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Year of the Freshman?
Jeff Linder
Dec. 11, 2014 9:31 am
They're everywhere.
Some are scattered, a lone young gun here or there. Some are clustered, as is the case at Marion, Springville and Center Point-Urbana.
They're freshmen, and they've immediately carved their mark into the girls' basketball landscape in Eastern Iowa.
'Two or three years ago, through the AAU circuit, you could always see how much talent there was in this grade,” said Marion Coach Corby Laube. 'We felt that talent in the area, in the state, was very high.”
Laube is the beneficiary of more than his share of rookie ability. Three freshmen - Chloe Rice, Caitlyn Smith and Mia Laube (Corby's daughter) - have given the Indians a jolt of energy.
The owner of a 6-16 record last year, Marion is 4-1 and figures to contend for the Wamac Conference West Division title. The Indians will be challenged by Center Point-Urbana, which is having its own freshman fun.
Five of the top eight scorers for the Stormin' Pointers (3-2) are ninth-graders, including Allison Wooldridge, sister of junior all-stater Arika Wooldridge.
At 3-0, Springville has hopes of snagging its first winning season since its glory days of 2008 and 2009. The Orioles are led in scoring by freshman Mikayla Nachazel (13.5 points per game), with rookies Rylee Menster and Alyssa Jaeger also making an immediate impact.
'We've got some nice young kids that have stepped right in,” said Orioles Coach Nate Sanderson, whose team beat Maquoketa Valley on Tuesday for the first time in six seasons. 'I think by the end of the year, we'll be a hard team to prepare for, because we'll be able to put five kids on the floor at a time that can score.”
Freshmen have elevated a number of area programs (add unbeatens Linn-Mar and Lansing Kee to that list). Meanwhile, at Cedar Valley Christian, they may have saved the program.
A one-dimensional team with a dangerously small roster in its first three years as an IGHSAU-sanctioned school, the Huskies now have considerable help for all-stater Shelby Hembera.
The supporting cast, which includes Hembera's younger sister Molly, plus Emma Slagle, has made Cedar Valley instantly competitive - it lost by only six points to Class 1A No. 6 Bellevue Marquette on the road Tuesday. CVCS won only one game last season, but is 2-2 this winter.
Talent is one component to making a youth-infused team successful. Chemistry is another.
'Upperclassmen are really the key,” Laube said. 'They've been amazing to the younger girls, and that doesn't always happen. The older girls have welcomed them, and the younger girls are humble and look up to the older kids.
'We're still a work in progress; it's a matter of putting the pieces together.”
Other freshmen are making an impact, none larger than that of Ashley Joens at Iowa City High.
The younger sister of junior Courtney Joens, a University of Illinois commit, Ashley is shooting 59 percent from the field and scoring 23 points per game, most of any ninth-grader in the state this season.
West Liberty's Tatum Koenig leads the River Valley Conference South Division in scoring at 15.8 points per game while league rival Iowa City Regina has a dandy youngster in Mary Crompton.
Six-foot-2 post Amelia Ivester is the first freshman to start for Tom Lilly at Cedar Rapids Xavier.
l Comments: (319) 368-8857; jeff.linder@thegazette.com