Sports

Artz, Page awarded; Forsberg to retire after season

By Tyler Ohmann

03/06/2012

The Bottineau Stars season is nearly at a close and with that comes the retirement of Head Basketball Coach Mike Forsberg.

Forsberg, who has coached for more than 30 years, which includes three straight state championships with the Stars from 2006-08, handed his resignation to the board in December.

Forsberg is also retiring from his post as elementary principal.

“I enjoy what I’m doing,” Forsberg said. “But there are certain parts of me that feel like it’s time to move on.”

Forsberg nearly retired in 2010, but was urged to come back by a few players who are graduating this year.

“I was going to retire from coaching in 2010,” Forsberg said. “But Heidi (Artz) enlisted Whitney (Page), and then it was Trista (Bjerk), Whitney and Heidi asking me to stay until they are done.”

Forsberg earned his 700th win last season.

Awards

Two Bottineau players were honored at the District 11 tournament last Monday evening.

Seniors Heidi Artz and Whtiney Page were both named to the All-District 11 team after the Stars closed out a win over Newburg-Westhope to advance to the Region 6 tournament.

Artz also won the District 11 Senior Athlete of the Year award. Artz has lettered for five years on the varsity basketball team, and has been the starting point guard on the team for the past four seasons.

The Stars played District 12 champion Bishop Ryan last night in Minot in the opening round of the Region 6 tournament. Scores were unavailable as of press time.

Note:

Readers can look to next week’s Bottineau Courant sports section for a full write up about Forsberg’s retirement as well as coverage of the Stars’ finish at the region tournament.