Player Of The Week – Week 0

As we tip off the girls high school season throughout Iowa, there are going to be a few new articles/evaluations that we publish every week during the season, that we have not done recently in the past. One of those articles being our Player Of The Week. The POTW is an individual that displayed what it means to put on a major performance for their perspective squad. A player can win this award for a number of reasons but most importantly because their overall play helped lead their team to a competitive contest.

*Please note that I will count this week as, “Week 0”, only because most teams have not played a regular season game yet and will begin their season over these next few days instead. When the next type of article like this releases on the 26th, it will be labeled as Week 1 and so on moving forward.*

Thanks for tuning in and enjoy!

Player Of The Week: Cora Widel Cora Widel 6'1" | SF Maquoketa | 2026 State IA

High School: Maquoketa

Class: 2026

Height / Position: 6’1 – Forward

Game Date: November 17th

Stat Line: 38 Points (10/15), 3 Rebounds, 3 Assists, 5 Turnovers, 2 Steals

Our first POTW for the 2023-2024 high school season in Iowa is going to be someone that did more than hold their own this past weekend, they flat-out dominated. Not only did they dominate, they did it efficiently all game long, helping their team to a victory in the end. The player that I am referring to is Cora Widel Cora Widel 6'1" | SF Maquoketa | 2026 State IA of Maquoketa High School. Widel, a 6’1 Forward, has an impressive combination of size, skill, and athleticism. There aren’t too many things that she can’t do on the hardwood and I think that was on full display in her first game of the season for the Cardinals. She ended this specific contest setting a school record with 38 points on 10-15 shooting from the field, including going 6-9 from three and 12-15 from the free throw stripe. Numbers can tell you a lot of things about how a player acts on the court. It can tell you what type of shots they tend to take, where they like to take those shots from, how active they are on both sides of the floor, what their main role is in their teams system, and much more. Widel’s stat line in this one demonstrates that she was getting buckets in anyway she wanted. Didn’t matter if she was near the basket or far away, whatever she was looking to make happen, she did. All of this may seem out of the ordinary if you unfamiliar with Widel’s game but trust me, she is legit. Over these past 6 months her recruitment has taken leaps with a lot of interested college coaches keeping a close eye on her this winter. I’m not sure where she is going to end up specifically but at this pace, it wouldn’t shock me if we saw her on a D1 floor before her career comes to an end. I’m sure she would produce on A LOT of teams in the correct system. This game was a great way to start this season for the Cardinals and they are going to ride every bit of that momentum into this upcoming week of action.

Honorable Mentions:

Bailey Birmingham Bailey Birmingham 5'9" | SF Norwalk | 2025 State IA – 2025 – Norwalk HS (31 Pts, 2 Rebs, 4 Assists, 1 TO’s, 4 Steals)

Kennedy Van Vark Kennedy Van Vark 5'5" | PG Pella | 2024 IA – 2024 – Pella (26 Pts, 1 Reb, 3 Steals)

Makenna Perkins – 2025 – Central Decatur HS (21 Pts, 11 Rebs, 4 Assists, 4 TO’s, 4 Steals)

Aubrey Kroymann Aubrey Kroymann 6'0" | C Maquoketa | 2026 State IA – 2026 – Maquoketa HS (18 Pts, 6 Rebs, 2 Assists, 1 TO’s, 5 Steals)

Aniston Jones – 2024 – Central Decatur HS (22 Pts, 2 Rebs, 3 Steals)

Callie Levin Callie Levin 5'10" | PG Solon | 2024 State IA – 2024 – Solon HS (23 Pts, 8 Rebs, 2 Assists, 4 TO’s, 5 Steals)