(Oakland, IA) – With the conclusion of the high school basketball season, Riverside girl’s basketball Head Coach Mitch Rice has officially announced that he is stepping down as the head coach of the Bulldogs. Through four fun seasons as the head coach, Rice has seen his girls break program records including allowing the least amount of points to opponents this season while earning 11 victories. This season marked the best for Riverside girl’s basketball in over 10 years.
The Bulldogs featured a very young squad with juniors Sophia Taylor and Elly Henderson leading the way on the stat sheet. Taylor averaged 7.0 points and 2.5 rebounds per game while Henderson averaged 6.9 points and 4.1 steals per game this season. With so much talent on this young team, every player has a chance to shoot their shot next season.
Riverside featured two Western Iowa Conference honorees Sydney Somers and Adeline Martens. Somers earned Second-Team All-Conference honors averaging 6.7 points and 4.0 rebounds per game this season as a freshman. Martens was named as an honorable mention while shooting a team-high 46.8% from the field while putting down 4.9 points per game. With these two talented young athletes, Riverside has so much potential to be at the top of the Western Iowa Conference in the coming season.
Coach Rice will now dive in to help behind the scenes and at the forefront of the growing Bulldog golf program for the future of Riverside athletics. His decision goes towards putting more time to be with his family and to watch the program continue to take off on the sidelines. While he will be heading to the sidelines, the girls will be headed to a new era of Bulldog basketball.
Rice thanks the community for all the support that he received throughout his four years at the helm of the girl’s program. Riverside finished the season with an 11-11 record and 5-8 in conference play. Many Bulldogs and Rice will now focus on the upcoming spring sports season.
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