Board Monsters: Five Unranked ’27 Rebounders

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>One way for a freshman athlete to impact a lineup is by cleaning the glass. Plenty of freshmen during the 2023-2024 season were willing to impact games by grabbing key rebounds.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Today's scouting report looks at five unraked athletes willing to crash the boards for their prep teams last season. Each athlete is in the Kansas Class of 2027 and averaged at least six rebounds during their freshmen seasons.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Nicole Gaspers</strong>, 5'8”, PF, Veritas Christian</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Gaspers is currently an unranked athlete coming off a solid freshman season. Gaspers was featured in a report back in March. In 18 games for the Eagles, she averaged 8.4 rebounds. She has a nice reach, which she also used to create two steals and 2.2 blocked shots per game. She scores mostly in the paint and scored 5.3 points per contest last season.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Abby Packard</strong>, 5'11”, C, Mission Valley</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Packard is a multiple-sport prospect for the Vikings. While she is currently unranked by Prep Girls Hoops she is ranked No. 86 overall by Prep Dig Kansas. She averaged 7.4 rebounds and 2.8 blocked shots during her freshman season. She is physical and jumps well. She recorded 102 kills and 30 total blocks for the Mission Valley volleyball squad.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Rielly James</strong>, 5'8”, PF, Dighton</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>James had a solid freshman season for the Dighton Hornets. In 23 games she averaged eight points and six rebounds per contest. She is not scared to take the ball to the rim and draw contact. She shot 107 free-throw attempts as a freshman and cashed in 67 points from the line. If, James continues to get to the free-throw line that often the rest of her high school career she will catch the eyes of scouts and coaches.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>[player_tooltip player_id='1224324' first='Kailee' last='Wessel']</strong>, 5'9”, PF, Golden Plains</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Wessel grabbed 6.7 boards per contest for the Golden Plains Bulldogs. She did not score much her freshman season, but she was fairly accurate, especially from the free-throw line converting on 27-of-48 attempts from the charity stripe.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Kadalen Unrein</strong>, 5'11”, C, Golden Plains</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Golden Plains has two freshmen athletes willing to crash the boards. Unrein averaged 6.3 rebounds in 17 varsity games. Like her teammate Wessell she averaged just over three points per game.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->