By Kevin Cunningham
Correspondent
In the world of high school athletics, winter sports have come to a close for the Rock Valley Conference, meaning that All-Conference teams were created for boys basketball, girls basketball and wrestling.
In boys basketball, five players made the first and second teams while 11 made honorable mention. While no players made the first team for Whitewater High School, both Bryce Parrish and Logan Rasmussen made Second Team.
Parrish, a junior, was a part of a 10-14 overall Whippet team that made it to the second round of the WIAA Tournament before losing to No. 1-seeded Lake Mills. Parrish averaged 12.5 points per game, just 0.2 points per game fewer than his Second Team All-Conference teammate, Rasmussen.
Rasmussen, who finished as the team’s leading scorer, is a 6-foot-7 senior forward. The team’s win in the postseason to get to the second round was the first for both Rasmussen and Parrish during their time as Whippets.
Girls also represented
In girls basketball, Whitewater High School went 23-2 overall after going 21-1 during the regular season. The team lost its opening game of the season, and then revenged its loss in the regional final.
In the sectional semifinal round, however, the Whippets faced Madison Edgewood – the team that defeated them in last year’s WIAA Tournament – and history repeated itself. Madison Edgewood went on to win the state title and won the championship game by 21 points.
For all of the Whippets’ success, senior forward Myriama Smith-Traore and senior guard Rebekah Schumacher were both named to the First Team All-Conference.
Smith-Traore averaged 16.9 points per game while dominating inside and averaging 15.1 rebounds per game. She also led the team in blocks by a wide margin, averaging 5.0 per game and to fill out the stat sheet, averaged 2.9 assists and steals per game as well.
Schumacher was second in scoring for the Whippets this past season, averaging 13.3 points per game. Schumacher also made the most 3-pointers, with 37, and posted 4.2 assists to go alongside her 4.0 steals per game.
The 6-foot-2 Smith-Traore is committed to playing for Division I Marquette next season. Schumacher, at 5-foot-9, committed to play for D-II Quincy University.
In wrestling, Whitewater High School had not only three individual champions at the conference meet, but the team also finished second overall and sent one student-athlete to the state meet. Three different Whippets made the All-Conference First Team, while another three made Second Team.
At the 160-pound class, Aldo Soto made First Team All-Conference, at 170, Thomas McManaway made First Team and at 182 – while going on to compete at state – was Jimmy DuVal, making First Team.
The three Second Team members for the Whippets were Tyler Gamble in the 106-pound class, Jaden Salmieri in the 126-pound class and Ernesto Magana in the 220-pound class.
After the team earned its second-place finish in conference, which was the school’s highest in at least 10 years according to head coach John Schimming, DuVal, just a junior, would go on to finish in the top-eight at the state meet. Duval’s 42 victories this past season were also a season-high in Whitewater’s history.
