Bob CollinsAnother entry in the “tournament time is the best time” category.
The Cooper High School girls basketball team won its first state championship ever 10 days ago.
After the win, the girls were handed a catalog of championship rings and thought they could pick one out, KARE 11’s Boyd Huppert reports. It was a misunderstanding. Each ring cost $300 and they couldn’t afford it.
“We were heartbroken,” said senior T.T. Longs.
Enter Willie Howard, who set up a GoFundMe campaign to raise $5,000 to get the girls rings.
What is most important is the team helped our entire school as well as our community come together to cheer them on to victory. The pride we feel for our school and for our team is enormous. Our girls are lucky enough to be coached by Kiara Buford who was a standout player at St. Paul Central HS leading her high school team to two state tournament championship trophies before a stellar career with the Gophers.
However, with all this success Coach Buford was not able to afford a ring for herself from her championship runs. And, now, our girls also need help to purchase their championship ring. This go fund me request is to help our girls purchase their ring. The ring is beautiful as you can see from the picture. Our girls were determined upon winning it all so that they could bring home the rings. All they ever heard was State Championship Rings and because this is a first ever for the teams,they were stunned to find out they would have to purchase a ring individually.
This morning, the campaign shot over its $5,000 goal.
“I’m never taking it off when we get it,” Cooper freshman Andrea Tribble tells KARE 11. “It’s not coming off my finger.”
