Bulldogs hope to be competitive in 2015-16

BOYCEVILLE — With just 17 girls finding their way to the high school gym to start practice November 9, Boyceville basketball coach Jolene Bird knows team depth may be a problem this year. After finishing 10-13 a year ago and 6-8 in Dunn-St. Croix Conference play for fifth place, the Bulldogs will have to replace some big scorers from that team if they want to be competitive this season.

Gone via graduation are All Conference players Abbey Bird and Alexa Peterson along with Shyanne Marlett. Bird struggled with injuries last season while Peterson was third in scoring and Marlett fourth for the Bulldogs. Returning letter winners include a pair of seniors, Marki Lagerstrom and Jenna Beyrer along with juniors Morgan Kuhn, Emma Harnisch, Cassie Malean, Madysn Riek and Brooklyn Booth. Malean was the leading scorer for the team with a 7.3 ppg average and was second in steals, Kuhn averaged 7.2 ppg which was second for the team and Riek was the leading rebounder. Players looking to fill out the varsity are juniors Brooklyn Hellmann (who missed last season with a torn ACL), Carlee Schultz and Mya Dryden as well as sophomores Marissa Dormanen and Kylie Krueger. Freshmen include Amber Retzloff, Alyx Bloom, Hope Hendrix, Betty Swanepoel and Jordan Terry.

Bird begins her 19th season leading the Bulldogs and has an overall record of 255-149. With the new WIAA format of playing two 18 minute halves as opposed to the four-eight minute quarters starting this season, she believes the teams with the most depth will have an advantage.

“Playing four extra minutes a game with less timeouts means we will have to work hard to play solid defense and stay out of foul trouble,” she said.”We don’t have a lot of players between junior varsity and varsity so the extra minutes could be difficult for us. Our goal is always to be competitive with every team we face and I think our strong core of upperclassmen will help us do that,” she added.

Bird looks for Elk Mound to be the team to beat at the conference level since they have a large group of returning letter winners from a team that was second in the conference last year, and Durand, who is new to the conference should also be competitive, Boyceville begins their season at home November 20 against Turtle Lake.