Tarah Cleveland, Menahga
She might not be a household name yet, but Menahga’s Tarah Cleveland has been putting up stats that – if it continues – could one day put her in the Minnesota high school record book. She is averaging 26.5 points per game and last season as a freshman she scored her 1,000th career point.
With Cleveland’s help, the Menahga girls’ basketball program has been improving under head coach Steve Schreiber. The squad should double its win total from the year before and will graduate just two seniors this year.
In addition to being young, the Braves are also undersized. They don’t have a player taller than 5-9. To make up for that, Schreiber’s team presses and runs as much as possible. They switched to a pressure style this season largely because of Cleveland and the lack of height on the team.
“If (our opponents) score off the press they score,” added the second year coach, “but we are going to get steals too.”
To have any success with the lack of size they have, the Braves need to outwork teams. Their heart was on display earlier this month in an 80-73 overtime win against New York Mills. With two starters out for the first half, Cleveland put the team on her back and broke the school record for points in a game – for the third time in two years – with 46 points.
At 5-2, Cleveland might be lacking in height, but like her teammates, is not lacking heart.
“She is the hardest worker I have ever seen,” said Schreiber. “Every morning she comes in a shoots and lifts weights for and hour and a half before school. She rarely misses a day.”
A 4.0 student, Cleveland leads the team with five steals a game and grabs four rebounds a game. Solid basketball runs in her family. Cleveland is on pace to break the school scoring record late this season or early next. When she does, Tarah and her older sisters will rank one, two, three in scoring for Menahga.
She is scoring at a record pace despite a pre-season position change. The coaching staff moved her from shooting guard to the point before this season. It has taken some time, but like all things on the basketball court, Cleveland is figuring it out. It didn’t take long for Schreiber to see he had someone special to work with, but this year has solidified it. It won’t take much longer for the rest of the state to see it too.
“The second I got here I knew she was going to be a good player," Schreiber said, "but I really saw it when she moved to point guard this year. “