Prospect profile: Caroline Waite picks Bradley
Ames junior Caroline Waite has some big goals for the upcoming high school season. Her main goal is to bring the Little Cyclones to the state tournament, a realistic ambition considering they return all but one player from last season.…
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Continue ReadingAmes junior Caroline Waite has some big goals for the upcoming high school season. Her main goal is to bring the Little Cyclones to the state tournament, a realistic ambition considering they return all but one player from last season. She’s hoping to break the two individual school records she set last year — most 3-pointers in a season (74) and most points in a game (35) — and is eyeing other goals, like 3s in a game and assist records.
Caroline Waite cans this 3 (she has 35 points) and Ames trails Dowling just 50-51 with 37 seconds left. Clark has 38. #iahsgbb pic.twitter.com/zp3NX1VSyK
— Hayes Gardner (@HayesGardner) February 9, 2019
“I’ve got a lot of goals, but you’ve gotta set it high,” she said.
She was among the state’s top scoring guards last year, and it looks like it’ll be more of the same from the dangerous shooter. However, at least one thing will be different — this season, she’s a Division-I basketball commit. Waite committed to Bradley University earlier this month.
The Braves appear to be on the rise, and they won 20 games for the first time in a decade last season. Waite said that she wants to win a Missouri Valley Conference Championship.
“I want to do everything I can to help that,” she said.
Blessed to say I’ve committed to Bradley University! pic.twitter.com/n8Rsoxg12i
— Caroline Waite (@carolineewaite) September 16, 2019
Waite was impressive as a freshman, but had a true breakout season as a sophomore. She ranked top-5 in 5A in free throw percentage (1st), 3-pointers (2nd), and points per game (5th).
She followed that up with a strong summer, helping the All Iowa Attack 16U team go on a 37-game winning streak and win three major Elite Youth Basketball League (EYBL) tournaments.
“She’s like a coach on the floor,” Attack coach Randy Mauro said over the summer. “She knows everything that we run, she knows how to get them into it without me having to yell it out. She knows how to set herself up, she knows how to set her teammates up.”
Waite has proved her ability to shoot from deep — very deep — and has had impressive success scoring inside, especially considering her height (5-foot-4). She averaged 4.3 assists per game as a freshman for Ames, but as her scoring load increased last year (20.0 points per game), she averaged fewer (2.3) assists. If she can up her assists a bit, while maintaining her scoring numbers, Ames should be very strong offensively.
In addition to Waite, the No. 17 prospect in the 2021 class, the Little Cyclones boast the No. 6 player, Ashley Iiams, and the No. 53 prospect Brooke Spraggins in that same class. Plus, senior Teagan Lipsey, No. 36 in the class of 2020, is a terrific all-around player. With those four returning starters, Ames figures to have a promising season ahead, especially with Waite running the show as a scoring point guard.
“She’s a tremendous force offensively,” Ames coach Joel Sullivan said of Waite. “And I think last year she proved she can do it at extremely high levels, even when facing significant pressure and junk defenses and everything else in the book. I think she has the potential to have another great year. It’s not going to be easy. It’s going to be hard. The good news is with a kid like Caroline, she embraces that, she doesn’t run away from it.”