Players to Watch: Raccoon River

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The next conference we're looking at is the Raccoon River Conference. Last season, Ballard won the Raccoon River with a 14-2 record, with North Polk finishing a game behind and splitting the season series with Ballard. Let's talk about a few of the players who inhabit this conference.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>[player_tooltip player_id='63072' first='Jena' last='Young']</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The 5-foot-7 guard finished third in the conference in rebounding a season ago, with 17.9 points per contest. The Winterset senior played a high usage role a season ago for the Huskies and took over a third of the shots the team took last season. However, I think she did well, given the circumstances. Young scored the ball and earned about three assists per game, with a positive assist to turnover ratio. Young can make things happen.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>[player_tooltip player_id='63069' first='Nicole' last='Storck']</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The Adel DeSoto Minburn forward is an undersized four, but she plays with physicality. She fights for position around the basket and rebounds in an aggressive fashion. There are times when Storck crashes the glass from well beyond the 3-point line to create extra possessions and second-chance baskets. Her motor is an asset and will benefit any team she plays on because she's willing to do almost anything to give her team a better chance of winning.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>[player_tooltip player_id='311383' first='Abby' last='Tuttle']</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The North Polk guard was one of the most entertaining players over the summer. Tuttle looks like she's playing on different timelines than her opposition. She doesn't blow anyone away with her athleticism. Tuttle beats them with a change of pace and takes everything the defense gives her. When you see her play, it looks like she's playing in slow motion, but it's more that she isn't forcing anything. The other part of her game that's elite is her passing. She led her high school team in assists by a wide margin and boasted a near 2:1 assist to turnover ratio.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>[player_tooltip player_id='63011' first='Makayla' last='Boatman']</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Tuttles North Polk teammate reads the game at an elite level. She is one of the better screen readers I've seen. It feels like she knows what to do to inflict as much punishment as possible on defenses. She'll come off screens and let a 3-pointer fly before her defender knows what happened. Boatman can also shake her defender on the perimeter with a crossover. She keeps her defender guessing. That helps her consistently win one-on-one matchups outside to help her team score as many points as possible.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->