March 10, 2017 at 5:04 p.m.
Lady Hodags honor seniors at banquet
Lady Hodags honor seniors at banquet
While the majority of the awards went to underclassmen, the night belonged to the seniors Kaly Kostrova and Ali Schickert, who were honored for their four years of service to the high school program.
"You left such a great legacy for our program," coach Ryan Clark said during the banquet. "They've mentioned a couple of times not winning the conference. It is a goal of ours. You look at the banners in the gym and the girls' basketball banner is empty. There's never been a conference championship for girls' basketball - whether it was the Wisconsin Valley Conference or the Great Northern Conference. We don't spend much time talking about it, but when we achieve that - and we will, we will get there and achieve it - it won't be because of that current group. It will be because of the all the girls before you."
The two seniors did walk away with a couple of the team's statistical awards. Kostrova was the team's leading scorer, averaging 19.3 points per game, including a career-high 33 in the season-ending playoff loss at Hortonville. Kostrova finished her career with 931 points, nearly half of which (463) came this season. Clark said Kostrova would have undoubtedly been a 1,000-point scorer had she not missed half of her junior season with a collarbone injury.
"Kaly, you set a standard for scoring, shooting, time in the gym. You were a great teammate. There's just so many good little memories," Clark said. "I think when we look back and your junior year was cut short and you only had 12 games. You wanted a great senior year and you did. You had a very good senior year. I know you wanted to score more points and do more for your team, but you did fantastic. To score what you did this year when everyone knew about you and you got face-guarded. They threw every junk defense at you at times. Just a tremendous career."
Schickert was the team's leading rebounder this year while junior Ally Seefeldt led the team in steals. Seefeldt, who averaged 11 points per game this season, also picked up two more awards - the team's most improved player and the team's toughness award.
"(She) went from scoring 2-3 points per game her sophomore year to averaging 11 points per game her junior year," Clark said. "That doesn't seem like a huge deal, but she's always been such a defensive player first - defense, steals, rebounds, hustle plays. Sometimes if that's you're role, it's hard to add a scoring threat."
Three other underclassmen picked up awards - junior Alayna Franson was named the team's defensive player of the year, sophomore Payton Van Zile won the Hodag award, and freshman Kenedy Van Zile won the hustle award.
Franson, who returned to basketball this season after spending her freshman and sophomore years on the Nordic ski team, was one of the squad's top on-ball defenders and her 21 steals in Great Northern Conference play were second on the team, behind Seefeldt.
"Coming into the season her role had to be defense because everything else she was below average or behind in skills," Clark said. "She made great strides and caught up. We had her guard the girl from SPASH, Maggie Negaard, who in the top five as players in the state as a junior and she worked her really, really well. When we went to Hortonville, she had to guard another junior in the top five in the state - Shey Frederick - and she really shut her down."
Clark said Kenedy Van Zile, listed at 5-foot-2, made an impact on the court despite her small stature.
"She's the smallest kid on the court at all times and, sometimes, she'd be at the bottom of the scrum," he said. "You really don't see her until everyone gets out of the scrum and there she is. If she doesn't hustle, she's going to get beat up. She has to play hard and I thought, as a freshman on the varsity level, (she) was as scrappy as can be."
Payton Van Zile, Kenedy's older sister, was caught on the fringe between varsity and junior varsity for much of the season and Clark said she took her role in stride.
"She played the last games on varsity and did a great job," he said. "She worked hard in the offseason and every practice she worked her tail off ... She fights for everything, she works really, really hard, she's a fantastic teammate and yet she didn't get many minutes on the varsity this year."
The Hodags finished 10-14 overall this season and fourth place in the GNC with a 6-6 league mark.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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