Maple Grove 2010 Prep Elite

Lauren Williams and Libby Warren

While sports are tracked by wins and losses, they’re defined best by those who play them. This month we profile some of the area’s most promising student-athletes as they approach their senior year. These stars shine bright on and off the field with superior skills, class, sportsmanship, teamwork, intelligence and hard work.

An Inseparable Pair

For as long as they can remember, the lives of Ellen Edison and Stephanie Davison have simultaneously revolved around an orange leather ball. As lifelong teammates, neighbors and close friends, the upcoming seniors at Maple Grove Senior High like to say they’re “attached at the hip”: Their lockers are right by each other, they live on the same block, and they study— and goof off—together. But their common passion for basketball, a bond forged in kindergarten while playing on the same YMCA team, is what binds them.     

Neighborhood boys have been learning this the hard way summer after summer on Davison’s backyard basketball court. “Their goal for the summer is to beat us,” Davison says. “We don’t let them. That’s what we do all summer.”

Even after years of high school and AAU basketball, Edison and Davison still refine their skills via backyard street hoops, a longtime tradition that keeps fun infused in the game. “We used to make up the most intricate plays possible, and we wouldn’t leave until we could get it perfect,” Ellen says. That chemistry between the girls carries over on the court for the Crimson. “I can throw it up the court,” Davison says,” and I know (Ellen) will be there.”

Both three-year varsity players earned all-conference honors for a Maple Grove team that had a breakthrough 24–2, 2009–2010 season, highlighted by a section title. Edison, who averaged 13 points per game as a junior captain and has 145 career steals, is best known for her defense. “Ellen is the most tenacious on-the-ball defender I’ve ever coached,” says Crimson head coach Mark Cook. “She loves the challenge of guarding the other team’s best player.” Davison, on the other hand, is a jack of all trades, scoring nine points per game and racking up 128 rebounds as a junior. “Steph does so many different things well,” Cook says. “She’s such a long player (at 5-foot-11), she just kind of creates problems for kids.”

Edison (3.9 GPA) and Davison (4.0) also apply their tireless work ethic to the classroom. As Maple Grove Senior High Link Crew leaders, they make academics a top priority, and it’s no coincidence that they are being recruited to play college basketball. “I study all the time—I’m not going to lie,” Davison says. “We basically take all the same high-performance classes, and we help each other.”

As a No. 2 seed, the Crimson suffered a heartbreaking upset in the state quarterfinals to Wayzata in March. Edison and Davison are using the loss as motivation for their senior season and are already pounding the backyard pavement to improve. “Next year we know what we need to do to get back to the point we were at,” Edison says. “We’re going to up the ante a little bit … Let’s just say we have some unfinished business.”

Ellen Edison

Sport: Basketball

Accomplishments: 3.9 GPA, 2008–2010 all-conference, 2009–2010 Minnesota Coaches Association all-state honorable mention, 2008–2010 Channel 12 all-area team, Maple Grove High School Link Crew leader

Stephanie Davison

Sports: Basketball, Volleyball

Accomplishments: 4.0 GPA, 2009–2010 all-conference, 2008–2009 all-conference honorable mention, 2009–2010 Channel 12 all-area team honorable Mention, Maple Grove High School Link Crew leader

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