CALUMET — When asked at the beginning of the season if he thought if his Calumet girl’s basketball team would make it to the semifinals of the MHSAA Division 3 tournament, head coach Matt Laho said he believed the potential was there.

“I knew that we were capable of it, but I also knew we would have to work for it,” he said.

They did work for it and were one win away from the state finals. But the Copper Kings’ fell short to Kent City 59-53 a week ago in the state semifinals. It was their first loss of their 20-0 perfect season.

Laho said that it was an unusual season in that their practices began in January as opposed to mid-November due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, in the end they were just happy to be playing as was most of the sports world.

“We were fortunate not to have any major issues with that,” he said. “We just had two girls in quarantine in mid-season.”

The 2021 Copper Kings were a force to be reckoned with on both ends of the court. On offense, they had three girls who averaged double figures each game. Among them was senior Elli Djerf, the West PAC Player of the Year. She averaged 20 points per game. Marybeth Halonen poured in 14 points per game and Alexis Strom averaged 10 points per game and was named the WestPAC’s Defensive Player of the Year. As well, Laho, in just his third year at Calumet, was named the West PAC’s Coach of the Year.

“The girls all had a very good work ethic,” he said. “They worked hard in practice and played for each other.”

Laho explained that the team’s chemistry became quite evident around midway through the season. He said that Djerf had planned to go to Cancun for spring break. It was a family vacation that had been scheduled to take place a year ago but was postponed because of the pandemic.

“I told her teammates that if you want Elli to stay, you are are going to have to convince her that this team can go somewhere in the post season,” Laho recalled. “So the girls picked up the pace and had a good run down the stretch, and Elli decided to stay. It was impressive to me that they were in a sense playing for Elli. They wanted her final (high school) season to be a special one, and they wanted to do it as a team.”

However, Laho knew in the back of his mind that Djerf would have probably stayed no matter how the season had progressed.

“Elli cares too much about her teammates and wouldn’t have left them behind,” he said.

While the Copper Kings cruised through the regular season and took the conference title, Laho noted the games got harder as they advance in the state tournament.

He said, “Our two best games of the year were our 65-55 overtime victory over St. Ignace to win the regional title. Then we faced Glen Lake and came back from a 13-point deficit to win that one (73-69).”

The Calumet program has much to look forward to next year. While they are losing their star player, Djerf, they are losing just one other senior, Kenli Anderson and will have a strong senior class.

The 2021 Copper Kings were just a few points away from a chance to win a state title, but their coach told his girls that there was no reason to hang their heads down. They were winners in so many ways.

“I told them after the (Kent City) loss that this was a great season,” Laho said. “They all fought till the end and never gave up.”