The gang is back together on experienced Hawk team

This season’s edition of Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn girls basketball is out to prove that familiarity breeds success.
“Our biggest strength is our teamwork,” offered Ashley Tessum, who is starting her second year as head coach. “Our team has been playing together for years, with most of the team playing at the varsity level since they were freshmen. The team is very game smart, and since they have been playing together so long, their communication (both spoken and unspoken) is at an all-time high.”
All five starters return from last year’s 13-9 team which finished fifth in the War Eagle Conference with a 6-4 mark. Abby Douma, Gracie Knobloch, Frankie Mohni and Kylee Schiphoff are seniors while Moriah Otto is a junior. The Hawks bring back four additional letter winners in seniors Addy Sheeler and Eliza Tewes and juniors Hannah Tessum and Lindsey Van Es.

There are always things that can be improved upon, however, no matter the experience level. “I believe our greatest improvement is our shooting percentage,” said the Hawk coach. “It took us about a month to get to where we wanted to be for shooting percentage last season, but I feel we’ve already hit and exceeded this mark for this season. I also feel our defense is strong, and we are really moving quickly on our feet. I hope this will help us cause more turnovers this year.”
Limiting turnovers of your own is also a good thing and that has been a point of emphasis in the leadup to the season. “Our biggest area in need of improvement is turnovers,” noted Tessum. “We have been working on this during practice.”
There has been more afoot during practices. “We are also incorporating some new offenses and a new defense this year, so we’re anxious for our first couple of games before Thanksgiving break to try them out,” stated the coach. “These games will help us know what we need to work on and fix before heading into our conference games the following week.”
The 13 wins last year were the most for the Hawks since the 16-win season of 2016-17. Tessum spoke on the motivation provided by the recent success saying, “I have a big group of very talented seniors this year who have worked hard over their high school careers to get to where they are now. They saw what their hard work got them last year, and that success only made them dream bigger and want more. The juniors are also an important part of last year’s success, and the whole team knows the possibilities are endless if we continue to work together as a team.”
Tessum, who is being assisted this year by Korey Ebel, was asked to forecast the best teams in this season’s War Eagle Conference race and assess the strength of the Hawks’ overall schedule. “I believe Hinton and Remsen St. Mary’s will continue to be leaders in the conference, but our goal is to move up right behind them, or better yet pass them, in the rankings this year,” responded Tessum. “We always go into each game as prepared as possible, and never with the mindset that it will be an easy win for us. Each team we compete against has their strengths, and we know we have to battle until the last second in every game, no matter what the score.”
In defining what would qualify as success, Tessum did not mention wins and losses. Said the coach, “A successful season for HMS girls basketball would be one that all athletes experience growth in the sport, both mentally and physically. It would also mean we accomplished our goals of decreasing our turnovers and increasing our rebounds due to boxing out more.”