Lady Crusaders will be young again this winter

FORT MADISON - Shawn Hopper knows plenty about the Holy Trinity girls basketball team, but there is still one thing he doesn’t know — how the Crusaders will do against an opponent.
“Ask me after (Monday) night,” the coach said on Sunday.
Holy Trinity opens the season at WACO on Monday — weather permitting — and while Hopper knows something about the players on his roster, he would have liked to have seen how it all fit before the season started. Saturday’s snowstorm, though, wiped out a scheduled scrimmage against Fort Madison.
“They’re a good team, they’ve got a lot of players back, and it would have been a chance to see how we did against different competition,” Hopper said.
Instead, they’ll play a WACO team that already has played a game this season, a 49-46 loss to Wapello.
“Plus they’ve played a couple of scrimmages, and the game is there, so we’re at a little bit of a disadvantage (on Monday),” Hopper said.
Hopper did know before the season started that he would have to replace two key seniors, Teagan Snaadt and Anna Bendlage. Snaadt was the Crusaders’ leader in scoring, assists and steals last season, while Bendlage, a four-year varsity player, was a captain and a vocal leader.
“They meant so much to us,” Hopper said.
Izzy Behne, who played in 22 games last season, is the lone senior for the Crusaders, which means this is a young team that is going to have to gain experience in December.
“People say, ‘Well, you only lose two seniors,’” Hopper said. “But we’re going to be filling those spots with freshmen. We’ve got some good kids returning, but we have some newcomers. So we’re going to be a little bit young.”
Hopper does bring back Adalyn Kruse and Elizabeth Griffin, who were second and third on the team in scoring, respectively, last season.

Kruse averaged 9.8 points and a team-high 9.4 rebounds last season. Griffin, who tied for the team lead in 3-pointers with Snaadt with 33 last season, will take Snaadt’s position at point guard.
“Adalyn averaged almost a double-double last season, so we expect she can equal those numbers, and maybe score a little bit more this season,” Hopper said. “Elizabeth played the ‘2’ guard spot last year, but she can handle the ‘1.’
Sophomore Olivia Bendlage, who started 20 games last season and averaged 5.7 points and 4.6 rebounds, also returns.
“She’s one of the more aggressive players on the court for us,” Hopper said. “When you mix that enthusiasm for playing the game hard with having some pretty good basketball DNA, good things generally happen.”
Behne played in 22 games last season, making three starts.
“She’s looked really good in practice, too,” Hopper said. “Just more confident, and a little bit more of a leader this year.”
Sophomore Morgan Krogmeier, who played in 16 games, will see more time this year and likely will be in the starting lineup.
“She looks a lot more confident,” Hopper said. “Last year, she was a freshman, kind of being forced into minutes, when, realistically, in the other years, she should have been playing JV, but she responded well, and she works hard and has a great attitude.”
Finding the rest of the rotation, though, will take some time.
“We’re going to be playing quite a few freshmen,” Hopper said. “Some of these kids would be playing junior varsity in other years, but they’re going to have to learn at the varsity level. There’s a big difference being a freshman and going against juniors and seniors, and they’ll have to learn from that.”
It is something Hopper will have to deal with, especially early in the season.
“You’re trying to build and make something, and that’s going to have to outweigh the fact that I don’t like to lose,” he said. “We know there will be some struggles early, but we want to be playing our best by the time we get into mid-January and into the postseason.”