Girls Preseason Hoops

Pack, Panthers, Devs play inaugural WMC seasons; CSAA Gold brings in Cloud, Cats, Hawks and Eagles from the Silver

Now that the football playoffs are in the books it’s time for basketball to move into center stage starting off with the opening of the girls season this week followed by the boys who will begin competition next week.
Some changes will greet the season as Fremont, Hesperia and Holton have taken their game to the WMC while the CSAA combines the Silver and Gold into one 11 team conference.
Newaygo goes on the road for their first game facing  Shelby on Tuesday before a Thursday home and conference  opener against Chip Hills.
Grant hosts Cedar Springs Tuesday for the Tiger opener and three days later they head to Morley Stanwood for a league matchup.
The Packers open against old rival Spring Lake Tuesday and the Fremont faithful will want to attend since it’s the last time they’ll see the team in their home gym until just before Christmas. That’s  3 weeks and 6 games, by the way.
White Cloud hosts Hesperia Tuesday. While no longer a conference battle an intense rivalry remains intact between these two schools.
Hesperia will host neighboring Walkerville from the West Michigan D League on Monday before their trip down M-20 to the Cloud.
Holton starts the season with a pair of road games. Tuesday has the Red Devils visiting Fruitport Christian as a non-con tune up before plunging into conference play with a trip to Ravenna.

Newaygo Lions
Coach Nate Thomasma

After a remarkable run of success there is no denying that the Lions took more than a bit of a hit via graduation. 4 Starters including three who have taken their game to the college courts have departed. 
Grace Painter is the lone starter from last season and is joined by Barbara Toth Lyda Lathrop and Maria Riddering from last year’s team. The Lions welcome 7 newcomers to the team in   Sydnee Kirk, Addison Goodin, Jazlynn Baker, Olivia Robeck, Naomi Schillman, and Kija Westbrook.

From The Coach:
Team Strengths: Coachability. Hard working.  I like what this team has shown during the first two weeks.  The players are willing to listen and learn and are very coachable.
 Biggest Challenge: Experience.  We have very little varsity game experience coming back this year.  Not being able to have Lyda this year will be a big challenge (out do to an injury), so we only have 3 girls that have played varsity basketball coming back this year.  The only way to get better is to play in actual games.
 Probable Conference Frontrunners: Big Rapids, Kent City, Central Montcalm and Grant

“We talk about working hard, getting better and being a great teammate every day and this group really needs to embrace that.  We know that if we do that we will be a much better team in February than we are right now.” 
 
Grant Tigers
Coach: Josh DeLamater
 
From the Coach: 
“We have 5 returners. Key for us are Julie Ashbaugh (11) in her 3rd year on Varsity, Jocee Pluene (10), and Jaycee Hance (12). Together, they combined for 20 of our ppg last year.
"We added 4 new sophomores on the team who will all contribute in different ways. Alexa Obenauf had a strong freshmen year on JV last year and will have an important part of our rotation."
 
Team Strengths: We are quick and aggressive.
 Biggest Challenge: We seriously lack size.
 Probable Conference Frontrunners:  Kent City, Morley Stanwood, and Big Rapids will be the top teams to beat.
 
“This year is a dramatic difference from the team that competed at the top of the CSAA last year. Our biggest challenge will be overcoming the lack of varsity court time for the sophomores joining us this year. Hopefully, the adjustment to the speed and physicality of the varsity game will happen quickly.
 
White Cloud Indians
Coach Caleb Wilk
 
From the Coach:
“This year our team is looking to replace roughly 50% of our points per game from last year’s squad. Returning players include seniors Gaby Reeve, Kiara Edwards, Jolena Deaton, and junior Jaden Gomez. Our newcomers include juniors Annie Feldpausch, Gracy Holmes, Kadence Nickoloff, Brooke Ringler, Tanayah Klammer, and Jorja Baker. 

“Our backcourt will be led by Jaden Gomez and Kiara Edwards. As a sophomore last year Jaden set the tone on defense by leading our team in steals. Our frontcourt will be led by Gaby Reeve. Gaby will be looking to add onto a very impressive junior season. She led our team in points per game last year, and that number should climb with the amount of work she put in during the offseason. Along with these three players we have many hard workers willing to do the dirty work to grind out tough games. Our main focus this year will be playing tough defense. Defense is all about mentality, and I think we have a team that wants to play aggressively. If we can hold opponents below their season averages we will have a chance to surprise a few teams. Our biggest challenge this year will be our lack of experience on varsity. Our coaching staff is really looking forward to the first few games of the season because we expect to see a lot of growth during the first part of the season. 

“Now that we have joined the Silver and the Gold conferences together we know we are going to have some great competition. Kent City is returning some solid players, but we proved to ourselves last year that we can hang with them when we lost to them by 12 at home.  I have a lot of respect for coach Raven and the squads he can put together, so I also expect Morley Stanwood to be tough. Last year we played four teams from the Gold, and we went 2-2. All of the teams from the old Gold are tough, but I think Big Rapids, Newaygo, and Grant will be a great challenge for many this year. Newaygo lost a large part of their core from last year, but I know coach Thomasma is going to put a team out on the floor that is ready to go. 

“I am excited to see what our young squad can accomplish this year. The first few games will let us know what we need to work on, but we are excited that basketball season is finally here! We open the season at home vs non-conference opponent Hesperia on 11/29.” 

Fremont Packers
Coach Wes Zerlaut

The Packers will be putting a youthful team on the floor and return a trio of starters including Lily VandenBerg (Junior) 4.1 PPG; 3.7 RPG, Khaila Noordyk (Sophomore) 4.2 PPG; 6.0 RPG, and Jessica Bennett (Junior) 5.8 PPG; 4.7 PPG.
Key Newcomers include Mia Clemence (Sophomore), Katie Ackerman (Junior), Maite Corbalromera (Senior), and Riley Chase (Sophomore).
 
From the Coach:
Team Strengths: Depth and Athleticism
Team Challenges: Experience
 Probable Conference Frontrunner: Ludington
 
“I am excited about this team. We are young and inexperienced, but I anticipate being a team that plays with a great deal of effort and energy. We need to get a lot of players acclimated to the varsity level in a short amount of time, but I think they are up to the challenge and look to be a very competitive group.”

Hesperia Panthers
Coach Ty Elenbaas

Key Returnees: Abby Joppich, Noelle Evans, Sky Milner, Mia Milner, and Isabell Valdes
Key Newcomers: Alana Nadjkovi,  Ali Townsend, Samantha Logana, Grace Wenberg, Ana Steffens, Kaylee Noffsinger, Emmy Everding, Alivia Tomaras.
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From the Coach:
Team Strengths: We are a hard working group with great chemistry.
We are quick learners
Team Challenges: Implementing new systems on the fly. The athletes are learning a new coach and a new league. 

“I am really excited to see this group of girls come together. We have great attitudes and we are hard workers. Our returning players have set a great tone to start the season and our newcomers have stepped in and added a lot of skill and enthusiasm.”

Holton Red Devils
Coach BJ Jordan

Key returnees: Ryann Robins, Abbie Fowler, Courtney Boes, Layla Cannady
Newcomers:  Aubrey Goyings, Kenzie Greene ,

From the Coach

Team Strengths: Team speed, we have several girls who can move pretty well which should translate into our press well.
Team Challenges: finding roles and getting on the same page quickly,  we were young last year and somehow we got younger , only 1 returning senior and with low numbers had to pull up 3 10th graders to get to 9.

Probable Conference Frontrunners: In the WMC Hart is the team to beat and will be heavily favored to repeat as conference champs. Mason County Central will also be a very solid team.

“I feel we can be a very competitive team this year, but defensive effort will be the key to our success.  We have to be able to play complete games and take better care of the ball than we did last year if we want to reach our full potential.  My starters are returning  with a ton of  varsity experience and my bench has none, so getting quality minutes from them will be huge for our success.”