WHITEHALL — Whitehall only brings back five players from its 2024-25 team, which posted a .500 regular-season record, but the Vikings hope to use their toughness and athleticism to compete every night on the court.
It helps that those five include the team's leading scorer and rebounder from last season, junior Clare Westerlund. Westerlund missed early practices dealing with a health issue, but she is pushing to return in time for the season opener against Shelby, or at least soon after that.
Westerlund's plentiful experience in Viking sports makes her a natural leader on the court despite only being a junior, and coach Brian Milliron is optimistic for what she can bring to the team this season.
Also back is senior Janie Fagan, who has gotten even more athletic after a fall season doing sideline cheer. Fagan is a big believer in team chemistry pushing the Vikings into being more than the sum of their parts.
"You can have a bunch of really great all-star players, but if they can't work together as a team, they're not going to be that good," Fagan said. "I believe that a bond in a team is the most important part. Since conditioning has started, and even before, we had summer get-togethers, and we've been doing stuff all together as a team all throughout camps."
Sophomore point guard Peyton Schultz will be a major factor for the team. Thrust into a leading role - "a lot more (minutes) than you want a freshman to have to play," Milliron said - due to her ballhandling and passing skill a year ago, Schultz now has that year of experience under her belt, and it should pay dividends this season.
"She's been leading our ballhandling drills for open gym a lot this summer, and I'm hoping that's something that really pays off as the year goes on," Milliron said.
The Vikings' remaining two returnees are seniors Emma Decker and Kate Beda, who should both move into bigger roles this season. Beda joined the team last winter after not having played basketball since middle school, and with some seasoning she can have more chances to display her natural athletic gifts.
Supplementing the returnees are a trio of promising newcomers. Kayden Johnson transferred over from Montague for her senior year and will get some playing time, and juniors Ellie Conklin and Reese Hesse come up from the JV. Others could contribute later in the season, though it seems likely those core eight players will be the focus of Whitehall's work to start things off.
The Vikings won't enter the season as West Michigan Conference Lakes favorites - powers Fremont and Ludington have those spots - but hope to make their presence felt in the league race. A preseason scrimmage against Coopersville will give the team a good starting point.
"We're going to compete every night against every team that we (play)," Milliron said. "I think we can do that. We're not going to score 75 points a night, but we're going to be able to compete because we've got tough kids...Every night we have the ability to win, and I think every night we also have the ability to lose. It's one of those situations where, if they can come in and show up and be ready to go, we can compete every night."
