AKRON - Though he says they're different players,10th-year Tippecanoe Valley High School girls basketball coach Gary Teel sees a lot of similarities in former Viking star Rebekah Parker and current standout Hannah Krueger.
In her four years as a varsity player, Parker helped lead the Vikings to a 74-20 record and three sectional championships. She finished her prep career as an Indiana All-Star and then took her talent to the University of Evansville.Krueger, the 2007 Times-Union Area Player of the Year, led Valley in points (15.3), rebounds (8.4), steals (4.3), assists (3.8) and blocked shots (1.8) per game last season, as the Vikings posted a 14-9 record and their second straight sectional championship.
Krueger will kickoff her senior season tonight when the Vikings host the Bremen Lions.
"She led us in a lot of stats last year, points, rebounds, steals and assists," said Teel, who has a coaching record of 128-77 with the Vikings. "She's an all-around player. She's very important to what we do. She's a lot like Rebekah Parker was. Rebekah could see the floor so well, and I can see the same thing with Hannah. They're different players, they're not mirror images of each other, but I can see the same passion for the gam in Hannah. She wants to be successful and she wants to win, and the important thing is she wants to do it within the team concept."
While, on paper, it looks like Valley's success starts with Krueger, the Vikings return more than just the talented 5-foot-9 guard.
Also back for the Vikings are juniors Stacie Hoffman (7.8 points, 3.5 rebounds), Whitney Sparkman (4.2 points, 2.8 rebounds), Karla Vogel (2.0 points, 1.3 rebounds) and Melody Hoffer (1.5 points, 1.9 points).
Of the aforementioned players, all but Hoffer played in each of Valley's 23 games last season. Hoffer got minutes in 22 varsity games last season.
Others with varsity experience for Vally include sophomores Kate Myers and Hannah Boggs, who made appearances in 15 and 13 varsity games, respectively, for the Vikings last season.
"We have seven kids back," said Teel when asked about his team's depth. "We're very excited. We hope these kids can give us a nice rotation. We think the Three Rivers Conference is going to be very competitive again, and we moved into Sectional 21. We've got some very exciting things to look forward to."
Senior Bethany Tucker rounds out the current eight-person varsity roster.
The TRC includes Manchester, who enters the season ranked eighth in Class 2A, and an always-tough Rochester squad.
The Class 3A Sectional 21 field, which Valley joined this year, includes No. 3 Wawasee, the defending state runner-up, No. 8 NorthWood, Whitko, Columbia City, West Noble and Lakeland.
Notable games on Valley's regular season schedule include a contest against 1A defeding state champion and current No. 1 Oregon-Davis on Nov. 13 and a date with Class 3A No. 4 Plymouth on Nov. 29.
"Once again we're going to play a tremendous schedule," said Teel. "The TRC should be very competitive again, and our out-of-conference schedule is pretty tough."
With a standout player like Krueger, as well as the rest of the experiened players Valley has returning, the Vikings should be pretty tough, too.
