Warriors ready to hit the court with basketball season underway

By Editor | November 20, 2023 |

By Steven Spencer

Basketball season is underway and the Warriors are all warmed up for the court.
Coach Mark Hillen said with key contributors like Jaelyn Hill, Haley Schnelten and Lila Simon gone, the Lady Warriors will be looking to replace their production, but with Audrey Gillman, Kate Zipprich and Gracie Klaas returning they expect to compete for conference and regional titles.
“We have a good mix of older players and will also be giving younger players plenty of varsity minutes,” Coach Hillen said. “We have two good pieces to build our offense around in Audrey and Kate, but I think we could have three or four other girls be a leading scorer in a given night depending on how teams want to defend us. We expect to compete for a conference title this season, we expect to compete for a regional title this season, and we hope to make it past a sectional semifinal this season. We have some tough non-conference opponents who are going to test us and we also compete in one of the top 1A conferences in Illinois with the WIVC, so we will be battle tested come postseason time.”
Hillen said Gilman can play every spot on the floor with her handling skills and will be incredibly productive on offense.
“She returns after earning 1st team WIVC accolades last season,” Hillen said. “I consider Kate Zipprich one of the top centers in the WIVC and also one of the best in west central Illinois. Kate brings a tough defensive presence for other teams to deal with around the basket and has continued to expand her offensive skills. Kate also earned 1st team WIVC honors last season. Gracie Klaas was a swiss army knife for us last season, could plug her into any spot on the floor depending on what the situation dictated. This year, we are looking for Gracie to score more and help facilitate more offense.”
Coach Casey Longnecker said the boys ended up 13-20 last season, playing a lot stronger towards the end after a bit of a rough start.
“We’re returning with a big core of what we had last year, we were pretty young last year. We’re still going to be young but we have a lot more upperclassmen now, and some possible freshmen that can step in there. A lot of depth. That’s really going to help us with competing in the conference,” Longnecker said.
Longnecker said the Warriors are feeling energetic and are ready for a good season.
“Quite a few of them played football, so they’re coming off a pretty good season with second round playoffs,” he said. “They didn’t get much of a break but the energy levels at practice have been high. The expectations are pretty high and they’re looking forward to it.”
The Lady Warriors took a loss against Quincy Notre Dame, 54-29, to start off the season. Quincy closed the first and second quarter of the game strong with 12 points in the first and 19 in the second while the Warriors put up five in the first and nine in the second. Kate Zipprich led Calhoun with 14 points and 11 rebounds for the night.
The boys will play their first game of the season on Friday, Dec. 01, on the road against Staunton.