Angie Cina De Soto girls basketball has 'high hopes' for season
De Soto's girls basketball coach has high hopes for the squad.
"We have high hopes for this young squad with four returning starters and one part-time starter returning," said Dale Piurkowski. "We tied for third place in conference with Ithaca and look to improve on that. We only had one senior last year that was a part-time starter due to injury. We started three freshman, one sophomore and one junior part time, so basically have all our starters back. The experience the freshmen got was invaluable. We have a senior, Shawnna Hackenson, who joined the team along with freshman Brynn Venner who both should see a lot of minutes."
De Soto's top returning players are: Sophomore Kylee Venner 20.4 PPG. 11.2 RPG. 3.2 APG. 2.7 SPG. 2.1 BPG, first team all-conference Ridge & Valley and honorable mention all-Tribune team; sophomore Sylvia Krueger second team all-conference Ridge & Valley, 9.1 PPG. 9.2RPG. 2.1BPG; junior Ella Koch honorable mention Ridge & Valley, 9.0 PPG. 2.5 APG; sophomore Makenna Gilman 5.0 PPG. 5.3 RPG. 2.3 SPG; and senior Sascha Doll 3.0 PPG. 3.6 RPG.
People are also reading... 'Pink Palace' set for demo as La Crosse plans Haven on Main Marineland to close; Tomah adds 2 businesses -- Steve Cahalan How UW-La Crosse women's basketball coach Moran Lonning is navigating life after a tragic loss Onalaska woman charged with felony DUI after traffic crash A Wisconsin ice angler drove a Jeep across thin ice. It ended as you'd expect La Crosse man accused of large child porn stash Vicki Markussen announces second bid to become La Crosse mayor Woman arrested in La Crosse for possession of methamphetamine Act 10 has been overturned. What happens next? Man arrested for 4th OWI after vehicle found in ditch near Holmen School district office move to cost $1M to make way for new elementary Texas men arrested for attempting to break into Holmen post office La Crosse motorcycle theft leads to felony charge Mike Hayes, longtime WIZM morning radio voice, dies at 70 2 die when SUV crosses I-94 median near Tomah, crashes into 2 semis
The Pirates lost lost one part-time starter to graduation -- Sophia Obert 3 ppg. 3 rpg. and 1 asp., who was also a lock-down defender.
The team's record last season was 12 wins and 11 losses. "After a two wins and 23 losses in the 2022-2023 season to 12 wins and 11 losses last year and able to host a playoff game was instrumental for our program," he said.
"Our motto is 'never take a play off '," Piurkowski said. "The goals put forth are to 'practice hard by giving 100% and want to always wanting to improve' and the winning will come!"
The coach said the team's strengths are the ability to play at a fast pace and "hopefully put some pressure on the opposing offense." "Our weaknesses will be our lack of size and numbers of players on our team. With a total of seven girls they will have to play a lot of minutes so being in shape is a must. Our biggest challenge will be to stay healthy so we can field a team for every game. Last year we had to go to La Farge with only five players."
Piurkowski said he expects Kickapoo and Wauzeka to be at the top of the list of contenders for the conference title, along with Ithaca. "We will hopefully push those teams to be in the mix!"
Assistant coaches include Connie Klein, Camryn Venner, Amanda Murphy and Ashlie Lockington. Piurkowski is in his third year as girls varsity coach, previous four years as JV girls coach at De Soto and prior to that five years as middle school coach for girls and boys.
Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0
Be the first to know
Get local news delivered to your inbox!
Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Angie Cina
Vernon County Times editor
Author email Follow Angie Cina Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily! Your notification has been saved. There was a problem saving your notification.
{{description}}
Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items.
Save Manage followed notifications Close Followed notifications Please log in to use this feature Log In Don't have an account? Sign Up Today