Player Profile: Sammi Matoush

As we move towards the start of the season I will not only be giving you previews of most of the conferences in Southeastern Illinois and all of the teams in those conferences, I will also be profiling many of the girls that you see on the rankings of top players in the state. I will use the same set of questions with each player, but of course the answers they provide and my experiences watching that player will cause each article to be a little different. Our first player profiled is <strong>Sammi Matoush. </strong>Sammi is a 5’11 2019 guard that earned All State first team honors in both her Sophomore and Junior seasons for 2A Hillsboro. She is a consistent scorer that will give her team 20 points or more night in and night out. In addition to averaging over 23 points per game Sammi brought in almost 6 rebounds per game from her wing spot. Sammi considers her ability to score, and specifically from the 3 point range, to be her best attribute as a player. During her junior campaign she made 97 3 point shots and hit 43% from behind the arc which, along with making the finals in the state 3 point shooting contest, seems to support her thoughts. It should not be any surprise that Sammi lists Steph Curry as her favorite player. During the spring and summer Sammi was very active. She played the AAU circuit with Blue Star Thompson after previous years in which she played for the Springfield Predators and coach Joby Crum. She enjoyed that Blue Star experience playing in Orlando, Louisville, Indianapolis and Chicago. Despite playing very high level competition the team held their own and came away with a winning record. Her high school team played a lot of open gyms and participated in the SLU team camp and the Vincennes team camp. Sammi felt like her school team showed improvement over the summer. Her goals for her senior season are to win the conference title and a regional title so this time with her team will hopefully lead to those goals. One big focus for Sammi during this time was to improve her defense. At the next level that is a big adjustment for most every player to make, so Sammi is getting ahead of the curve by focusing on that now. In addition, she really wanted to prepare for the tougher competition in the AAU circuit and the college game by focusing on finishing stronger with her drives to the basket. Sammi is clearly focused on team success and is an unselfish person and player. She lists the trip to the IESA state tourney as an 8th grader, and the thrill of winning back to back 7th and 8th grade state championships, as her favorite basketball related trip ever. She is an honor student ranked at the top of her class. She is active in band and an all conference softball player. She is a class officer and involved in student council and her church youth program. Sammi is clearly that kid a college coach loves, hard working on and off the court that will get good grades and cause zero trouble off the court. She is undecided on her major but is leaning towards business or finance but likely focusing in some way on her interest in math. So far Sammi seems to be undervalued, in my opinion, as she only has one D1 offer. I personally believe she is very capable of playing at that level and compares favorably to recent area players that are having D1 success. She has been offered by SIUE, UIS, Truman St, Rockhurst and Wash U. The offer from Wash U supports her high academic standing which should be even more enticing for the D1 schools to see. In the end I am sure Sammi will find a great place to play at whatever level suits her and she will be an extremely valuable part of an any team. &nbsp;