Leelee Bell, Maggie Fricke and Eve Knutson won a state title to begin their varsity careers back when they were just in eighth grade.

Now, as seniors, the trio would love nothing more than to end their time in a Minot High uniform in the same fashion before all going off to play for their respective college programs next year.

The Majettes have appeared at the state tournament every year Bell, Fricke and Knutson have been with the team, but they haven’t been able to make it back to the title game since that 2021-22 season despite 22-plus victories each year. They have won regular season and postseason WDA titles since then, but haven’t been able to get past the semifinal round at the state tournament.

“We’d love to start it that way and end it that way, but I just want to focus on the games before that,” Bell said. “I don’t want to look too far, but (winning another title) would be ideal.”

Minot High finished 24-3 last season, winning 17 of 18 conference games to win the WDA regular season title by four games over Bismarck Legacy and Mandan. The Majettes finished third in the WDA Tournament and third at state.

With an experience-heavy roster, the Majettes once again have high expectations within their locker room. They aren’t the only ones expecting another big season for Minot High. The Majettes are No. 1 in The Hoopster’s preseason power poll. West Fargo Horace, Bismarck Century, Fargo Davies and Fargo Shanley round out the top five. Minot High is also The Hoopster’s pick to win the WDA, followed by Century and Legacy.

“We’ve been going through that for the last three years,” Minot High coach Jason Schwarz said. “The expectations we’ve had when we won the state tournament back in 2022, that’s been the same expectations for us every year for us to go and win it. Nothing’s changed as far as that’s concerned. Our No. 1 thing is we want to stay healthy so we have everyone at the end of the season.”

Minot High accomplished all it did last season without Fricke, who suffered a season-ending ACL injury just three games into the season. The University of North Dakota commit is a multi-WDA and multi-all-state selection and was the state tournament MVP when the Majettes won their second state title in program history, the other coming in 1978. Fricke has amassed 1,622 points and 557 rebounds in her career.

The Majettes will have to wait a little bit longer to get Fricke back. While she has begun practicing with the team in a limited capacity, she hasn’t been medically cleared to participate in game competition. Schwarz said it won’t be until January until she receives clearance from her medical team.

Even with Fricke out for the first month or so of the season, the Majettes still have a wealth of talent to lean on in her absence. Bell has been a household name across the state for five years now. As the No. 1 recruit in the state of North Dakota, she was pursued by seemingly all of the major college basketball programs in the nation and ultimately decided to play collegiately in the SEC for the University of Oklahoma.

Bell is a four-time all-state, all-WDA and all-state tournament team recipient. She is the all-time scoring leader in Class A/Division AA with 2,404 points. She’s also grabbed 1,081 rebounds. Bell averaged 27.1 points, 11.7 rebounds, knocked down 44 3s, dished out 75 assists and grabbed 48 steals as a junior. She earned her second consecutive ND Gatorade Player of the Year honors last season.

Knutson holds the school record for highest 3-point percentage in a season, hitting 41.9 percent of her shots from beyond the arc when she was a sophomore. Last season, she knocked down 44 3s and averaged 7 points and 4.1 rebounds per game. The Williston State commit also recorded 75 assists and 48 steals and was named all-WDA.

“Having four seniors, that’s a lot now,” Knutson said. “Having four of us to lead our team and we have quite a few juniors, too, coming up. “We have a lot of experience.”

An added bonus for the Majettes this season is limited distractions. With Bell, Fricke and Knutson all making their college decisions during the offseason, they no longer have that lingering in the back of their minds.

“Now they have nothing else to think about and they can just sit back and worry about playing hard,” Schwarz said. “They don’t have to try and impress anybody or catch anybody’s eye. It’s just the team that is their focus now.”

Junior Kinley Bartsch, sophomore Everette Deschamp and senior Ariana Rood get the starting nod alongside Bell and Knutson while Fricke remains out of the lineup. Even though Bartsch and Deschamp aren’t seniors, they have more experience at the varsity level than most at their ages.

“We’ve gotta have the most experienced team by far,” Schwarz said. “We’ll have four seniors who have extensive varsity experience. Kinley Bartsch is a junior, but she has been with us since she was an eighth grader, so this is her fourth year with us. Same with Everette Deschamp. She’s a sophomore, but she came up as a seventh grader. So she’s been with us for four years.”

Bartsch averaged 10.4 points, 3.7 rebounds and hit 56 treys as a sophomore.

“We still have an amazing team,” Bell said. “Yes, we did lose two seniors and they were a great advantage, but I think we have a lot of younger players and underclassmen stepping up and doing their roles perfectly. I’m excited to see that and it’s an amazing key for us.”

The Majettes are 65-7 in WDA play since 2021-22 and are the favorite to win the regular season title for a third consecutive season. Schwarz expects the Bismarck schools as well as Mandan to be among their biggest challengers.

The Patriots are responsible for the majority of Minot High’s conference losses as well as postseason losses during those years. The Majettes are 6-7 against Century since 2021-22. Minot High won both regular season meetings last year, but lost to the Patriots in both the WDA semifinals and the state semifinals.

“It’s probably going to be the same old, same old,” Schwarz said. “It’s going to be the Bismarck and Mandan teams that are going to be right there in the thick of things. Bismarck Century is going to be enemy No. 1 and Bismarck High and Legacy are always right there and so is Mandan. They have a great tradition over there. So you have to look at those teams down there.”

The Majettes hope to be lifting a championship trophy come March, but they aren’t ready to put their name in pen on the state tournament bracket.

“Just staying humble is the key,” Bell said. “I’m a senior now, so I try to keep my team as humble as possible. I try to tell them that, yes, we want to get there, but we have to make it there first. Getting through the entire regular season to get to the postseason. I think we’re pretty good at that. I don’t think our eyes are on that right now. It’s just working on the next day.”