AKRON - As Tippecanoe Valley High School's varsity girls basketball coach, Gary Teel has had to replace some of the best players the program has ever seen.
Players like 2004 Indiana All-Star Rebekah Parker.This season Teel, entering his 11th season with the Vikings, has the task of replacing four-year varsity player Hannah Kreager, who led the Vikings in nearly every statistical category last season.
"We've been there before," said Teel, whose Vikings finished the 2007-2008 season with an overall mark of 10-11 and with a Three Rivers Conference record of 5-2. "This is something you have to do every year, replace kids."
In Kreager, the Vikings must replace a player who averaged 16 points, nine rebounds, nearly five assists and four steals per game last year.
"Hannah Kreager was an outstanding player," said Teel, who sports a record of 138-88 in his tenure with the Vikings. "She did a lot for us. She was very important to the program. She's a kid who reached the 1,000-point plateau, and that's very special. She'll be hard to replace, but we've got some great kids coming back. We've got five kids returning with experience. If the girls can score an extra two points here, four points there, we'll come up with those 16 points."
Valley's top scorers coming back from last year are seniors Stacie Hoffman and Whitney Sparkman.
Hoffman scored 8.1 points per game last year, while Sparkman chipped in with 7.8 points and 5.6 rebounds per contest.
"We're looking for Stacie to take more of a role in the offense this year," said Teel. "Not only on the wing, but we want to utilize her in the post, too."
Sparkman, who Teel said was impressive in summer workouts, will anchor the low post for the Vikings.
"Whitney Sparkman had a good summer, she really worked hard," said Teel. "She's going to do well this season. She's a big piece of the puzzle. She's really strong around the basket. She has nice, soft hands and catches the ball well."
Also return for the Vikings are senior Melody Hoffer (7.3 ppg), junior Kate Myers (5.2 ppg) and Hannah Boggs (4.6 ppg).
Others on the Vikings' varsity roster are seniors Dominique Parker and Angelea Inglehearn and sophomores Allison Thacker and Becky Minnick.
Valley opens the season tonight at Bremen.
Following tonight's season-opener, the Vikings play at Oregon-Davis Nov. 18 and at Warsaw Nov. 21.
"The biggest question mark we have right now is what kids are going to fill in where," said Teel. "We've had to replace great players before, that's not new to us. I'm trying to stress to the kids the importance of being a role player."
