Middle school is an important time in any athlete’s career. This is the time where they discover their real strengths and weaknesses. The true stars start to emerge as their skills develop. One of these stars is an eighth grader, Carter Lulich. He has been playing basketball ever since he was young. He grew up along strong basketball players like Dallas Williams and Connor Sorenson, often playing with them outside of school. He believes that playing with these older athletes helped him improve a lot. Through lots of playing, Carter has made himself a major threat for middle schools of the area, “I train and practice a lot. Pretty much any second I am outside of school.” Carter is very excited for his first year of high school basketball, “I am very ecstatic. My goal is to reach 1,000 points by at least my junior year.”

Carter is close to six feet tall and has a massive wingspan at only 14 years old. In comparison, many of the eighth-grade athletes are still quite small, where Carter powers over most. He has maintained 30 points per game average throughout the season.

Two weeks ago the team took on the Bayfield Trollers at home. The Cardinals were down most of the time, ending the half down by 10 points. They were still down after the half but Matt Knaack shut down the opposing point guard, Ethan Gordon, in the 3rd quarter which allowed us to get back into that game. The Cardinals pulled ahead and won 63-60.

Carter Lulich scored 49 points that night, dominating the court. A large part of his points was from beyond the arc, making four three-pointers. Also contributing to the scoreboard was Conner Helenius, Matt Knaack, and Hunter Mieritz with 4 points each and Izzy Rantala with two. Despite his 49 point contribution, the Cardinals won by a close three points ending the game 63-60.

Their season ended December 3rd with the eighth-grade team at 4-9 and the seventh-grade team at a remarkable 8-1 only losing their first game by three points. Can’t wait to see what they do next season and what the eighth-graders can bring to the high school team.