By Ainsley Schafer
Nearly a century after the last time the Northfield Boys Basketball team made a state tournament appearance, head coach Matt Christensen, a 2005 Northfield High School graduate and Raider basketball alum, led the 2026 Boys Varsity team to fourth place overall.
Following the success of this season, Christensen earned the title of 2026 Minnesota Basketball Coaches Association Class AAA Coach of the Year.
“I don’t think I would coach high school basketball anywhere else,” said Christensen. “I just bleed gold and maroon.”
Christensen returned to the team as head coach in 2022, which means he worked alongside this senior class since the group’s freshman year. Kayden Oakland, a four-year varsity player, led the team to 25 wins going into tournament play, a 10-win increase from last season. The team’s advancement to state marks the end of what was the state’s longest-running state tournament gap for a non-cooperative program in basketball, according to the Minnesota Star Tribune.
“We’ve all known this is the goal and this is the team that is likely going to do it, and to actually put it together is pretty amazing,” Christensen said.
Throughout the season, but especially during sectional matches, the Northfield community showed their support for this program. Over 5,000 individual IP addresses streamed the section championship against Austin, and throughout the team’s tournament run there was an “immense outpour of support from the community, especially alumni,” Christensen said. “There is just something special about Northfield.”
He said that the team would not be where it is today without the help of the Raiders’ “culture keeper” and assistant varsity coach, Grant Hemmingsen. Alongside Christensen and Hemmingsen, assistant coaches Nic Zabel and Mason Zick worked with this program throughout the season.
Ainsley Schafer is a KYMN News intern covering local high school and college sports. Contact her at news@kymnradio.net
