Vikings' Season May Have Many Peaks, Valleys
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
AKRON - Tippecanoe Valley head girls basketball coach Gary Teel knows he has talent.
What this year's Vikings squad lacks, however, is a wealth of experience.
Gone are the likes of Kara Kramer, Holli Jackson and Heather Rathbun from the roster.
That trio led by Kramer brought the Vikings to within a made basket of a sectional championship.
After a poor start against Norwell, Valley stormed back in last year's sectional final at Peru, only to fall 71-70.
Teel hopes this season won't have such an ebb and flow as the Norwell game did.
But with just one full-time starter returning in Chelsy Rhoades, the Vikings may go through some growing pains.
Rhoades does enter her junior year on the heels of an impressive sophomore campaign that saw her average 10.6 points per game to go with 3.6 rebounds per game and 47 steals for the season. All three categories put her second on the team behind Kramer.
With Kramer preparing for her freshman season at D-I Eastern Illinois, it's up to Rhoades, senior Lela Rohrer and sophomore Hannah Kreuger to match the success Valley has experienced in Teel's seven years as Viking head coach.
Teel is 103-56 at the helm of Valley and feels this year's team has players who can produce.
The talent may not be to the extent of Parker and Kramer, but enough to keep Valley towards the top of the Three Rivers Conference.
Rhoades not only comes in as the team's leading scorer but a long-range threat with 30 three-pointers drained last season.
In her freshman year, Kreuger played in 20 of the team's 22 games and averaged 3.3 points per game.
"As a freshman we tried to bring her along slowly," said Teel of Kreuger. "She wants to play college ball so she played a lot during the summer, not only with us but with an AAU team. We feel like she's going to step up and do more scoring for us. More responsibility has fallen on her shoulders.
Much like what happened with Kramer her senior year after the loss of Rebekah Parker, who is currently playing at Evansville, Rhoades will garner a lot more attention from opposing defenses.
"She's a shooting guard," said Teel. "She does a good job of hitting her threes. She's a dead-on shooter from two or three. Last year was her first full year at varsity. I would anticipate for her to show a lot more maturity."
Juniors Rachel Sitts, Megan Ramsey and Kayla Newman will be looked upon for leadership with Rohrer the lone senior.
Rohrer was effective with her playing time last season. The 5-foot-9 senior averaged 4.3 points per game to enter this year as the team's second leading scorer. Rohrer also averaged 3.4 rebounds per game and led the team in steals with 58.
Jessica Rice is the only other sophomore on the Valley roster besides Kreuger. Rice played in three games on the varsity level as a freshman last year.
Four freshmen will be looked upon to provide some frontcourt help as all of them bring some height to the table.
Melody Hoffer, Stacie Hoffman, Whitney Sparkman, and Karla Vogel are all at least 5-7 with Sparkman being the tallest at 6-0.
"I think we have good depth with a lot of young kids," said Teel. "We have four kids with a lot of experience and seven kids without a lot of experience."
The TRC is as loaded as its been in several years. Conference champion Manchester returns virtually its entire roster after going 7-0 in the TRC last year and enter this year ranked 10th in the 2A coaches poll.
Rochester returns a healthy Ryleigh Carr and the 6-0 Lauren Easterday. Whitko looks to be much improved with a trio of talented sophomores in Veronica Jersey, Jamie Westness, and Jennaca Juillerat to compliment upperclassmen Kylee Brown and Jayanna Begley.
North Miami has some size with the 6-3 Jesse Deaton. Northfield may have the most talented player in the conference in Courtney Reed. The 5-9 guard was a junior all-star and is headed to play college ball in the fall at Miami (OH) alongside Warsaw grad and former Miss Basketball Jaclyn Leininger.
Valley went 13-9 last year and 6-1 in the Three Rivers Conference with its lone conference loss coming to Manchester 50-46 in Akron.
Valley opens the season Thursday at home against Bremen with a 7:45 tipoff. [[In-content Ad]]
AKRON - Tippecanoe Valley head girls basketball coach Gary Teel knows he has talent.
What this year's Vikings squad lacks, however, is a wealth of experience.
Gone are the likes of Kara Kramer, Holli Jackson and Heather Rathbun from the roster.
That trio led by Kramer brought the Vikings to within a made basket of a sectional championship.
After a poor start against Norwell, Valley stormed back in last year's sectional final at Peru, only to fall 71-70.
Teel hopes this season won't have such an ebb and flow as the Norwell game did.
But with just one full-time starter returning in Chelsy Rhoades, the Vikings may go through some growing pains.
Rhoades does enter her junior year on the heels of an impressive sophomore campaign that saw her average 10.6 points per game to go with 3.6 rebounds per game and 47 steals for the season. All three categories put her second on the team behind Kramer.
With Kramer preparing for her freshman season at D-I Eastern Illinois, it's up to Rhoades, senior Lela Rohrer and sophomore Hannah Kreuger to match the success Valley has experienced in Teel's seven years as Viking head coach.
Teel is 103-56 at the helm of Valley and feels this year's team has players who can produce.
The talent may not be to the extent of Parker and Kramer, but enough to keep Valley towards the top of the Three Rivers Conference.
Rhoades not only comes in as the team's leading scorer but a long-range threat with 30 three-pointers drained last season.
In her freshman year, Kreuger played in 20 of the team's 22 games and averaged 3.3 points per game.
"As a freshman we tried to bring her along slowly," said Teel of Kreuger. "She wants to play college ball so she played a lot during the summer, not only with us but with an AAU team. We feel like she's going to step up and do more scoring for us. More responsibility has fallen on her shoulders.
Much like what happened with Kramer her senior year after the loss of Rebekah Parker, who is currently playing at Evansville, Rhoades will garner a lot more attention from opposing defenses.
"She's a shooting guard," said Teel. "She does a good job of hitting her threes. She's a dead-on shooter from two or three. Last year was her first full year at varsity. I would anticipate for her to show a lot more maturity."
Juniors Rachel Sitts, Megan Ramsey and Kayla Newman will be looked upon for leadership with Rohrer the lone senior.
Rohrer was effective with her playing time last season. The 5-foot-9 senior averaged 4.3 points per game to enter this year as the team's second leading scorer. Rohrer also averaged 3.4 rebounds per game and led the team in steals with 58.
Jessica Rice is the only other sophomore on the Valley roster besides Kreuger. Rice played in three games on the varsity level as a freshman last year.
Four freshmen will be looked upon to provide some frontcourt help as all of them bring some height to the table.
Melody Hoffer, Stacie Hoffman, Whitney Sparkman, and Karla Vogel are all at least 5-7 with Sparkman being the tallest at 6-0.
"I think we have good depth with a lot of young kids," said Teel. "We have four kids with a lot of experience and seven kids without a lot of experience."
The TRC is as loaded as its been in several years. Conference champion Manchester returns virtually its entire roster after going 7-0 in the TRC last year and enter this year ranked 10th in the 2A coaches poll.
Rochester returns a healthy Ryleigh Carr and the 6-0 Lauren Easterday. Whitko looks to be much improved with a trio of talented sophomores in Veronica Jersey, Jamie Westness, and Jennaca Juillerat to compliment upperclassmen Kylee Brown and Jayanna Begley.
North Miami has some size with the 6-3 Jesse Deaton. Northfield may have the most talented player in the conference in Courtney Reed. The 5-9 guard was a junior all-star and is headed to play college ball in the fall at Miami (OH) alongside Warsaw grad and former Miss Basketball Jaclyn Leininger.
Valley went 13-9 last year and 6-1 in the Three Rivers Conference with its lone conference loss coming to Manchester 50-46 in Akron.
Valley opens the season Thursday at home against Bremen with a 7:45 tipoff. [[In-content Ad]]