The 2023-24 Shiocton Girls Basketball season was a fun and exciting season. It was a pleasure to be part of it. As we all know, the season starts in the off-season. We had a fun and competitive summer and learned a lot along the way. We took part in a very challenging summer league against some much bigger schools at Appleton East. We learned a lot and gained valuable game experience. We also competed in 2 tournaments--one in Shawano and the other in the brand new high school complex in Beaver Dam. During those tournaments not only did we gain experience, but the team bonding gained during those events was invaluable. Over the summer this team really started to gel as friends and teammates. You could see genuine friendships being formed. 

The regular season was full of ups and downs, and a few injuries along the way. This team faced adversity head on and overcame anything that was thrown at them. Credit goes to the leaders of this team because this team never got down on themselves, and never threw blame around. Our motto is Process over Product. We respect the process and work hard every day in that process in order to put the product on the floor on game nights. And all the credit goes to these girls as they kept true to that process. They continued to work hard every day in practice and focused on getting the team better. We battled through many close games early in the season. 8 of our first 11 games were decided by 10 points or less. We were very competitive. For the playoffs we were selected to play at Oconto. Much like the regular season we battled through a very competitive game. We worked hard as we had all season but the outcome ended up not being what we had wanted. The atmosphere was what you would expect from a competitive playoff game. The gym was electric and both crowds brought the energy. It was fun to be part of, and I was very proud of how the girls competed that night. 

This season we were led by 5 terrific seniors: Autumn Taylor, Alexis Garcia, Claire Collar, Sydney Ritchie and Kyler Rettler. These 5 have paved the way for future Shiocton teams and I am proud to have been a part of their journey the past 6 seasons. 

Sydney and Alexis each earned honorable mention all conference awards, as voted on by fellow coaches within the conference. Team awards for this season are: Destiny Monnot - Defensive MVP, Aliyah Reese - Offensive MVP, Lilly Van Zeeland - Newcomer of the Year, Hailey Affeldt - Most Improved Player, Sydney Ritchie - Most Outstanding Player, Alexis Garcia - Coaches Award. 

I’d like to thank the School District of Shiocton for the opportunity to lead this outstanding group of young ladies, my fellow coaches for all they do to help me throughout the year and my family for putting up with me through the season and allowing me to do something I am passionate about. Most importantly I’d like to thank this outstanding group of athletes for all the hard work they put in and the sacrifices they make to make this program great.

Go Chiefs!

-Coach Eric Schmidt