Perham Coaches Super and Bormann Earn State Coaches of the Year Honors

When Perham senior Kaia Anderson reflected on four years playing under head coach TJ Super, she didn't reach for sports metaphors. "I feel like I've struck gold with high school coaches, and I thank God for that every single day," Anderson said after a season that bore out exactly what she meant.

Super received the 2025-2026 Section 8AA Coach of the Year Award from the Minnesota Girls Basketball Coaches Association, and assistant coach Michelle Bormann earned the Section 8AA Assistant Coach of the Year Award, capping a season the Yellowjackets were never supposed to have.

Section 8AA rivals had picked Perham to finish fifth entering the season. Instead, the Yellowjackets won their third section championship in four years, beating Dilworth-Glyndon-Felton 71-63 on March 6 at Moorhead High School. They then carried that momentum to the Gangelhoff Center in St. Paul, where they claimed third place at the Class AA state tournament with a 66-52 victory over New London-Spicer on March 14, the program's best finish in postseason history.

The section title required precisely the kind of preparation Super and Bormann had spent months building. Super had identified DGF as "by far the most physical team in the section and Northern Minnesota." Perham matched that physicality while leaning on its own strengths, finishing 25-4 and reaching the state tournament for the third time in four seasons. The run is especially striking set against the previous year's 15-13 finish, when injuries knocked the Yellowjackets out in the section quarterfinals.

That bounce-back speaks to what the coaching staff poured into the program at The Hive. Super said after the state third-place win that watching the players buy into what he, Bormann, and assistant Robbie Cox were teaching over those final weeks meant more to him than anything.

Anderson was the most visible product of that investment. The senior guard scored 17 of her 26 points in the first half of the state semifinal against Providence Academy, earned a spot on the Class AA All-Tournament team alongside teammate Regan Hemberger, and finished in the top 40 of Miss Basketball voting. She credited Super's ability to connect with players beyond the court as something she would carry long after her final game. "He's just an amazing person and role model in my life, and I'm so thankful for it."

For a program written off before tip-off, the 2025-26 Yellowjackets leave a clear record of what consistent, relationship-centered coaching can produce in Perham.