(Elk Horn) Exira-EHK was one win away from the girls state basketball tournament last season.
The Spartans return a big chunk of their production from last year. While the natural tendency might be to anticipate another deep postseason run, coach Tom Petersen says ‘Not so fast.’ “I don’t think anybody is thinking that far in advance. It’s been interesting and I know it’s been the same for everybody, but you can tell by how our girls are looking in practice, they are excited to be there don’t get me wrong, but not being able to do things in the summer…just a lot of rust all over the place. You throw that in with not great numbers this year and it’s been difficult. It’s going to take some time.”
Gone from last season’s 21-2 team are Jacey Anthofer, Ellie Schultes, and Kamryn Waymire, but they have a lot of talent returning. It starts with point guard Tatum Grubbs who will be in her 4th year as a starter. “She’s done a lot of amazing things for our program. I’d like to see her have a breakout season. I think she needs to change her role and be a little bit more selfish, because she’s always looking to pass first.”
Macy Emgarten enters her junior year after averaging a team best 15.8 points per game as a sophomore. She hit 44.9% of her three pointers. Alisa Partridge, Shay Burmeister, Quinn Grubbs, and Mollie Rasmussen. However, outside of the six returning players they’ll have only one or two more on the roster. Coach Petersen was asked if that will force them to change their aggressive and fast style of play. “I don’t know. The girls are going to have to be a lot smarter. We are still young. We only have one senior…a couple of freshman are going to have to make sure they know what’s going on.”
Petersen looks for the Rolling Valley Conference to be stronger this year. He lists CAM, Woodbine, Boyer Valley, and Paton Churdan as some of the top teams. “I just feel that our conference is probably going to be the best that it’s been in quite a while.”
Exira-EHK is scheduled to open the season with Glidden-Ralston on Tuesday, December 1st.
