Wow. Here we go! Was at St. Kate's last night to catch their second practice of the season. And, right off the bat, I was struck with what an incredibly different team this is this year. Laura Kalbfell and Sonja Ellingson have moved on and only four players from last year's team return - senior Megan Zillmer, junior Adele Simerson-Wallfred, and sophomores Madison Pertler and Kristen Lee. The rest of the bunch - ALL newcomers but some of these newcomers have and show a LOT of promise and there's reason for hope and optimism at St. Kate's in the coming years. Also, Head Coach Gary Rufsvold has two new assistant coaches as well - John Motherwell who came to St. Kate's from UND where he was the recruiting coordinator there and former Wildcat standout post player Molly Peterson who finished her career at St. Kate's in 2010 - both excellent additions, IMHO.
Ironically, as some of the players were just arriving for practice, I spent about 15-20 minutes rebounding for one of the newcomers - FY player Sarina Baker who hails from suburban Plymouth and was an integral part of the Minnehaha Academy program in their last two state tournmemt appearances - which was fun. Once practice got underway, there were the usual running drills that the team started out with to help get loosened up. Then there were some of the basic drills performed that included doing layups and short jumpers. Also, there was an interesting drill that consisted of short, compact passing that included and emphasis on bounce passes - something that would make former Iowa Head Basketball Coach Tom Davis proud!
Then, things moved into a one-on-one type of drill where a player or players are at the top of the key or arc where the emphasis is good positioning for the defender. Then the team broke into different groups where each group did something different (dribbling between legs, around legs [very tough], dribbling across the floor while the defender had to stay with her with hands behind her back). Another neat little drill the team did was where they have four players positioned around the perimeter to promote awareness with the ball. The drill was then enhanced with defenders where the emphasis was to encourage good clean passes. Then the team broke into groups again where each group had one shooter and rebounder - plus a spare to feed the ball to the shooter which was neat to watch; it's interesting to see how efficient they can be to give each shooter several opportunites to put up the rock.
Then things evolved into having five players in a mock full-court drill with cones set up (two on each side of the court) that forces one player coming up the court to go very wide which encourages crisp, accurate passing. This same drill was then enhanced with clock usage to see how many points could be scored by each group in a 45-second span. The last drill was the real McCoy - 5-on-5 with each group getting a four-minute span to see what they could do.
So, what will this team be like this next season? While Rufsvold concedes that this is by all accounts a very young, inexperienced team, I think this is a squad that will be very competitive once they gain some confidence and get some practical game experience. The biggest challenge facing Rufsvold and his two assistants is getting everybody on the same page and developing some real team chemistry which is obviously a challenge when you have so many newcomers. IMHO, senior Megan Zillmer is going to have to grab the reins that were left by Kalbfell and Ellingson and become a true leader of this team - on and off the court and Rufsvold (and yours truly as well) thinks she has more than the ability to do so. Adele Simerson-Wallfred is really going to have to step it up a few notches this season as well and show what she's capable of . Kristen Lee has already shown what a deadly outside shooter she can be and presumably Madison Pertler is going to get more and more into the mix as well.
But these newcomers that Rufsvold has brought in are exciting to say the least. The one that REALLY caught my attention was Jule Muegge out of Carmel, CA (originally from suburban Hopkins) who is the real deal. She was on the German National team this last summer and her ability, skills and natural athleticism were apparent from the get go. Without question she is only going to get better as her career at St. Kate's progresses and she can be a potential MIAC MVP down the road as well - she's THAT good. Also grabbing my attention was Tiffani Pak who hails from San Francisco, CA and this girl; only 5'2", is just fast and quick and trying to guard her will be a lot like trying to guard smoke. Don't be fooled be her diminutive size; she can sneak in there and mix it up with the bigger girls as well. There's some others that I'll be interested in watching come along as well - 6'0" Sarah Mong from Page Arizona and 6'2" Kerrick Sarbacker (who is actually a sophomore as she spent one year at MCTC before that spineless institution unmercifully and wrongly trashed its two basketball programs). All in all, this group is going to be on that you'll want to keep a keen eye on.
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