New Northeast Nodaway coach Vance Profitt told his players last Tuesday night that he saw a lot of positive signs despite a 42-32 loss to Nodaway-Holt in girls action at Summer Jam. He said that he was proud of the way that they played evenly with the Trojans even with Megan Rosenbohm out on the floor for Nodaway-Holt in the second half.
Michelle Schulte returns for her senior year; the Bluejays were way behind until the tiny but deadly version of the Schulte family made one of her game-changing plays when she knocked a defender backwards about 10 feet and got the layup midway through the first half after Nodaway-Holt had opened the game with a 15-3 run and had continued to pull away. That seemed to snap the team out of their stupor as they played evenly with Nodaway-Holt the rest of the way. Michelle would go on to score 14 points for the night; she had another play where she muscled her way up against a much taller girl after grabbing an offensive board and getting on the line; she had another highlight film play in she squeezed through gaps that only she could have and got to the rim for a layup. Besides Michelle, the rest of the scoring was really spread out with several people getting into the scoring column.
Rachel Runde is the other senior on the squad; provided ballhandling as well as one play where she muscled her way over a defender and her shot bounced several times off the rim before rolling in.
The lone junior on the squad, Kristan Judd, has a freshman sister in Bailey who is taller and just as physical than Kristan; the Judd Squad routinely got into wrestling matches with the Trojan players for rebounds and Bailey added some rejections as well. Kristan had a nice step-through move for her part.
Northeast figures to be one of the most physical teams in the area this year as their two smallest players in Michelle Schulte and Rachel Runde back down from nobody; Michelle even jumped center against one of Stanberry's six-footers last year. Together with the Judd sisters and the fierce sophomore Taryn Farnan, who earned some playing time towards the tail end of her freshman year, they will be difficult for anyone to play against win or lose. Farnan is the sister of Bryce Farnan, one of the dominant post players in the area on the boys side last year. Vance Profitt's teams at North Nodaway were always scrappy and even handed Stanberry a surprise loss in another game Tuesday night, so the new coach will have a lot to work with.
The Bluejays have a strong sophomore base. Two years ago, during their 8th grade year, this bunch lost many of their initial games but then fought back and beat some of the teams that had beaten them earlier in the year and won six out of their last seven games to finish with a winning record. This bunch could do a lot of damage towards the end of the year; they knew despite the loss that there were a lot of good things out there and a lot to look forward to. Besides Farnan, Sarah Bliley looks like a candidate to break out as she calmly knocked down a couple of outside shots; she is one of the most improved players from last winter. Claudia Wiederholt and Kerrigan Adwell could develop into ball-handlers while Claudia is working on an outside shot.
Of the freshmen, Brianna Riley showed the most promise as she knocked down an outside shot; she is a gunslinger and a forward who is not afraid to be physical. Kristen Wiederholt and Kacey Wiederholt also played hard as well.
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