Blazers headed to Hope College for team camp earlier this week.
By Mike Miazga
Correspondent
The Addison Trail girls basketball team gained some valuable experience this summer.
The Blazers played in 32 summer games. Addison Trail hosted three tournaments that equated to nine total games played and also played in a summer league hosted by Palatine High School.
The squad left this past weekend for a team camp at Hope College in Michigan where it will play 11 or 12 additional games.
“It’s good to see different competition that we don’t normally see,” said Addison Trail coach Rob Schader.
Schader was pleased with the progress the team made throughout the summer. “We got better as we went along,” he said. “We have a lot of juniors who have not seen a minute of varsity basketball. The seniors we have coming back with the exception of Nicci Scorza, have not played a lot of varsity minutes.”
The Blazers showed signs of improvement particularly on the defensive end.
“At times we did some nice things defensively. We will have to beat teams by shutting them down defensively,” said Schader. “At times we rebounded the ball very well and other times we didn’t rebound well. It’s hit and miss. The biggest thing for us this upcoming season will be our ability to score. We have kids who have the ability to do it. The big thing with that is consistency. We have kids who right now don’t have a lot of varsity experience. We’re going to be a work in progress.”
Scorza is the only player returning with significant varsity experience. “She started and played a ton for us last year,” said Schader. “She’s the one who has good varsity minutes under her belt.”
Berenice Berumen and Angelina Carreras also return with varsity experience. “Bernice is coming back and played some minutes for us last year. She works hard and she’s quick, which helps her out,” said Schader. “Angelina we pulled up last year and she played five or six games for us at the end of the season and that will help her out as well.”
Schader said the newcomers to the team have enjoyed success at the lower levels the last two years.
“We’re going to be a young basketball group,” he said. “The girls who are new to the team had a really successful season last year as sophomores and it was the same when they were freshmen. They are talented kids. It’s a matter of them getting experience.”
Schader said newcomers such as Karime Martinez, Serena Gilliam, Brenda Berumen and Carreras are among those who also will help the team.
Addison Trail wrapped up its summer slate earlier this week at the Hope College team camp.
“Hope College is a good time. The girls love it,” he said. “It’s a time where they can bond and get to know each other and play a lot of games together. This is our third year going there. It’s a young group, but they are talented. As the season goes on, we are going to get better on offense and defense.”
