Waukon girls basketball team for 2023-2024 will consist of returning varsity experience, mix of players from all grade levels for first-year head coach
2023-2024 Waukon girls varsity basketball team ... Left to right - Front row: Reese McCormick, Lynsey Houg, Avery Regan, Azlynn Cota, Claire Schulte, Bobbi Finney; Back row: Blythe Bucknell, Breckan Stewart, Keira McCormick, Kaitlyn Krambeer, Willa Troendle, Emma O’Neill, Elle Wilkins. Not pictured: Bella Moudy.
2023-2024 Waukon girls basketball sophomores and freshmen ... Left to right - Front row: Kaylin Regan, Bobbi Finney, Brynn Weymiller, Hannah Cooper, Elle Wilkins, Jenna Goltz, Nora Davis; Back row: Haylee Jeglum, Bryiah Stewart, Blythe Bucknell, Willa Troendle, Emma O’Neill, Claire Schulte, Reegan Benzing, Cora Miller.
The 2023-2024 Waukon girls basketball season will feature a mix of familiarity and some new faces in new places as a collection of players from all four high school grade levels will make up this season’s varsity squad for first-year Indian head coach John O’Neill. Within the 14 players donning a varsity uniform for the bucket Tribe this winter will be five seniors, three juniors, five sophomores and one freshman.
Although assuming the head coaching role for the varsity girls basketball team at his alma mater for the first time, Coach O’Neill is certainly no stranger to coaching the game of basketball. He began his coaching career as the head girls varsity coach in West Bend Mallard for three years, guiding that program to a conference championship before moving back to Waukon. While teaching in the South Winneshiek School District, O’Neill was the girls junior varsity coach there for one year, and for the last eight years he has been the junior varsity boys coach at Waukon.
Helping make Coach O’Neill’s transition to the head of the girls program will be a collection of five seniors and three juniors this year who were all part of last season’s squad that finished with a 14-9 season record that included a 6-4 mark in Northeast Iowa Conference (NEIC) play that placed the Lady Indians third in the six-team final standings. Those returning seniors include Azlynn Cota, Lynsey Houg, Kaitlyn Krambeer, Avery Regan and Breckan Stewart, with this season’s trio of juniors coming back including Keira McCormick, Reese McCormick and Bella Moudy to help headline a total of 23 high school players in the freshman through senior grade levels.
The Lady Indians won’t get into their NEIC schedule until a December 8 home contest against Crestwood. They already got their 2023-2024 schedule underway with a non-conference road game at Jesup Tuesday, November 21, with results of that season-opener being printed elsewhere on this week’s Sports pages, and they were scheduled to host MFL/MarMac Monday, November 27.
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