By Chris Parker
Marion C. Early girls basketball has high expectations entering the 2023-24 campaign with six returning players including five who tallied between 5.6 and 16.1 points per game last season.
“I have a good feeling about this season,” MCE head coach Dustin Gerleman said. “We have a good core returning with lots of potential. We will have size and speed on both ends of the floor and we will hopefully make a postseason run.”
Senior Taylor Blehm leads the returning players after she averaged 16.1 points, 6.7 rebounds, 1.7 steals and 1.4 assists per game last season.
“Taylor is one of our three senior leaders for this season,” Gerleman said. “She is a post player who can play inside and step out and hit the three. We are looking for her to continue being a leader for us this season.”
Fellow seniors Haily Presley and Maggie Painter each averaged a matching 7.1 points per game last season.
“Hailey is another senior who we are looking for big things from this season. She plays hard and has a knack for deflections and steals. Hailey is one of our best on ball defenders,” Gerleman said. “Maggie is another senior and runs the point guard position for us. She does a great job handling the ball and has good vision. Maggie is a great defender and led our team in steals last year.”
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Junior Lilly Thompson is a double-double threat every time she plays coming off a sophomore season where she averaged 8.1 points and 8.9 rebounds per game.
“(Thompson) is a tall athletic post player and a great rebounder,” Gerleman said. “We are looking for her to continue to improve around the rim this season.”
Macie Letterman returns for her junior season after averaging 5.6 points per game last year.
“Macie is a great shooter for us,” Gerleman said. “She missed 10 games due to a knee injury, but still led our team in 3-pointers made with 27 last season.”
Miya Bess rounds out the returning players. She enters her junior year coming off a season where she contributed 1.4 points and 2.7 rebounds per game.
“Miya also saw a lot of minutes as a sophomore,” Gerleman said. “She is a standout cross country runner and plays with lots of energy on the defensive end.”
Jenna McMillen (sophomore), Ryacie Maggard (sophomore), Ireland Foster (freshman), McKenna McLean (freshman) and Haven Hart (freshman) will all be newcomers to watch as they learn from the experienced players MCE returns.
“One of our biggest strengths this year is having upperclassmen,” Gerelman said. “These kids have played a lot of ball together and we are excited to see what happens. I feel like we have a good balance of size and speed this year as well.”
MCE opens the season Nov. 20 at Diamond.
