Pair of seniors to lead Fort Recovery girls

The Indians lost their top three scorers to graduation.

Another of the team’s five seniors appeared in each of its 23 games.

However, third-year Fort Recovery High School girls basketball coach Holly Gann doesn’t consider this a rebuilding year for the Indians.

“I think we have a lot of girls with experience,” said Gann, whose team opens the season Saturday at Crestview.

(The game was originally scheduled for Friday but was postponed a day.)

“We had a great group of seniors, but those great group of seniors, what you didn’t see last year was this next generation of kids hitting the floor,” she said.

The Indians, who were 14-9 last year, feature two seniors in Whitley Rammel and Grace Guggenbiller. Rammel, who only appeared in 18 games, averaged 8.4 points per game as a forward.

“Whitley’s role probably hasn’t changed over the last three years,” Gann said. “What changes is her athletic ability. Every year she gets to learn and grow and becomes even a better player than she probably ever expected.

“Whitley is still going to be a huge presence for us on the inside. She’s going to need to rebound. She can run the floor. She is just a super athletic kid.”

Despite the fact she missed five games, Rammel shared the team high of 132 rebounds with now-departed senior Alli Vaughn, who plays for Huntington University.

“She’s going to continue to do those things she’s done for us in the past,” Gann continued.

Guggenbiller, who can play in the paint as well as shoot from the perimeter, scored 31 points in a reserve role off the bench. Gann said she’ll be used as a guard and a forward.

“She can dribble (and) she can shoot,” she said. “She is hard to guard. She is going to play different roles for us … Between her and (Rammel) it creates some issues for other teams.”

Sophomore Mara Pearson was the only non-senior to appear in every game last year. She averaged 3.6 points per game, pulled down 51 rebounds (fifth on the team) and had nine assists.

Because the Indians lost point guard Kierra Wendel — she averaged 10.3 points per game as a senior and now plays for Edison State — Gann said she does not see any one person filling the point guard role this year although Pearson will be the primary player to bring the ball up the court.

“We’re going to be doing some things differently and moving the ball is definitely going to be a key factor for us moving forward,” Gann said, noting sophomores Cali Wendel and Kensey Gaerke as players who will have more of an extended varsity role this year in the wake of their time at the junior varsity level.

“We’ve got some JV kids that had a very successful season last year coming up to be able to fill those spots for us.”

Gann also said freshmen Kennedy Muhlenkamp and Karlie Niekamp could play meaningful minutes.

After Saturday’s season opener, Fort Recovery jumps right into Midwest Athletic Conference play Tuesday at Versailles.

The Indians were 6-3 against conference foes last year after sharing the MAC title in 2020. They host New Bremen (Dec. 2), Parkway (Dec. 16), Marion Local (Jan. 13), Coldwater (Jan. 27) and Minster (Feb. 3). The Tribe is away from Fort Site Fieldhouse for MAC games against Delphos St. John’s (Dec. 9), New Knoxville (Jan. 6) and St. Henry (Jan. 20).

“I think it’s an open book just like we are an open book,” Gann said of the conference. “It’s not like it ever gets easier, but what I do think is there’s a lot of opportunities there that anybody can do it.

“It’s going to take time to get where we want to get.”

Notable non-conference games for Fort Recovery are Dec. 4 at Jay County, Dec. 21 at home against Wapakoneta, Jan 18 at South Adams and Jan. 29 at Troy Christian.

“We have a lot of kids just doing what they’re supposed to do every day,” Gann said. “Getting their shots in (and) putting in extra time when they can.

“I think as a coach, if that continues through the course of the year we’re going to get better.”