The Kimberly girls basketball team successfully climbed a basketball mountain last season, capping it off by winning the WIAA Division 1 state championship.
But that was last season, and while it’s great to look back at what was, it’s also time to move on.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement“Success needs closure,” Kimberly coach Dave Lepisto said. “We got to go to all these different things on the field, and we loved the adulation. But at a certain point, you have to have that line of demarcation. Last year is last year.
“We don't discount the success because it took 26 years here before we got another state championship. We love that, but we also understand that need for closure.”
Lepisto added that while many of this year’s team members were on that squad last year, this year’s team has its own goals and its own mountain to climb in winning another state title for Kimberly.
Senior Claudia Asman said last year was a cool experience and with the number of returning players they have, she feels a repeat is quite possible.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement“We were playing in a very tough sectional last year and now a different one this year,” Asman said. “We will have different battles and challenges for the postseason, but we’re definitely capable of getting there.”
Among those battles and challenges is an imposing nonconference schedule that included a season-opening 53-49 victory over Brookfield East on Nov. 22. The Papermakers also will play Wauwatosa East, De Pere, Arrowhead, Pewaukee and Hartford outside of its challenging Fox Valley Association schedule.
“We always want to schedule hard,” Lepisto said. “We want to play the best. We don’t really care if it's home or away. We are really looking to challenge ourselves and the biggest thing, there might be some slip-ups. There might not be. We have no idea.
“Last year we had one. You can learn through wins. You can learn through losses. The best part is that it is all part of our process.”
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementHow does returning senior Emily Urban feel about that nonconference schedule?
“I think it’s really good, because I know we are going to face some of those same teams in the postseason,” she said. “It’s good to get to see them.”
The Papermakers will be replacing four seniors off last year’s team who made considerable contributions. Among them are Kate McGinnis, who averaged 14.5 points per game, and Raegan Krueger, who averaged 11.9 points per game. Both were unanimous first-team all-FVA picks last season.
“We’re going to bounce back from losing those seniors,” Urban said. “We’re still going to be pretty good. Obviously, we have different roles now. Last year we also played games without those four seniors.”
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementAsman is also aware of the roles those seniors played in the Papermakers’ success.
“We just need to come together as a team,” she said. “Offensively and defensively, we’re going to do the same thing as last year. We have some new girls who weren’t on varsity last year. It will take time, but we’re going to work with them to help us get to where we got last season.”
Kimberly's Kennedy Ebben puts up a shot against West De Pere during a nonconference girls basketball game last season in Kimberly.Given the graduation losses, what Kimberly does have coming back is a talented, athletic group of players.
Juniors Ava Van Vonderen, who was first-team all-FVA last year, and Haylie Dulas, who was second-team all-FVA, have Division I basketball offers. Urban, who was honorable-mention all-FVA last season, and junior Kennedy Ebben, who was second-team all-FVA and made the defensive team, are Division I soccer recruits. Asman will play basketball at UW-Stevens Point.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementAs for the scoring that left when McGinnis and Krueger graduated, Lepisto said he’s not worried about where those points will come from.
“It’s going to be emergent as we go on,” he said. “Kids will start to slide into that new role. We don’t know exactly how it’s going to go, but we’re starting to find out.”
Dulas scored 20 points in the opener against Brookfield East. Van Vonderen added 13 points and Urban scored 12.
“Last year we might have relied on Kate (McGinnis) to come off a stagger and hit a 30-footer. Well, we don’t have that right now,” Lepisto said. “We have other things that are really great and in some sense we’re better in other areas. The kids will figure it out. We’ll figure it out.”
This article originally appeared on Appleton Post-Crescent: Kimberly Papermakers girls basketball team eyes championship repeat
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