Players to Watch: North Eastern Conference

Last season was one where the North Eastern Conference was filled with talent, especially at sectional runner-up Freedom. This season some rising juniors and seniors look to refill the talent pool left by last season’s senior class. The interesting aspect of this conference will be regarding the standing of Freedom following the losses of [player_tooltip player_id="132345" first="Callie" last="Genke"], and [player_tooltip player_id="255799" first="Gabby" last="Johnson"]. That being said there are some very talented players looking to dethrone the reigning undefeated conference champions from a season ago. <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="204129" first="Leah" last="Lemke"]-5’8 G-’22-Wrightstown: </strong>Lemke was one of the most efficient players in the state a season ago. Scoring almost 20 points a game on shooting splits of 53/41/75 is a good return for shooters at higher levels, but Lemke even at her age has natural scoring ability. Her efficiency from the field makes her extremely dangerous to defenses, and she uses her scoring to unlock defenses in multiple ways. Another feat of hers from a season ago was becoming the conference leader with almost six assists per game. With her responsibility on the ball it’s extremely impressive she boasts an almost two-to-one assist to turnover ratio. <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="329539" first="Sadie" last="Jarmolowicz"]-5’9 G-’23-Freedom: </strong>Jarmolowicz as a sophomore was a jack of all trades a season ago. She was a solid scorer playing behind some really talented seniors at Freedom. She was also a drink stirrer ranking third in the conference with four and a half assists per game. She is also a bigger guard who has the ability to affect the game on defense on the perimeter and in the paint. I have no way of sorting data. but I would assume not many players could say they averaged over two and a half assists and block and a half like this junior Irish can. <strong>Taylor Thiry-5’10 F-’22-Luxembourg-Casco: </strong>Thiry is an oddity as a prospect, because she doesn’t play like a guard, but she is on the smaller side for a forward. She has the base stats for a good forward with 16 points and 12 rebounds as a junior. Thiry, as her rebounding numbers suggest, has film that shows that she is excellent at boxing out. None of her rebounds seem like they come cheap where she’s left alone to pick up free rebounds. The good thing about her offensive game is that I think it’ll translate because it doesn’t seem like she needs plays run for her. <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="156096" first="Emily" last="Jaenke"]-5’10 CG-’23-Fox Valley Lutheran: </strong>Jaenke is more of a scoring guard than a lead guard. She is probably more suited to playing off of a playmaker at the next level. That being said she has a knack for getting into open spaces. She has a comfort zone beyond the three-point line and in between the corner and wing. From this spot, attacking weakside defenses opens up a lot for her. She has the ability to comfortably knock down that shot. She has a nice right to left crossover which gets her into her floater game in the short corner. The one thing I take away from seeing her film is offensively she has a plan of attack all the time.