High school sports are usually dominated by seniors. Freshmen come in, and play Junior Varsity for two years, then are asked to step up their junior year and be team leaders their senior year. However, sometimes, a freshman comes in with talent that cannot be ignored and gets propelled to varsity in their first season.
Girls basketball coach Paul Hussmann explains how the program was able to find a new crop of players for this basketball season
“I knew a couple of them like Maddie Schaefer has been coming to our basketball camp since she was in like fourth grade. So I’ve been looking forward to coaching her but even then I didn’t know I don’t think I fully understood like her speed on the basketball court. Aziza[Hendricks] was a complete unknown like I’ve heard about her, but she I hadn’t seen her in any camps. One of the middle school PE teachers, Nancy Hussman, who used to coach with me, said ‘yeah, you got somebody coming in as the chance to be special,’” Hussmann said.
Hendricks has been impressive, starting at center for the team and leading the team in scoring with 15.5 points per game as of Jan. 4. Hussmann describes her true impact on the future of the program.
“I think we’ll be hard-pressed to find a game throughout this year where she’s not the best athlete on the floor. And beyond athleticism, she understands the game so just finish as well and get some good spots for offensive rebounding already an elite offensive rebounder, I think, as far as she works hard, I think it’s I mean, she’s still a freshman, so there’s still she still has some stuff to learn and a ton of room to grow. But the foundation is there completely. I think she she expects a lot of herself and she expects a lot of her teammates. Which is good. Like, I think hold yourself to a high standard holds your teammates to a high standard. And yeah, it’s gonna be fun,” Hussmann said.
Senior guard and team captain Ellie Sioumcas enjoys playing with Hendricks and seeing her get better week to week.
“I’ve enjoyed watching her get so much better from tryouts week to now she’s already improved a lot. And she’s just such a good athlete. It’s so fun to watch her score all the time,” Sioumcas said.
Through watching her family play, Hendricks started playing basketball at a young age and has already developed her own play style.
“I’m just getting the ball to the rim literally when I get it,” Hendricks said.
Hendricks said for this year that she hopes to win districts. She has high hopes for the future as she wants to reach 2000 points scoring and hopes to play Division I basketball in college
