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Stillwater's Sara Scalia Looks Forward To Gopher Future

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- It's hours in the gym, practice time that defines how much you want it, and what price you are willing to pay for success.

That is how Stillwater High School's Sara Scalia came to this game -- by learning to love the practice time.

"Outside of, like, playing high school and AAU, I'm just like always in the gym working on getting better and stuff," Scalia said. "Obviously I want to take my game to like the next level."

The next level for her is not far from Stillwater. She impressed the new head coach of the Gophers, and Lindsay Whalen made Scalia her first in-state recruit and commitment.

sara scalia
Sara Scalia (credit: CBS)

"It was kind of like just surreal at first because I've always watched her play at the Lynx for like eight years, and … always looked up to her because she's obviously a point guard and she's a really good role model," Scalia said. "And so then when she offered me, I was just like super shocked."

But when you watch Scalia, and you see how she likes to play the game, you see a little of her future coach.

"I definitely look up to how she plays, and like she's really competitive, too, and I love that about her," Scalia said.

That means she is always in attack mode, and wants to force the issue on offense. That I s why she is where she is, and she now wants to sprint the end of her high school finish line with another lofty goal.

"[The Ponies] definitely like have a lot of potential this year, and we're just working on getting better each day and each game, each practice, because we obviously still have stuff to work on to be able to get to the state tournament, and eventually win it," Scalia said.

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