G-E-T girls basketball readies for reset season after losing eight seniors

The starting five – along with most of the roster – for the Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau High School girls basketball team will look a lot different this winter.

The new look Red Hawks were readying for their season opener on Tuesday as they hosted Cochrane-Fountain City. Coach Louis Hurd’s team graduated the reigning Coulee Conference player of the year in point guard Lindsey Lentz and seven of its top nine scorers from a 2021-22 season that ended in a regional playoff loss.

Now, it’s time to focus on building from within and getting playing time for a largely inexperienced team that lost about 95 percent of its scoring, Hurd said.

“We’re learning a lot on the fly. We’re putting a lot of kids in spots that don’t have a lot of experience yet, and there’s just going to be learning curves. There’s going to be bumps in the road.”

Last year ended with a 12-14 record for G-E-T with an impressive 8-4 run in the conference, good for a third place finish.

The team will have to learn the communication part of the game, especially for set plays and quick attacks, Hurd said. Leading the charge will be the few returners who did play some last season in seniors Shayna Kirkey and Caydence Kokott.

Kirkey will work the floor as the point guard for the Red Hawks after battling a leg injury for most of last season, and Kokott returns as a post player who saw time off the bench a year ago.

Nevaeh Becker is a senior who figures to play more this season as well, and she has excelled at the JV level, Hurd said.

“We expect some big things out of her, especially on the offensive end,” he said. “She can really shoot it.”

Cadence Simmons could step up for G-E-T as a junior who saw limited time in 2022-23. She has some shooting touch, and her coach thinks she could surprise teams if she continues to develop a physical and aggressive gameplay, particularly on defense.

The Coulee Conference will be no easy path with defending champion West Salem as one of the better area teams. Westby will be strong and big again this season, Hurd thinks, and he expects a better year from Arcadia, too.

That means the focus will be on improving every day and taking advantage of learning opportunities whenever they present themselves. Hurd said his team has a good attitude, and he expects them to fight through the season when it opens this week.

“We’re obviously not the same team that we were last year but we hope to compete, we hope to give teams good games, be in every game and just kind of let things fall where they may.”