Back in action with a letter for the South Winn girls’ basketball program are (front, l-r) Adele Conway, Allison Hageman, Karissa Wenthold; (back) Charlotte Moonen, Alyssa Holthaus, Adrienne Winings, Ella Theis and Chloe Wiltgen. (Photo by Becky Walz)
A lot of scoring ability will be back on the hardwood for the South Winn girls’ basketball team for during the new season and new head coach Michael Gehling is hoping that will translate to more wins.
After serving as assistant coach the last several seasons, Gehling is no stranger to the program. Neither is his assistant Carla Nymeyer, who led the Turkey Valley girls’ team for nine seasons, which included a pair of state runner-up finishes.
Glancing back
South Winn players had a big learning curve last season with just two seniors taking the court as well as several juniors and sophomores stepping in to fill roles on the varsity squad that went 5-11 in the Upper Iowa Conference.
As the postseason began, the Warriors managed to edge Wapsie Valley 47-43 in the opening round of Class 2A action. However, for the third season in a row, Aplington-Parkersburg ended South Winn’s season in round two, 61-22.
The Warriors finished the season with a 7-16 overall record and graduated UIC honorable mention guard Aubrey Willey and guard Loleta Ryan.
Looking ahead
Having gained experience last season, the Warriors look poised to better their record with eight returning letter winners.
“We return a strong core of upper classmen with 78 percent of our scoring from last year’s team,” pointed out coach Gehling. “Defense will be our strength, but our team height will be a little disadvantage for us.”
Leading the way is last season’s leading scorer Karissa Wenthold. During her junior campaign she averaged 11 points per game to earn a second team all-conference nod. Wendhold was second on the Warrior squad in steals with 49 and had 34 assists.
Junior Alyssa Holthaus looked poised to big things again this season as a returning All-UIC honorable mention. She put up 6.4 points per game and nabbed 4.5 rebounds a night; however, an injury in the Warriors’ first game against Kee in November will have her on the bench for most the season.
Ella Theis was third in rebounds a season ago for the Warriors with 102 boards. Other returning letter winners include seniors Allison Hageman (2.6 ppg. 3.1 rpg) and Adrienne Winings (1.8 ppg, 1.9 rpg); juniors Charlotte Moonen (1.8 ppg, 1.8 rpg) and Adele Conway (0.5 ppg, 0.9 rpg) and sophomore Chloe Wiltgen (2.1 ppg, 2.2 rpg).
The outlook
Coach Gehling believes his Warriors have the capability to finish in the top half of the conference with defending UIC champ MFL MarMac and Kee leading the way.
“We are going to try to improve every day and give our full effort at all times,” said the first-year head coach. “I think by doing this we should be able to compete in all of our games. We have a great group of girls who are willing to learn new things.”
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