Girls basketball team falls in season opener by single point, face Comets Saturday
By Dan Truttschel
Correspondent
To say the Big Foot girls basketball team tasted success last season would be an understatement.
And to say the Chiefs weren’t primed for even bigger things this year would be flat out wrong.
Now Big Foot just has to keep on moving forward – and who knows where that could take the Chiefs.
Big Foot returns its four top scorers from last season’s squad that finished 16-8 overall and fell by just one point in a WIAA Division 3 regional final.
The Chiefs’ sights certainly are set high, and it would seem with good reason.
“The brief feeling of being in the regional finals and losing by one (point) has made this team hungry for success,” Big Foot coach Rick Schoenbeck said. “They played together a lot this summer, and we should be deeper and have more experience playing together.
“They learned what it takes to win games and have put a lot of hard work in.”
Schoenbeck added the experience of playing in big games last year, added to the work the girls put in during the summer, can only help things in 2015-16.
“I am very excited at the development and progress this group of girls is making,” he said. “They are extremely smart, dedicated and bring a lot of heart and hustle to the gym each and every day.
“We have matured a lot since last year and bring back seven girls that contributed heavily last year.”
Leading the returners are senior Morgan Courier (12.2 points per game), senior Carly Snudden (3.9 rebounds), junior Olivia Briggs (7.3 points, 4.9 rebounds) and sophomores Payton Courier (9.9 points, 6.5 rebounds) and Courtney Schoenbeck (8 points, 4.2 rebounds).
Joining that core of returners are seniors Morgan Stalker and Kaiti Kelley; juniors Brooke Wellhausen and Makayla Peterson; and sophomore Zanzie Demco.
Courier, a two-time team most valuable player, is the Chiefs’ leader, Schoenbeck said.
“All the girls respect her and look up to her,” he said. “She has (an) unbelievable work ethic and hustle. She is soft spoken, but when she speaks, the team listens. She leads by example.”
Schoenbeck said he also has seen leadership from Briggs and his daughter, Courtney, early in the season.
“(They are) leading in areas such as court and drill instruction to help girls understand the game and strategies we are performing.”
Schoenbeck, who is entering his third year at the helm, has liked what he’s seen so far from his team in terms of its speed.
The Chiefs want to speed up the game – and with this group, he feels they can do just that.
“We are very fast and athletic, which leads to transition baskets on the break,” he said. “We play an aggressive defense that keeps pressure on you at all times.
“We are young, but we have experience, bringing back our entire starting lineup. Team defense will affect most teams.”
Where Big Foot needs to keep improving, as likely is the case for nearly every team, at least early in the season, is its shooting, Schoenbeck said.
That will continue to be a focus all season.
“We are long, lean and fast,” he said. “We play basketball with finesse as it was meant to be played. Teams will pack it back on us due to our speed handling the ball.
“We need to knock down open shots. Free throws cost us the regional finals last year. We will make sure that does not happen again.”
Looking at the Rock Valley Conference race, Schoenbeck said seven-time champion Brodhead returns three key players and again will be among the favorites, along with Clinton and the Chiefs.
The first target for Big Foot is that RVC title, which was last won by the Chiefs 10 years ago, Schoenbeck said.
“We have an extremely tough sectional, but we feel we can compete with those teams late in the year,” he said. “We are still very young and need to fine tune the teamwork as the season goes on and gel together.
“We can run with any team. It gets to our execution against good sound defenses that we need to learn to break them down and score.”
Chiefs fall in opener
Big Foot ventured into Division 1 territory in its season opener Tuesday night and fell just a point shy in a 58-57 non-conference road loss at Janesville Parker.
The Chiefs trailed by five at the end of the first half, but outscored the Vikings 38-32 in the second to stay within striking range.
Morgan Courier led the way with 19 points, followed by Payton Courier with 14 and Schoenbeck with nine. Olivia Briggs had a team-high six rebounds, while Schoenbeck and Payton Courier each grabbed five. Schoenbeck also led the way with five steals.
The Chiefs are back in action Saturday night with a non-conference tilt at Delavan-Darien beginning at 7 p.m.
