Players to Watch: Fox River Classic

Heading into October the first conference that I’ll be previewing this month is the Fox Valley Classic. Last season the class of the conference was Division 2 state champion, Notre Dame. This conference has been a mainstay among the best conferences in the state, as it encompasses the greater Green Bay area. The Fox River Classic always has talented young players, and last season was no different. Some of these players have a chance to make an impact on some of the biggest stages in March. <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="209880" first="Gracie" last="Grzesk"]- 5’11 F-’24-Notre Dame: </strong>Grzesk was a massive contributor in year one for the Tritons as they captured the Division 2 state title. She gained the trust of her coaches and was trusted with big minutes in the title game against Reedsburg, only sitting for two minutes. An efficient shooter who plays well within a unit is hard to find as a freshman. It’s likely she will continue to get better and will be interesting to see how the Tritons fill the void of leading scorer from a season ago [player_tooltip player_id="132355" first="Sammy" last="Opichka"]. I would assume part of that would fall on her, but regardless it will be interesting to see where she improves. <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="209605" first="Claire" last="Bjorge"]-5’7 G-’24-De Pere: </strong>Bjorge is a solid player at the moment with a lot of room to grow. It’s easy to see the flashes of a scorer she has. She was consistently about a 10 point per game player a season ago, except for one game. An explosion against Green Bay Southwest for 35 points sticks out like a sore thumb in her game logs. As of now, she is a consistent player, with a ton of talent. Her opportunity may be a bit lower than others of her ability due to fellow Redbird [player_tooltip player_id="132373" first="Jordan" last="Meulemans"] who put up an excellent 20.7 points per game a season ago. However, if the Redbirds are to make noise in the postseason in the spring it may be due to the Jump in production Bjorge has the talent to make. <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="262996" first="Ashlyn" last="Szymanski"]-5’7 G-’22-Pulaski: </strong>After a season that earned Szymanksi all-conference second-team honors she gains increased responsibilities due to the graduation of [player_tooltip player_id="132357" first="Sheridan" last="Flauger"]. Syzmanski is a bit of a jack of all trades master of none. She affects every aspect of the game offensively which makes her dangerous on and off the ball. As the only returning double-digit per game scorer I will be keeping tabs on her in particular. <strong>Kyla Hendricks-5’7 G-’23-Bay Port: </strong>Without all of the data for Hendricks it’s hard to fully gauge her, but she is interesting just due to her shooting ability. Even if there is some data missing she took 91 threes in 15 games. I’d say that’s a healthy amount of shots she gets out there. If she has made improvements on her all-around game and continues to shoot at a solid level she may be a player that surprises a few teams this season.