Wolverine girls bring a bevy of firepower into new season

The Nodaway Valley girls know the most successful basketball teams are ones that not only work hard, but they also stay connected with each other in many ways both on and off the court.

The Wolverines are excited to continue focusing toward that end as the season begins Tuesday, Dec. 2 with a home game against Mount Ayr. Practice started Monday, Nov. 10.

The team has a unique mix of returners, freshmen and three transfers from Orient-Macksburg that make up their roster this season.

“Our message all summer was to get connected. We’re essentially merging three groups of kids,” head coach Brian Eisbach said. “We spent the summer pushing each other in the gym. We went to Okoboji and beat a really good North Linn team. We got to the fall league [that we won] at ADM and competed really hard.”

While he wasn’t coaching that fall league, Eisbach said it was fun to see the group experience so much success on ADM’s court. The Wolverines have happened to lose two regional finals in that gym in recent memory. NV played about 15 games during the league and feel it was a main catalyst in their growth they’ve seen since beginning workouts in June.

When they won the fall league, Eisbach told the girls that while they had made mistakes, they can be corrected if the girls were willing to give good effort like that each day.

“It hasn’t been perfect, but we’re very excited about watching the kids get more cohesive offensively and defensively,” Eisbach said. “I think we’re figuring out who’s really good at what, trying to start defining roles as the season’s picking up.”

A look at the Wolverines’ roster starts by noticing that they bring back the state’s scoring leader and the state’s rebounding leader from last season.

Senior guard Izzy Eisbach, a Northwest Missouri State signee who holds program records in a lot of categories, is excited for her senior season. Emma Boswell, a senior forward who has played for Orient-Macksburg until this point, led the state in rebounding a year ago and has 1,067 rebounds for her career. That being said, her game doesn’t end with her rebounding ability.

“It’s a big deal [to bring kids in who have done those things], and it’s not lost on those two that there’s responsibility that comes with those [previous achievements]. What people forget is that Izzy broke our program’s single game and season record for assists her freshman and sophomore years. Izzy will trade points for wins,” Coach Eisbach said. “Emma’s the same way. She has good hands, is strong and able to position herself. When you have more than one kid on the floor who is willing to rebound (which we’ll have) it will make us more competitive in being able to have more possessions.”

Other seniors are Kacie Ford, Caroline Britten, Lea Stonebraker, Kynnady Van Eaton and manager Abbi Zenor.

“The interesting thing is to see the growth of your kids as they come through your program. With the exception of Lea, who moved here in middle school, I’ve coached these seniors since third grade,” Eisbach said. “For some of them, basketball’s not even on their radar for being their favorite sport, but they’ve stuck it out.”

Sophomores include Taryn Gutierrez, Kaylee Moser, Ella Boswell and Mattie Thompson.

There are no juniors on the roster.

The Wolverines could also benefit from a promising freshman class that includes Kennedy Danly, Alba Gillespie, Abby Nelson, Mylee Nelson and Chloe Ohms.

Behind Izzy Eisbach and Emma Boswell, six other returning players appeared in at least 10 games last season: Ford, Stonebraker, Gutierrez, Moser, Thompson and Ella Boswell — whether they were Wolverines or Bulldogs.

Coach Eisbach thinks his team has the ability to press the issue on other teams, whether that’s on the offensive or defensive end of the court.

“I want our team to be known for playing hard, competing their faces off on both sides of the ball,” he said. “You can press a team on defense but you can press a team on offense too. That’s exhilarating and I think it gets the crowd involved to see the kids sharing the ball and playing really hard. It’s early, but that’s one thing we’re stressing: playing a full 32 minutes as hard as you can for as long as you can.”