Hauser’s Bella Kilps drives to the basket around North Decatur’s Madelyn Bohman Jan. 23 at Hauser High School.
The Republic file photo
It will be a largely inexperienced girls basketball team that will take the floor at Hauser this year.
The Jets return two starters and only one other player who saw much varsity action from last season’s team that finished 10-12. But they do have a group of underclassmen who are eager to step into varsity roles.
“I’m really pleased with where we’re at with Year 2,” Hauser coach Kyle Shipp said. “We had quite a few invest during the fall period that weren’t playing a fall sport. The first practices now, we’ve been pleased with our progression and where we’re at moving forward.”
One of the things Shipp worked on with his team in the offseason was skill development.
“We do a lot of different things with that to make sure that kids are not only putting in the work, but seeing results,” Shipp said. “We felt like we were mentally week at times or needed to be more mentally tough. So we worked on that in the offseason. When things get hard, how do we react? We have to work on our habits every single day and keep moving forward.”
The Jets figured to have four starters coming back, but senior Kenze Bostic, who had foot surgery midway through last season, decided not to play this year, and senior Madelyn Poe, who led Hauser in scoring the past two years and played with the Jets in the summer, transferred to Columbus East just before the start of the school year.
Hauser’s Norah Berkenstock goes up for a layup against Columbus Christian Nov. 28, 2022, at Hauser High School.
The Republic file photo
Combining to replace Poe at the point will be the two returning starters — 5-foot-8 senior Bella Kilps and 5-7 junior Norah Berkenstock — along with 5-5 senior Erykah Everroad, the other varsity returner.
“We’ll have a point guard by committee,” Shipp said. “We’re going to have somebody handling the ball that hasn’t handled the ball in the past. We’re just kind of figuring that stuff out, still.”
Mattie Foster, a 5-9 senior, is back after sitting out last season. Up from the JV are 5-8 junior Willa Wetzel, 5-11 junior Haven Hartwell, 5-8 sophomore Braelyn Williams and 5-6 sophomore Chloie Phelps.
“We definitely should be playing our best basketball by the end of the season,” Shipp said. “We’re going to be learning on the fly. We had a great summer. We had a great fall.”
Hauser will open the season with a pair of home games this week — Thursday against Batesville and Saturday against South Ripley. The Jets will host an eight-team tournament Dec. 27-28.
“One of the cool things we’re doing with our schedule this year is, we’re doing a holiday tournament, which we hope becomes an annual thing,” Shipp said. “I’m pretty excited with our schedule with who we’ve picked up and the holiday tournament.”
Despite the inexperience, Hauser has some lofty goals.
“Some of the goals we always have each year is win the conference, win the sectional and everything from that point on is above and beyond. Definitely, taking to some of our current players, trying to win every game and being the best version of ourselves is definitely high on the priority list.”
The 2023-24 Hauser girls basketball schedule:
Thursday vs. Batesville, 7:30 p.m.
Saturday vs. South Ripley, 7:30 p.m.
Nov. 9 vs. Milan, 7:30 p.m.
Nov. 14 at Medora, 6 p.m.
Nov. 17 at Waldron, 7:30 p.m.
Nov. 20 at Southwestern (Shelby), 7:30 p.m.
Nov. 25 vs. Rising Sun, 1:30 p.m.
Nov. 28 vs. Columbus Christian, 7:30 p.m.
Nov. 30 at Indianapolis Lutheran, 7:30 p.m.
Dec. 2 vs. Beech Grove, 1:30 p.m.
Dec. 7 at South Decatur, 7:30 p.m.
Dec. 12 at Edinburgh, 7:30 p.m.
Dec. 14 at Switzerland County, 7:30 p.m.
Dec. 21 vs. Triton Central, 7:30 p.m.
Dec. 27 vs. Greenwood Christian in Hauser Tournament, 9 a.m.
Dec. 27-28 in Hauser Tournament, TBA
Jan. 4 vs. Greenwood Christian, 6:30 p.m.
Jan. 9 vs. Oldenburg Academy, 7:30 p.m.
Jan. 13 vs. Clarksville, 1:30 p.m.
Jan. 18 vs. Morristown, 7:30 p.m.
Jan. 23 at North Decatur, 7:30 p.m.
