Jackson County Central and Caledonia have been regular participants in the state football tournament for more than two decades but have never met prior to Thursday’s 7 p.m. Class 2A quarterfinal at Rochester Mayo.
JCC, which became a school district in 1997, is making its 10th trip to state. Five of those have come as a Class 2A school and five have come in Class 3A.
Caledonia is in the state field for the 14th time since 2005, all in Class 2A. You can add appearances in Class B in 1974 and 1976.
The schools about 200 miles apart on I-90 do have a bit of history in a couple of winter sports, however.
The Huskies and Warriors have had a couple of memorable boys basketball games, with each school winning one.
In 2016, unseeded JCC upended second-seeded Caledonia 79-74 in the opening round of the state Class 2A tournament at Williams Arena.
It was the first state tourney appearance for the Huskies and naturally, the first state win in school history.
Jacob Christopher led JCC in scoring with 27 points that night. Bodey Behrends recorded 20 points, 17 rebounds and five blocks.
The schools played another memorable game in Caledonia in a late addition to the regular-season schedule on Feb. 15, 2020.
The Warriors won that Saturday afternoon matinee contest 119-107 as both teams set a school record for points in a game.
According to the Minnesota State High School League, the 226 points is the seventh-highest total ever scored in a boys basketball game in the state. Topping the list is the 242 points in St. Paul Johnson’s 123-119 overtime win in 2019.
JCC’s 107 points is tied for fourth most for points scored by a team in a loss.
The Huskies had four players score in double figures with Andrew Hesebeck scoring 33 points, Rudy Voss 26, Bradley Buhl 21 and Jack Brinkman 14.
Less than a month later Jackson County Central and Caledonia had qualified for a state tournament that would never be held.
On Thursday, March 12, the Huskies won the Section 3AA title in Marshall and the Warriors won the Section 1AA crown in Rochester.
The following morning, the remainder of the winter sports season in Minnesota was canceled as teams were on the floor during warmups for the third day of the state girls basketball tournament.
No other teams qualified for the state tourney as the other six section championship games were scheduled for that Friday night.
These two had planned to head back to the Twin Cities and recreate their memorable press conference from the previous football season, minus the losing the game part:
Here is part of that press conference that went viral:
In March, Jackson County Central and Caledonia/Houston met for the state Class 1A wrestling title at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul.
JCC won 10 of the 14 matches that night for a 43-19 win. Of the four losses, one came by medical forfeit and another by injury default.
It was the second straight state title for JCC and the ninth in school history. The Huskies have won titles in 1999, 2000, 2008, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2022 and 2023.
Here are the results from that championship match:
Jackson County Central 43, Caledonia/Houston 19
106: Kayden Eller (JCC) pinned Aiden Burns (CH) 0:59
113: Hunter Frank (CH) maj. dec. Kyler Thier (JCC) 18-6
120: Isaac Rodriguez (JCC) maj. dec. Tanner Ginther (CH) 15-2
126: Braxton Lange (CH) over Benjamin Dahlin (JCC) medical forfeit
132: Nolan Ambrose (JCC) dec. Owen Denstad (CH) 5-1
138: Thomas Freking (JCC) dec. Cory Scanlan (CH) 7-3
145: Logan Butzon (JCC) dec. Tucker Ginther (CH) 2-1
152: Isaiah Rodriguez (JCC) dec. Isaac Blocker (CH) 4-3
160: Simon Seymour (CH) dec. Trey Rossow (JCC) 3-2
170: Seth Stai (JCC) pinned Aden Kulas (CH) 1:08
182: Eric Mauss (CH) over Dylan Withers (JCC) injury default
195: Matthew Haley (JCC) dec. Ayden Goetzinger (CH) 6-0
220: Caleb Vancura (JCC) pinned Tyler Jennings (CH) 0:36
285: Cameron Scholten (JCC) pinned Grant Ness (CH) 0:51