Athlete of the Week - Eli King, Caledonia Basketball

CALEDONIA, Minn. (KTTC) – The Caledonia Warriors have finally caught their breath.

“Our guys executed a lot stuff at the end of that game in order to give us a chance. Got to overtime and those first two didn’t work out for anybody, but the third one worked out pretty good for us,” Caledonia Head Coach Brad King said.

As Head Coach Brad King and his squad came away with section title after a triple OT come from behind win against PEM..

It’s yet another comeback from a team that’s full of them. Earlier this season they came from down 20 to beat then no. 1 Totino-Grace.

“There’s no quit in this team, we’re going to continue to fight and we feel we always have a chance to win the game even if we do start off bad,” Eli King said.

That never give up mindset is something King knows about as he worked to comeback from a torn meniscus last year.

“I wasn’t trying to rush anything I was just trying to make sure the knee was 100 percent. Then I was able to play a little bit of AAU, stuff like that and coming this fall I was really back in to it,” Eli King said.

While out he remained apart of the team who made a run to the state championship game, empowering him for this year.

“To beat practices and stuff while I’m doing my stuff on the side that helps you I think than just sitting home and doing it and it makes you want to get back faster. So I think that probably helped a little bit too with my mindset, I always had the confidence I would be back,” Eli King said.

Since then King has ruled the floor.

“Its the understanding of when he needs to really go, where he can attack the defense from no matter what they’re playing on him or on us,” Brad King said.

But its what he learned from watching that’s been boosting this team.

“That senior group put in work when they were young and were confident in themselves and came together as a team. So that shows there’s things you can definitely take from from that team and put it into this year and will help us a lot too,” Eli King said.

“As individuals we got some really good guys and skill wise we do, but I think its the energy that we know when we bring it at our best we’re tough to beat.”

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