There’s a certain kind of season that doesn’t show itself cleanly in box scores or neat little trend lines. It lives in the margins — in bus rides, short benches, awkward halves, and the quiet understanding that the group you are today isn’t quite the group you’re trying to become.
That’s where the Hermantown girls basketball team finds itself right now, with four regular-season games left, a 13-9 record, and a calendar that’s starting to lean heavily toward February pressure.
This hasn’t been a smooth ride. It hasn’t pretended to be. The Hawks have taken some punches — a 60-point loss to Bemidji in November, back-to-back January nights where Rock Ridge and Mountain Iron-Buhl ran them out of the gym, and a tough 87-43 loss Friday at Duluth Marshall that exposed a lingering weakness on the glass.
But seasons aren’t built on avoiding adversity. They’re built on how teams respond to it.
And that’s the tone Hermantown coach Eric Borndal keeps returning to — measured, unsatisfied, but quietly confident in what he sees forming.
“We continue to build as the playoffs quickly approach,” Borndal said. “We are still trying to find our identity offensively, but had a great showing last Thursday where we had four girls (Claire Niksich, Bailey Hermanson, Aurora Decker and Jailynn Sherrill) in double figures.”
That sentence matters more than it might appear at first glance.
Four players in double figures isn’t just balance — it’s permission. It’s the ball finding energy instead of obligation. It’s the difference between running offense and letting offense breathe.
“When we move the ball we are at our best,” Borndal said.
That’s the blueprint. And it’s not complicated. Hermantown has shown it repeatedly this season — in wins over Esko, Duluth East, Cloquet at the holiday classic, Anoka on the road, and a 91-point eruption against Grand Rapids earlier this month.
When the ball sticks, they stall. When it moves, they score in bunches.
The flip side of that identity search came into sharp focus against a very good Duluth Marshall team — a game that felt competitive in spots, but tilted decisively where good teams usually tilt games.
“We still need to work on rebounding as was shown against a very talented Duluth Marshall team, who had 19 offensive rebounds against us,” Borndal said.
Nineteen.
That’s not a schematic problem. That’s a possession problem. And those are the ones that linger.
But the most revealing part of the weekend wasn’t Friday’s loss. It was Monday’s response — a 68-63 road win at Chisago Lakes that didn’t sparkle, but mattered.
Hermantown has been a team that absorbs, adjusts, and answers — sometimes immediately, sometimes imperfectly, but rarely passively. They’ve followed losses with wins more often than not, including bounce-backs after East Grand Forks, Cloquet, and now Marshall.
Leadership has had everything to do with that.
“Danika Bolf, Aurora Decker, and Bailey Hermanson (our team captains) continue to lead us,” Borndal said.
That trio doesn’t always show up in the same way on the stat sheet, but it shows up every night in tone — how huddles sound, how possessions end, how the team reacts when a run hits from the other side.
This isn’t a team that believes it has arrived. It’s a team that believes it can get there.
And the remaining schedule gives them every chance to test that belief: road games at Hibbing, Duluth East and Esko, followed by a home finale against North Woods. None of them freebies. All of them useful.
“We are excited to work through these last four regular season games and be ready for a playoff run,” Borndal said.
That’s not bravado. It’s posture.
The Hawks know exactly where they are — good enough to beat quality teams, not yet consistent enough to dictate terms every night. They know what needs fixing. They know what works. And they know that February doesn’t care how pretty the path was getting there.
If Hermantown can keep the ball moving, keep the rebounding margin from becoming a nightly tax, and keep letting leadership guide rather than rescue, this season still has teeth.
Not because it’s been easy.
But because it hasn’t.