The New Prague boys hockey team knew they would have to face some of the top teams in the state in their Class A State Tournament appearance last week.
Even knowing the strength of their competition, the Trojans battled and represented New Prague with the utmost integrity.
The Trojans were unseeded and faced No. 1 ranked Hermantown in their State Quarterfinals Wednesday, March 9. Hermantown defeated New Prague, 5-1, and went on to claim the 2022 Class A State Championship with a 3-2 win over No. 2 seeded Warroad.

They may be young, but New Prague’s first all girls wrestling team shows a lot of promise. With around 23 members from kindergarten to sixth grade these young grapplers had a fantastic first season.
“We have ten girls who will compete in the girls state tournament this year,” said Simon Kallal, head coach of the team. He and his wife Sarah helped organize the team.

The Trojans will be heading to the Adapted Floor Hockey State Tournament this weekend which will be held at Bloomington Jefferson High School on Friday and Saturday, March 18 and 19. The local team is made up of students from New Prague, Tri-City United, Belle Plaine and Jordan high schools.
The floor hockey team finished the regular season with a record of 7 wins and 0 losses. The Trojans scored 79 goals in those 7 games and only gave up 10 goals all season. The Trojans won the southern conference and were given an automatic bid to the state tournament.

In their first Class A State Swimming Meet appearance, freshmen Brendan Panka and Jacob Bisek both showed they belonged with the state’s best.
Both swimmers advanced from Friday’s preliminary round into Saturday, March 5 consolation/championship round.
Panka advanced to the consolation final in the 200- yard freestyle, placing 10th overall in a lifetime best time of 1:46.88. His time was less than a second behind the fifth place finisher.
Bisek also competed in the 200-yard freestyle and he finished in 17th place in a time of 1:50.61.

The New Prague adapted floor hockey team defeated Burnsville/Lakeville/Farmington, 8-2, Monday, Feb. 7 to remain undefeated.
Ray Parker led the Trojan offense with four goals. Aaron Adamson and Dylan Raaen each scored two goals.

The New Prague girls basketball team dropped a pair of Metro West Conference games to St. Louis Park and Waconia last week.
St. Louis Park downed the Trojans, 66-52, Tuesday, Feb. 8. Waconia picked up a 64-40 win Friday, Feb. 11.
In the loss to Park, six different players scored five or more points, something which head coach Eric Specht was happy to see.
“I was really happy and proud of how our bench played,” Specht said. “They were given more minutes than usual and responded well. Those kids went in and competed. It was fun to see their energy.”

The New Prague boys hockey team scored only two goals during three Metro West Conference losses last week.
The Trojans were defeated Monday, Jan. 31 by Chaska/Chanhassn, 4-1. Bloomington Jefferson defeated New Prague in back-to-back games, 6-0 on Friday, Feb. 4 and 3-1 Saturday, Feb. 5.
John Schmidt scored his team-leading...
To see more on this story pick up the February 10, 2022 print edition of The New Prague Times.

The annual New Prague Archery NASP Tournament was held on Saturday, Feb. 5, with 629 total archers participating from 15 school districts. The competition included high school, middle school and elementary teams.
The top high school team was Lakes International Language Academy of Forest Lake with a score of 3,278. NP finished fifth out of the high schools with a score of 3,220.
The top middle school team was Milaca with a score of 3,226. New Prague came in fourth with a team score of 3,080. Milaca also had the top...

The New Prague Adapted Floor Hockey team has started its 2022 season with great success, winning their first four games.
The Trojans opened with the South Suburban Jets and defeated them, 13-1.
“We came out with a really strong start, got up 5-0 after the 1st period and were in control from there,” Coach Jeremy Kalal said. “Our defense was solid, allowing only 13 shots on net throughout the entire game. We felt great about starting our season with a solid all around game.”

The New Prague girls basketball team played two of the top teams in the Metro West Conference last week and were defeated by both.
Chanhassen downed the Trojans, 81-47, Tuesday, Jan. 18. Two days later, Chaska, one of the top teams in Class AAAA, downed the Trojans, 66-38.

The Minnesota State University, Mankato women’s basketball team welcomes New Prague area residents to join them on Saturday, Jan. 29, for New Prague Community Day and watch New Prague native Emily Russo and the Mavericks take on Northern State University at 3:30 p.m. As part of New Prague Community Day, they are offering discounted tickets for all who attend. For more information and to order tickets, please visit www.msumavericks. com/NewPrague.

The New Prague boys swimming and diving team picked up four individual wins and two relay wins in a close loss to St. Louis Park Thursday, Jan. 20.
Seniors Ryan Foust and Jonathan Sayler, and freshmen Jacob Bisek and Tucker Connolly each claimed wins in the 92- 86 loss to STL Park.
Foust placed first in the diving competition. Seventh grader Brody Dvorak placed second and junior Ethan Schultz finished third.
Sayler won the 100 yard breaststroke (1:18.11). Junior Jack Anderson placed second (1:30.04).

It was a perfect week for the New Prague wrestling team last week.
The Trojans opened with a 66-6 Metro West Conference rout of Orono on Thursday, Jan. 20. New Prague followed with five straight wins at the Whitnall Zelinski Memorial Tournament Duals Saturday, Jan. 22. This tourney was wrestled at Greenfield, WI which is just outside of Milwaukee.
“We wrestled fantastic on Saturday and really out wrestled all of our opponents,” head coach Dan Wagner said. “We would win all five matches and none of them were really close or in question.”

Three players scored in double figures for the New Prague boys basketball team in a season-opener Metro West Conference win Friday, Jan. 7.
Ethan Chromy led the team in scoring with 20 points. Jaxon Short added 14 points and Noah Washa 11 points in a 69-61 win over St. Louis Park.
The win came one day after a 72-69 loss to Delano on Thursday, Jan. 6.

Hopkins scored a goal 30 seconds into overtime to edge the New Prague boys hockey team 3-2, Friday, Jan. 7.
Junior John Schmidt scored his 4th goal of the season and senior Will Andersen added his second goal of the year with less than two minutes to play in the third period to help the Trojans tie the game at 2-all.
Andersen had his 5th assist and senior Kai Johnson his 1st assist on the Schmidt goal. Senior Charlie Turnberg collected his 3rd assist of the year on the Andersen goal.

Led by four individual champions and a very solid overall team performance, the New Prague gymnastics team won the Matt Shetka Invitational Championship Saturday, Jan. 8 in New Prague.
Ava Barsness, Jadyn Klein, Ava Bruegger, and Ellie Morris each claimed individual titles and the team had the top performances on the vault and uneven parallel bars in scoring 143.700 points.