Sutton girls basketball has always been a family affair.
Long-time Fillie coach John Schoenberg – who started the program in 1975 – coached almost a dozen moms of future players as he led the Clay County program for 33 years. He guided them to the state tournament 14 times including the 1991 Class C-1 state title.
Now one of his former players is upholding the tradition. And, third-year Sutton coach Monica Smith doesn’t take her job lightly. She played on Schoneberg’s last state final team in 2003.
“It’s an honor,” Smith said, to coach the Sutton girls team, “and it’s a bonus. Not many places have the tradition we have so that really helps our program. Having played in the program, I have the same basic philosophy on basketball as we’ve had here for a long time and we have athletes that fit that philosophy.”
Smith, the former Monica VanKirk, is the oldest of six who all went to school in Sutton. Her four sisters — Rachel, Liz, Jamie and Maria — all played in the program and went on to play at Hastings College. Liz was the rebel, playing volleyball for Broncos. Her younger brother Casey is a freshman on the Mustang boys team this year.
Smith took the program over in 2013 and the Fillies advanced to the state tournament before losing in the first round to Hastings St. Cecilia. Last year, they lost to the Bluehawks again in the district final. Both times, HSC lost to Crofton in the finals. This year, they open sub-district play tonight against Tri-County with a 19-4 record.
But, adversity struck early in the season as the Fillies lost point guard Kailyn Wiseman to a season-ending knee injury after just four games. She had averaged 11.3 points and three rebounds.
“I don’t think you ever know what to expect coming into a season,” Smith said. “But, we had pretty high expectations and had played really well together in the summer. When, Kailyn went down we had to kind of start all over.”
And, they did with senior Delaney Lemkau stepping into the point guard role full time.
“We mostly had to change what we did with Delaney,” Smith said. “With Kailyn our goal was to play both off them at point guard and off guard. But, Delaney has had to play point guard for us most of the game now. She’s done a great job for us.”
The Fillies have gone inside for scoring. Savannah Schurman leads the team in scoring at 11.8 points per game and she also brings down a team high 6.1 rebounds. McKenna Griess joins her inside with 8.9 points and 5.1 rebounds per game averages.
“Savannah and McKenna do a nice job for us inside,” Smith said. “Savannah is our leading scorer and a good post defender. At 6-feet, McKenna is a tough matchup because we can move her outside and play her on the wing a little bit.”
Teara Ramer (5.4 points, 2.6 assists) and Alexa Johnson (3.6 points, 4.5 rebounds) join Lemkau as the other starters. Lemkau averages 7.2 points, 3.6 assists and 3.1 rebounds per contest. In showing there flexibility, Lemkau didn’t score in Sutton’s 41-27 win over Superior in the Southern Nebraska Conference championship game 10 days ago. Greiss had 17 points and Ramer had 12.
“It seems like every game we’ll have two or three players step up and take control of the game,” Smith said. “And it’s usually any one of our 6-8 girls that play. We’ve had someone step up in just about every game this year.”
The Fillies four losses have all come to ranked teams — Superior in the opener, Class C-1 No. 2 Lincoln Christian, No. 4 Freeman and Class B No. 5 York — but Sutton is playing well when it counts as they are 13-1 since the calendar changed to 2015. Smith, who was also an assistant for Schoneberg, hopes the solid play means a return to Lincoln.
“We’d like to get back there,” she said. “I think a few years ago, we had some seasons that weren’t quite up to the standards we have in Sutton. We feel like we have it back on track now.”
Let’s Rewind
Another fun day at the Heartland Hoops Classic
South could gain confidence from Oak Hill game
Final regular season boys rankings
