Huntley Girls Gear Up For Valley Division Battles

A quick glance at the standings and one might conclude that the  girls varsity basketball team (3-0 in Valley Division of the Fox Valley Conference, 8-4 overall) is picking up where they left off last season, when they captured their fourth regional title in five years and fifth in the program’s history. In a way they are. But watch the Red Raiders in person and you’ll see different faces from a year ago, as the team graduated seven of its top players including the starting five.

“In my 13 years here I don’t think we’ve ever had a situation where we lost our starting five and then our top two reserve players,” said Red Raiders head coach Steve Raethz. “We lost just about 95 percent of our scoring from last season, so from that aspect it was a very unique situation.”

Starting this season for the Red Raiders are senior forward Kayla Linthicum, senior forward Abbey Shaw, senior guard Alex Weidner and junior guard/forward Haley Ream.

“Haley Ream has played really solid for us,” Raethz said. “She’s somebody who, at 5-10, can handle the ball and play the point guard position. She’s also somebody we can move down low and play the post. It’s rare to have a player like that, and it’s a nice luxury to have. Also, Abbey Shaw has been providing us a nice lift at the post spot.”

Ream and Shaw each is averaging 9 points a game.

Completing the starting squad is 5-foot-10 sophomore forward Sam Andrews, who is averaging 13 points a game, with senior guard Kristina Stolzman and senior forward Kelsey Seitz also in the rotation.

“Even though a lot of these kids were on the varsity team last year, not many of them saw varsity play in terms of extended minutes in varsity games,” said Raethz, who cited Ream and Shaw as having the most experience.

So far the Red Raiders are off to a solid start, winning their first three Valley Division games before falling to rival Prairie Ridge 39-34 in a nonconference match during the Mundelein Holiday Classic Tournament on Monday night. In the defeat, Andrews scored a team-high 8 points for the Red Raiders, who earlier this month had defeated the Wolves 41-31 at home. Huntley will square off against Prairie Ridge (1-3, 4-4) one more time in January.

“Getting off to a great start from a conference standpoint has been a real positive for us as we head into the winter break and the New Year when a majority of the conference games will be played,” Raethz said.

Just where those conference games will be played could have a positive effect on the Red Raiders as well. After opening the New Year at Dundee-Crown, five of the team’s next seven games are at home.

“What’s interesting about the conference schedule this year is that there’s a lot of parity,” Raethz said. “I think it’s going to be a wide-open race down the stretch, and you can’t afford to take any team for granted on any given night. That’s no cliché this year.”

For the Red Raiders to make a run at the postseason, Raethz says the team needs more cohesion and consistency on offense.

“There are times when we tend to break down or make some silly turnovers where we don’t give ourselves the opportunities that we need on the offensive end,” he said.

The Red Raider defense has been the team’s strong suit.

“This year, our group really is reliant on solid team defense,” Raethz said. “Last year, I think we relied a lot more on our scoring and outside shooting, and that’s not to say we didn’t defend well, because we did. But every team is different each season, and the one constant in the program during my 13 years here has been our effort on the defensive end. That’s always been our calling card and it’s something that’s expected of our players. But this group has just been playing really well together. They do little things to put themselves in position to win. We may not put up a lot of points, but at the same time we’re limiting our opponents’ points. So far it’s worked out.”