Winter sports season underway, competitions begin next week
Blair-Taylor girls basketball coach Jesse Lien gave his teams instructions before a drill at Monday’s practice. Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association rules allowed girls basketball teams to begin practicing on Monday of this week with games set to begin next week. (Times photograph by Andrew Dannehy)
The winter sports season is officially underway as the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association allowed for practices for girls basketball and gymnastics to begin on Monday of this week.
Perhaps the team with the most excitement entering the season is the Blair-Taylor girls basketball team, which is coming off a season in which they went 26-2 and lost in the sectional semifinal round to Bangor.
The Wildcats have a large senior class, including two players who have already amassed more than 1,000 points in their careers. With several of the players seeing action since they were freshman, B-T has gone 62-12 over the past three seasons. The team is led by Lindsay Steien and Abby Thompson who have been all-conference performers since they were freshmen.
Steien could become the area’s all-time leading scorer this season as she has 1,730 points in her career, the second most a girls basketball player from the five schools in the Times coverage area has scored, behind Lexi Wagner’s 1,914. The all-time leader for boys or girls is Steien’s father, Eric, who has scored 1,985 points. Thompson has scored 1,104 points in her career, the fourth-most in the history of the program.
The Wildcats are projected to have eight seniors and their season is set to begin this coming Tuesday when they play at New Lisbon.
Whitehall will compete against B-T in the Dairyland Conference Large Division after going 12-12 last season. The team will have a new coach as Christina Cantlon replaces Beth Lisowski, who left the district for a principal job at B-T. The Norse are projected to return several kay players as their season gets underway at Independence on Nov. 15.
That will also be the season-opener for the Indees, a team that battled through injuries last season as it went 8-15. Independence graduated four seniors from that squad, but two missed all or most of the season with injuries. Coach John Zilla is expected to return most of his key players as the team looks to rebound and compete in the DC-Small Divison.
Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau looks to replace a large senior class after going 12-14 last season. The Red Hawks went 8-4 in Coulee Conference play, but had a difficult non-conference schedule. They’ll begin their season this coming Tuesday against a Cochrane-Fountain City team that figures to compete with B-T for the top spot in the Dairyland Conference.
The Arcadia basketball program went through turmoil last season, but returns its entire roster with a new coach. Lucas Passehl resigned after going 14-28 in two seasons and will be replaced by Evan Pagel, an assistant on last year’s team. Pagel makes his varsity coaching debut next week Thursday when the Raiders host Altoona.
One state-qualifying gymnast returns in the area. Abby Miller was an all-around qualifier for the WIAA State Championship last year for Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau/Melrose-Mindoro/Cochrane-Fountain City (GMC) where she finished 20th with a score of 34.55. The Red Hawks were third in the sectional and will return Miller for her senior season and another top gymnast, Trista Thill. GMC’s season begins on Dec. 10 with an invitational in West Salem.
Arcadia struggled to fill a complete team last year as the only underclassman was Nora Bergerson, a Whitehall student who competed as part of a co-op agreement with Arcadia. Arcadia’s first competition is scheduled for Dec. 17 at Tomah.
Boys basketball and wrestling practices are permitted to begin statewide next Monday.
