Head coach of the Sartell Sabres basketball team, Marcus Oistad, reached 150 career wins on Monday, February 2nd, in Moorhead, Minnesota, advancing the Sabres’ season record to 11-5.
Head coach and Sartell alumnus Marcus Oistad is in his 13th season as head coach of the Sabres with a career record of 150-185. Oistad is just the second coach in Sartell history to reach 150 wins, with the first being longtime Sabres coach Dave Angell. Angell coached the Sabres from 1984 to 2013, ending his career with Sartell’s only state tournament appearance in the program’s history. Oistad was a member of Angell’s coaching staff in their state tournament run and played on multiple teams that reached the section championship.
Before coaching and teaching at Sartell, Oistad was a three sport varsity athlete at Sartell. In the fall, Oistad played for a successful Sabre football program that came just short of a state tournament appearance his senior year. In the winter, Oistad played basketball for Angell’s Sabres. And in the spring, Oistad spent his time on a different type of court, the tennis court.
Post high school, Oistad went on to play football at Bethel University. He played football for three years for the Royals as a quarterback and a wide receiver.
This season, Oistad looks to lead the Sabres to a deep postseason run in the 8AAA section. Sartell has been in the largest class of the state, AAAA, for the past few years, but dropped down to AAA this year. This means they compete with more local, smaller schools. The Sabres currently rank #1 in their section for both section record and QRF, and hope to claim the #1 seed and host their future playoff games. As for the class of AAA, Sartell is ranked within the top ten teams by QRF rankings. Sartell was also featured as the #9 team in AAA by And One Films and Pacesetter in week 8 and looks to reclaim their spot in the top 10.
On Monday, the Moorhead Spuds hosted the Sabres for Spud Senior Night, hoping to get revenge for their loss to the Sabres last season in Sartell. The Spuds were led by junior guard Jett Feeney, who scored 19 points and made other big contributions down the stretch, along with Romeo Kromah and Dalton Jones. The Sabres lead most of the game with contributions from many players on the roster. Senior forward and Black Hills State commit Maddox Lewis closed out the game shooting a perfect 13/13 from the free-throw line and scoring 23 points. Karson Lewis helped the Sabres in scoring with 18 points and knocking down 6 3-pointers. Coach Oistad led his team to a great bounce-back win following Friday’s loss to secure his 150th.
Oistad and the Sabres look to finish the year out strong with just 10 games left of the regular season. They continue their road stretch with two more away games this week in Alexandria on Thursday, and will travel up north to Detroit Lakes on Saturday. Sartell holds an 8-2 record in Central Lakes Conference play and a 7-1 record in section play. The players are looking forward to the upcoming stretch and optimistic about their playoff potential. Senior captain Maddox Lewis looks to score his 1,000th career point in the upcoming games, as he currently sits at 988. Maddox Lewis’ season average is set at 22.8 PPG and has the potential to secure this massive career milestone in Thursday’s game in Alexandria. Maddox Lewis will become the 9th Sabre boys basketball player to achieve this goal. He is also 21 3-pointers shy of the all-time 3-pointers made in career record. With his 3.3 makes per game average beyond the arc, this record is very much in reach for the Division-II commit.
