After a state tournament run last winter, the West De Pere girls basketball team enters a new era– and a new conference– with a young roster and plenty to prove.
The Phantoms, who reached the WIAA Division 2 state semifinals last season, move from the Bay Conference into the Fox River Classic Conference this year after graduating nearly all of their top contributors.
West De Pere lost a full starting lineup’s worth of production: Faith Walder (19.8 ppg, now at Northern Michigan), Ella Francois (12.1 ppg, UW-Oshkosh), Madisyn Berggren (12.8 ppg, UW-River Falls), Ava VanEss (5.9 ppg), and Mia Racine (5.8 ppg, UW-Stevens Point).
Nearly every major statistical category leaves with them.
Despite that, the Phantoms aren’t approaching the season like a rebuild. Senior Alexa Rattray, the team’s most experienced returner, said the group is embracing the chance to surprise people.
“I feel like we are a really young team, nobody’s really experienced, and I feel like we’re just playing together and having fun,” Rattray said. “I feel like we are getting doubted a lot, so we are trying to prove we are better than people think we are. We are going to make it far.”
Rattray said several teammates are already standing out.
“Molly Walder is a really good athlete, and Cassidy Baciak, she’s short, but she can rebound, and she is just a hustle player all around,” she said. “We can get up and down the floor really fast, and beat teams that way, and our shooting has been really good.”
Head coach Chris Abaray said even though the Phantoms lost so much varsity production, last year’s younger players were more prepared than people might expect.
“I think we have a unique team,” Abaray said. “We lost a lot of girls, but we also always felt like we had a second unit that was pretty much almost right there with our first team. These girls are coming in kind of fresh, but they are also eager to get going.”
He added that the newcomers have had a strong start to the year.
“We’re excited for them to get the opportunity because a lot of them had to wait their turn behind a group that was playing from their freshman year on,” he said. “They are very energized… we’ve had an amazing first week of practice.”
Abaray said several players are stepping into sizeable roles: Rattray, Baciak, Clara Hoffman, Molly Walder, Makenna Runke, Aubrey Doyen, Allie Henry, Ella Cutler, and Emma Radloff, who is returning from injury.
The team also brought up multiple freshmen who are competing for rotation minutes.
Defensively, Abaray expects the Phantoms to lean on physicality.
“This group has the ability to naturally fall into that more physical defensive team,” he said. “Obviously something I am worried about is fouls, playing a physical brand of defense, but they are really bought into that– being physical.”
He also noted team chemistry as one of their biggest strengths.
“These girls have known each other for a long time,” Abaray said. “Even the new girls… they are fitting right in. Even though they haven’t logged a lot of minutes, they’ve been varsity players for a couple years just sitting and waiting. They know what we are expecting.”
As for the jump to the FRCC, Abaray said early season patience will be key.
“Being in the FRCC, our goals are obviously to learn new teams and new programs, figure out what they are about. We’ve played most of these teams, but some of these teams we don’t see very often. We have lofty expectations for the post season, but we know there are going to be some growing pains to get to that point, so I think not panicking if things don’t work well early,” He said. “As long as January and February roll around and we feel good about where we are, this team can make a run.”
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