Women’s basketball readies for season

By: Nolan Nickerson

The women’s basketball season started with practice this past Monday, and with it, hope of another run to state following last season’s successful campaign that ended at the Wells in Des Moines.

The Tigers are returning a steady line of key players from last season’s team, including sophomore Kiana Barney, junior Ally Conrad and senior leader Emma Gerdes.

Gerdes has high hopes for the team this season and picking up where last season left off. “We definitely want to make it back to State this year to play in the Wells, but also I know we have the talent to do so.”

Whenever a team in any sport has success, the family concept is a key part to its philosophy,  and Gerdes explains that this is no different for this year’s team, “Everyone on the team is like one big family. We hang out with each other in and out of b-ball. Everyone wants to be there and always practices hard, so it makes it a lot of fun.”

Three key players graduated from the Tigers’ state team a year ago, but Gerdes said she believes that others will step up to the tall task they left behind. “You can’t really replace the seniors last year. They were great, but this year we will have a deeper bench and should be able to play more girls. We will be a lot better at shooting the three this year than we were last year. Everyone will bring the ball up the court. Cynthia Wolf, who is only a sophomore, put in a ton of work and has gotten a ton better over the summer and will be a key post player this year.”

Every team has its rival, and for the Tigers, Gerdes explained who the team has unfinished business with. ”Linn-Mar will be one of the biggest games for us. Last year they beat us on a last second buzzer beater and have always been a big rival of ours in basketball, and this year they are going to be one of the best teams in the state, so beating them would be a huge victory ending my high school career with a win against our rivals, but also, and more importantly, it would be a huge win for the team.”

In the end Gerdes has one main goal in mind. “We want to get back to State again this year. That is our main goal for the season.”

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