The Shiocton Girls Basketball Varsity Team ended this season with a 10-11 record. Emily Korth was our only senior and we had 4 returning letterwinners in Larissa Young, Cora Gassner and Kendal Stingle. Being that young and inexperienced, we knew this season would present its challenges. Despite our youth, we knew we had plenty of athletic kids who were not afraid of hard work. Just like every aspect of life over the past year, Covid-19 affected our season in many ways. Due to the season being shortened by 3 weeks, we had less practice time to play a similar number of games. I was proud of this team with how they continued to work hard while knowing that at any moment we could be shut down for an extended period of time.
We started out the season with a big win against Wabeno/Laona who would end the season with a 20-5 record. We then lost on a last second shot to Division 2 Menasha. After our 4th game of the season, our program was shut down for 2 weeks due to a close contact. Through this quarantine time, we did virtual workouts and had some virtual practices where we had basketball discussions while watching film.
We won 4 of our first 6 games coming off of quarantine with the losses coming to 22 win Bonduel and to Division 2 New London. After this stretch, we received another setback with two of our starters missing multiple games due to the pandemic. This misfortune occurred right as we entered the toughest part of our schedule with teams that were ranked and larger than us. We lost 4 games in a row but we gained valuable on-court experience and learned a lot in those losses.
We earned a #3 seed in our sub-regional and traveled to Saint Mary Catholic for our regional game. While the final score didn’t show it, I thought we played well enough to put ourselves in a position to win the game. It was a very hard loss to take, but I was once again proud of how hard these young ladies played.
Overall I was pleased with the product we put on the floor each and every night. With all the speed bumps and challenges this team went through, it would have been easy for these ladies to throw in the towel or coast through the rest of the season. With leadership of Emily Korth and co-captain Larissa Young, this team was able to have a successful and fun season. This team is filled with great personalities and players who truly get along with one another. These two qualities make coaching enjoyable and it was an honor to lead them this year.
The team would like to extend a huge thank you to the school administration and anybody who had a part in making this season a success. A special thank you goes to Mr. Gunderson for all his support and hard work to keep us playing through this difficult time.
Team Awards
Coaches Award - Larissa Young
Offensive MVP - Kendal Stingle
Defensive MVP - Cora Gassner
Most Improved - Kiley Dorn
Newcomer of the Year - Autumn Taylor
Most Outstanding Player - Emily Korth
All Conference Awards
2nd Team - Kendal Stingle
2nd Team - Larissa Young
Honorable Mention - Emily Korth
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