A new era of Jackson girls basketball had dawned.
The three seniors who led the Timberwolves to three straight state tournament appearances — Kristi Kingma, Ashly Bruns and Ashley Todd — graduated, leaving a huge hole in the Wolfpack’s starting lineup.
The process of filling those roles started last month as the Timberwolves participated in the HoopTime spring league at Arlington High School.
Junior-to-be Chanel Sam, who along with junior-to-be Erin Feeney are the lone returning starters, realizes that the Wolfpack have a lot of work ahead if they want to maintain the level of excellence the past three years.
“It’s going to be hard,” Sam said. “With (Kingma, Bruns and Todd) gone we’re going to have to depend on other people. Other people are going to have to step up to the plate.”
So far they have, according to Jackson coach Jeannie Thompson, noting that the Wolfpack went 7-3 in the league. The younger players have a lot of raw talent but will need some seasoning.
“The kids are really smart players, but it’s just going to be getting that varsity game time experience,” Thompson said. “I think overall we’re going to do pretty well.”
Feeney stepped up her game during the summer league, she added. “Between her and Chanel I think we’ve got a strong backbone returning.”
The bulk of next year’s team will be juniors and sophomores. Other players with some varsity experience include junior center/forward Kallie Bylsma, sophomore center/forward Leigh-Ann Haataja and junior guard Shalena Guzman.
The rest of the roster will be filled out by players moving up from the junior varsity team. The level of talent among those players is high.
“They’re just really solid,” Thompson said. “They’re kind of going to be the unknown kids that are coming in that teams won’t really know to watch for. But they’re going to be able to step up and hit some big shots.”
Haataja swung between the junior varsity and varsity toward the end last season. At 6-foot-1, Haataja will give Jackson good height, which the Wolfpack lacked last season.
“She’s very long armed,” Thompson said. “She’s very raw still. We’re working on the fundamentals, athleticism and running the court. At least we’ll have somebody over six feet that’s athletic.”
Though it’s very early in the process, Jackson may end up having a deeper bench because of the number of talented underclassmen, though no superstars have emerged as of yet.
“There’s nobody that you’d look and say ‘this is a future Kristi Kingma,’” Thompson said. “There’s nothing like that right now. They’re just all hard-working kids that are basketball savvy and that’s where I think they’re going to have their biggest contribution … they’re so many of them.”
Thompson and her coaching staff are paying close attention.
“It’s going to be hard for us forming our teams just because there’s a lot of kids that are competing for those positions for varsity right now,” Thompson said. “We’re excited. We’ve got a good group of kids. They’re working really hard. I’m just proud of how well we competed just throwing them together in the spring.”
Toward the end of last season, Sam spent some extra time with Kingma and Bruns in anticipation of her larger role on the team.
“As a team, they (seniors) taught us to work together and just keep a lookout for each other,” Sam said.
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