Pure Sweat skills workout: upcoming talent at Nashville and Mater Dei

Thanks to another invitation from Pure Sweat skills trainer Dave Ruckman I was able to watch his workout in Nashville. This workout featured 9 girls, 7 from the Nashville Hornettes program and 2 from Breese Mater Dei. There was a mixture of juniors/seniors and freshmen/sophomores in the group. In addition Coach Ruckman had a mixture of post players and guards to work with in this session. One upperclassmen that stood out was guard <strong>Libby Ahlers </strong>of Nashville. Libby will be a senior this year and does a very good job getting to the basket and handling the basketball/leading her team. She will likely need to take on a bigger role for the team this year as they replace the scoring and leadership of graduated seniors Karly Stanowski and Rachel Kell. Libby has really grown in her skills with Coach Ruckman and if she can develop a consistent jump shot she could really be a big force this year. She has the potential with consistent work and development to help a small college team. Another exciting player that I saw for the first time was Alyssa Cole of Nashville. Alyssa is an incoming freshman that primarily has worked in the post. While a bit under sized for the high school post position she has enough strength to get where she wants in the lane. Her future is probably more on the wing unless she grows 3-4 more inches, but she certainly shows the athletic ability to compete on the wing. Coach Ruckman has a gem on his hands here and with continued focus on ball handling and shooting, Alyssa will be something special by the time she leaves the program in 4 years. She has a natural toughness and competitive attitude that shines through as she competes against the older girls. Breese Mater Dei has a tradition of developing very good teams and very good players. Coach Dave Kohnen has built a program that reloads year after year. I saw two girls that will be sophomores that look to be part of his future success, if not contributing as reserves this year. Emma Gebke is 4/3 that shows great potential both in the post and on the wing. Right now she really shows good skills and moves in the lane and running to the rim on the break. She seems to feel very comfortable out on the wing where, if she develops her ball handling and agility, she will be able to really use her strength once she gets in the lane to finish with ease. There is work to do but the foundation is there for her to be force off the dribble. Klara Shildroth is another potential weapon in the long line of excellent guard/wings that have come through the program. She shows signs of another very smart player that excels in the mid range and getting to the basket. She is really working in Coach Ruckmans' drills on finishing around the basket and perfecting her shot. She is strong with the ball and could very well be that next in line on the long list of strong defensive and offensive guards in the program that has had excellent players like Winkeler, Beckman, Lampe, Braundmeier and Gerdes over the past few years. This was the 7th of 8 workouts that Coach Ruckman is doing with this group so I will not be able to see them workout again this off season, but I am sure that I will be able to catch some games during the year. I will report on their progress and hope they have a tremendous year. This is a great group and it is always exciting to see a group of girls take the game serious enough to invest their time into extra training in the off season.