Crosby Ironton's Tori Oehrlein on pace for history
MINNEAPOLIS — Minnesota girls basketball is in a unique situation. The state has two sophomores that could both rewrite the state's scoring record books. One of them is Tori Oehrlein.
Filling up the stat sheet from up north. Tori Oehrlein can do it all.
"From defensive, to rebounding, to assists, to scoring, she's the full package. Best I've seen," said her head coach at Crosby Ironton Pete Vukelich.
Oehrlein is a 10th grader and already one of the best players in the state. When it comes to basketball, her track has always been accelerated.
"I liked it right away," she said. "I played little YMCA ball and I thought I was pretty good at it when I was younger."
"She was phenomenal to start out with. Her passing ability at a young age and her high basketball IQ even at that age was unbelievable," said Crosby Ironton assistant coach Kyle Bartels, who has known the Oehrlein family since Tori was in third grade.
On varsity since middle school, as a freshman last year, Oehrlein reached 2000 points faster by games played than any girls basketball player in Minnesota ever had.
"It was amazing. Everyone kept talking to me about it and they're like 'oh you got it so fast. But it was such a great feeling," remembered Oehrlein.
But there's another sophomore that also hit the 2k mark last season. Oehrlein and Maddyn Greenway of Providence Academy will always be linked. When they're seniors we may just witness a race to set the state scoring record.
"We hang out outside of basketball too," said Oehrlein. "Me and her are pretty good friends. So it's friendly competition."
Oehrlein claims she cares more about the career assist record. Another mark she can realistically reach.
"You can tell she's a tenth grader on the court she's... not a tenth grader," said Bartels. "She's like a college level player."
Tori has been recruited for years. She plans to make a college decision before her junior season.
"At first it was a little bit stressful. But now it's fun, exciting to meet all these coaches and learn about their programs," said Oehrlein.
A natural option for those in her position is to move to the Twin Cities for basketball reasons. It was considered, but Oehrlein said no.
"My family is all up there and they've all supported me for so long," explained Oehrlein. "So when I come home from college I want to be able to like come home and see my friends and not just leave school just for like, basketball."
A basketball life, still on the rise.
"We've seen the Caitlin Clarks of the world, Paige from here," said Vukelich. "I think she wants to be part of that conversation as she gets older."