd be really scared to play in the tournament. You made Sheboygan look good. I love playing B-ball. I played B-ball for the rec department. Our team is the gold boulders, sincerely Cameron. Again, the envelope is full of more. Here's the last one. Dear NHS Girls Basketball team, my name is Tracy. Congratulations. You worked very hard to play basketball. I think you guys are very, very nice. And you are so sweet to people. Do you always like being on TV? I like watching you on TV. Love, Tracy. Lady Raiders and coaches, as the second graders have written and as they're talking about and other people are talking about that we may not even know, rest assured your legacy will live on long after today's assembly. Thank you for all you did for all of us. Congratulations. Next we have our school board president, Mr. Jeff Squire. Thank you, Dan. Thank you for giving me the chance to speak today. And before I go any farther, I'd like to say congratulations to Susie and to all the girls in the team. You made our community proud. And as a school board member or president, I represent the whole community. And I'll tell you, I live on the south side. I'm not a South graduate. But I had parents from all over this community come to me and say how proud they were, whether they're from the north side or the south side, of the girls and the coach and our students and how they represented themselves at Madison. It was truly an honor. So I just wanted to relay that to you that your community, not only north high, but south high, I think the whole area is really proud of what you did. About 40 years ago, there was another famous coach who said, if you want to be the best that you can be, if you want to be number one, you've got to pay the price. Winning isn't a summertime thing. Winning isn't something you do once in a while. It's a habit that you form. I know from talking to community people, from the teachers and staff, that Susie, all the girls that are on the team, spent many hours during the season off season working and practicing to make sure that they were as good as they could be. And it's more than just a basketball game. When you look at it and you say, oh, they went down and they played a basketball game, I didn't get to Madison, but I have three young kids and all three of them stayed up the night of the championship game and they're only six, eight and 10. They're usually in bed between eight and eight 30. All of them were awake, wide awake until the very end. It was 10, 10, 30 at night and they would not leave. They were inspired by all the action by the things that this team did. It's impressive and you say, oh, it's just a game. It really is so much more than that. My son for the last week has been playing basketball now that it's warm out in our front yard. You don't realize it, but what you have done is set an example that the rest of this community, the rest of our schools, will look to and follow in the future. And we're proud of you and I'm proud to say that I'm here in Sheboygan and then a part of Sheboygan area school district. You represented us well and you inspired us all. I wish you the best of luck in the future and I look forward to coming back to North in future years to do the same thing over. Thank you and congratulations. Next on our agenda is the superintendent of schools, Dr. Joe Sheahan. Good afternoon, North High School. Well, why are we here today? Your champion, Lady Raiders. As I go further today, I'm gonna talk about different team members, as far as team members in the stands, but as a part of Sheboygan area school district, just want to thank what these ladies and coach has brought back to Sheboygan. And going through all those games, the dedication, commitment that went through to get them there is truly impressive. What they've spent hours with, years after years, and dedication, knowing that theme was unfinished business, well, coach and ladies, you did it. You made it to state and you brought it back. Congratulations. Now, as again, when we talk with different community members in Sheboygan, I do really want to touch base with some others and next group is parents. Parents of the players, could you please just stand for a second, those of you that are here. Please. Thank you. Now, that commitment to them, you know that means sometimes young ladies getting you to practices, sometimes when you weren't the most excited, and I'm talking years ago, from taking you to different places and getting you the different types of shoes in that you may need it, the different fundraisers that they did and all that support for you throughout the years. Parents, thank you very much. And most importantly, the heart and soul that you gave your daughters were shown on the court and off the court. And that didn't start at North Hyatt, it started in your houses, so thank you. Next group is staff members. The staff members at North Hyatt, thank you very much for all the things you've done with the young ladies throughout the years. And I saw it at the games and it's during the halls, it's just all your commitment to being there and even those gentlemen with those crazy more cowbell stuff. There's just different examples of support for you, the North Hyatt Raiders, so thank you staff. And lastly, student body. The student body of North Hyatt, ladies, you are dedicated, your commitment and you are quality, but so are you North Hyatt, the whole North High student body. I, as your superintendent, was incredibly proud of you throughout the games, your cheers, your yelling and all your positive comments. When I was walking back and forth, getting popcorn, the comments made to me like, wow, those kids have class. Coach, lady Raiders, you have class. You are a part of the class. All of Sheboygan, we will win that sportsmanship award for the state, for our behavior and our great attitude as fans. You are class. And just finally to conclude, please don't think that your impressions have stayed just at North High School and I know people have been talking to you in the community. When I go around the community, I'm getting the way to go, congratulations. And I'm saying they did it. So your impressions are not just in this house and in this school, they're in our whole community. Sheboygan is proud of you, of who you are and what you're about. And again, thank you and congratulations. Our final speaker before we get to the coach in the team is the mayor of Sheboygan, Juan Perez. Good afternoon, everyone. Coach Runas, lady Raiders, congratulations. And thank you so much for making us very proud. The victory that they have brought to the city of Sheboygan is a victory for them personally, for the coach, for this wonderful school, North High School, and the whole city of Sheboygan. You've made a lot of people proud with your accomplishment, your talent, and your skills, and your teamwork. I rarely watch TV, I rarely have time to watch TV, but that night that you played, you had me watching and I was off my seat several times and you made me very proud. Please keep up the good work and I wish you the most success in your future endeavors. Thank you again. Okay, now we'll have some comments from the captains of the lady Raiders. To thank our coaches for a wonderful job that they did this year, they pushed us all through practice, practiced with us, and there's no possible way we could have gotten here without them. Thank you. Okay, we just want to thank, especially, the band for coming with us all three days down in Madison, Mr. Forks. Hi. We also want to thank the drumline, that was amazing, and the dance team, that was sweet that they came on everything too. So thank you. I also like to thank all the people here at school that had made everything possible, Mr. Dan Stangle, especially for all the work that he put in to get us down to Madison, and also the gym teachers, Mr. Thompson and Mr. Brickson, Coach Brickson, for allowing us to come in the mornings during the summer and always encouraging us and treating us like equals that really has helped us out and especially with the training and helped us become stronger and we really appreciate that. So thank you. We'd also like to thank our wonderful cheerleaders for doing an awesome job. Let's give them a round of applause. You guys are behind us the whole time, as well as our awesome student section who haven't just been there for basketball, but all the other sports too. They've done a great job and stayed positive. Our parents for always being there and just the entire community for staying behind us. We had a great time at State. So thank you for all your support. Now we have the Lady Raiders Coach, Suzy Runas. It's actually Coach Runas, not Runas. I was nervous. Thank you, Dana. Well, I think the girls have pretty much covered my thank yous and it's been such a whirlwind week that I had to jot some things down because sleep has definitely been overrated this last week but it's been quite the journey, quite the ride and needless to say, you couldn't see all the behind the scenes activities going on down in Madison, but I tell you this, we had one great time down in Madison and that's all part of the experience and all part of the journey and when it was time to play ball, the girls were ready but when it was time to let loose afterwards and have fun, we did that as well because that again, that's all part of it. Like the girls mentioned, there's so many people to thank and there's so many people involved in order for this achievement to be achieved. So again, Mr. Stengel and the administrative team, we were here first thing last Sunday morning making the plans for this trip and unlike last year, it was much more organized and much more easier to get through so thanks Mr. Stengel and everyone else, Mr. Laresh, everyone that helped out with making the arrangements. To all of you people in the stands and all the people that are home and whatnot, thank you for traveling to all of our games, not just this final stretch but to all the regular season games, tournament games, those who watched us on TV, those who listened to us on the radio that weren't able to get out and watch us personally. Just thank you for supporting the girls this whole entire season and especially down this final journey down to Madison. We had a lot of local businesses that sponsored us throughout the year and a few that actually kept us fed nicely over our trip to Madison. We wanna thank you for supporting us in our game brochure and supporting us to and from Madison. The student body we talked about, I can't thank you enough for your support, drum line, cheer, dance, everybody. The girls and I also, we wanna thank Coach Desatelle and the boys team. I mean, what a weekend for Shabuigan North basketball. And there's not enough thank yous in the world but I wanna personally thank our Lady Raider parents. You guys are the best and I thank you so much for everything, sounding boards to phone calls to running to get us food to just every single little thing. There's too many to mention but every single thing that you guys do for us. So parents, you're the best and thank you for everything. It takes a lot of work, a lot of background work and a lot of hands-on work and I could not have done it alone so I'd like to thank Coach Hutz, Coach Tago, Coach Forsterling, Coach Wigdahl and our best athletic trainer in the whole state of Wisconsin, Chris Lenz. And last but certainly not least, I wanna thank my team. You guys just thanks for a great journey. As a coach, I am so proud of each and every one of you and like I said in the locker room, which you guys don't know but my girls know, in the locker room after our game on Saturday night, I told those girls that I didn't need a color of a basketball trophy to know that these girls are champions both on and off the court and they played their hearts out. They left it on the court and as a coach I could not ask for anything more. So ladies, thank you for everything and for you seniors, I wish you nothing but the best. And as Dana and I would always communicate to each other but I communicate to the whole team, you guys rock, so nice job girls. Like I mentioned, we had an outstanding season, an amazing tournament and we definitely saved our best basketball for the end. Their play down in Madison was second to none and again, I've had so many comments from the public and community places I've gone to in the last few days just making that very same statement about how well these girls played, what a class act they are and just amazing to watch the girls playing and just cheering so much for them wanting them to win it but again, we have nothing to hang our heads about these girls played their hearts out the whole time we were down there. I'm so proud of my team for their efforts both on and off the court and as a coach again, I wouldn't ask for a more dedicated, caring, hardworking group of young ladies and girls, you should be proud of your accomplishments, be proud to call yourselves a lady raider and again, I wanna thank Sheboygan North, I wanna thank the whole entire community and we'll see you next year.