Eleva-Strum basketball ready for the court

Cardinals prepare, kick off season with new coach
“They’re working hard, and everyone’s trying to help me out. They know I’m new to this too, so they’re trying their hardest.” - Head Coach Amanda Galetka

by Doug Sands

The basketball season is officially underway for the girls’ team at Eleva-Strum this year as the players take to the court under the guidance of a new face at the school.

Amanda Galetka, a first-year educator at Eleva-Strum, has taken the reins of the girls basketball program for the 2014-15 season. This is the very first year Galetka has coached a high school basketball team. Though she hasn’t had a lot of experience coaching, Galetka has been active in basketball all her life. 

“I’ve been playing since I was in third grade, all the way through high school,” the head coach said. “I had a great [high school] coach who led us to state for three years; we won [the championship] my senior year.”

Galetka pointed out that much of the same energy and drive from her playing years has carried over into her newly minted coaching position. 

“Every time I step into a gym, I have that feeling that I need to be involved with what’s going on,” she said. “When I went back to school to become a teacher, that was one of my thoughts: that I was going to get into coaching as well.”

Galetka came to the team as a stranger, but she was well received. The current team faced the same situation as their coach during the past seasons; a lack of experience. They continue to be relatively new to playing on a varsity level. Of the 18 players out for the team this year, only two are seniors; the Cardinals have three juniors and five sophomores on the team, with freshmen filling out the rest of the squad.

“We are young,” Galetka admitted. “I get 10 players on varsity, and there are freshmen and sophomores on [the team]. It’s a mix, and it’s young.”

Inexperience has given the team some troubles. There are only seven girls on the team with time played on a varsity level, and only five have been full-time players in past seasons.

Because of the team’s inexperience, Galetka has been building from the ground up, training relentlessly, with a goal to work hard on fundamentals. She hopes with this particular focus, the team will have solid groundwork to become a solid squad as the season progresses.

Deslyn Hart, one of the two seniors on the team, commented on the increased amount of running in the first week of practice. 

“It’s challenging, but it’s a lot of fun,” Hart said. “Coach tries to make it as fun as she can. We’re all having fun together.”

Hart admitted that the team had some fears coming into the season with a new coach at the helm. “We were all a little nervous at first, but she’s really cool,” Hart said. “We like her a lot.”

For their part, Galetka has been impressed with how well the players have received her as a new coach. 

“So far, they’ve been nothing but wonderful; nothing but positive feedback from them,” she said. “They’re working hard, and everyone’s trying to help me out. They know I’m new to this too, so they’re trying their hardest.”

In the coach’s eyes, the team’s willingness to work has been one of the best parts of their practices. 

“Their work ethic is really great,” Galetka said. “I’ve come from this same kind of background, that you get out what you put in. They’ve realized that the more they put into this team, the more successful they’re going to be.”

Though the team has a lot of potential as a whole, Hart said the one stand out point is that there is no one player to put up big numbers, leaving the task of winning more of a group effort. She added the conditioning and effort are the two main facets of their hopes to win games this season.

“We have two tall players, and one of them is a freshman,” Hart said. “It’s going to take a lot of teamwork; we can’t count on one person to be our team. We don’t have a lot of size, so we’re going to use our speed and our endurance to our advantage. We run a lot in practices; hopefully, by the end of the games, we’ll be able to outrun the other team. They’ll be dying, and we’ll still be going hard.”

Galetka said the team is strong in spirit with the pair of upperclassmen, despite the small quantity of experienced players taking that role.

“Our two senior leaders have been great,” the coach said. “I can definitely tell anytime that they step on the court that they are leading the team. We’re going to look for that all year long.”

Another player Galetka has seen leadership from is Josie Olson, a junior on the squad this year. 

“Josie is one of the hardest working girls you’ll find around, and they definitely look to her,” Galetka said. “She’s always pushing everyone and giving them positive feedback when they need it as well.”

Players like these help a basketball team come together. The Cardinals hope their strong effort on the court will give them an edge within the Dairyland Conference. 

“We’re working hard every night in the gym,” Galetka said of her team. “We want to come out for our home games to represent the school as best we can.”

Alexis McDonald, Hart’s one and only fellow senior on the team, is confident about their chances for this season. 

“We don’t have a lot of returning varsity players,” McDonald said. Even so, she is confident the team has a strong shot at defending last year’s hard-fought conference title. 

“Even though we are a young team, I still think we can hold our [title of] conference champs. We’re pretty young and competitive.”

Hart agreed. 

“We have a lot of potential,” she said. “We can compete with any team.”

No matter what the season has in store for the Cardinals, their coach hopes the girls will ultimately enjoy the season. 

“I want the girls to have a blast,” she said. “I want them to work hard, but I want them to be here because they want to be. I want them to enjoy it. Four years in high school basketball goes so fast. I want them to make memories, because I look back on my career in high school, and that’s what sticks out the most: how much I loved those practices and games.”

Galetka encouraged the community to come out to their early season games to get a glimpse of this growing team. 

“They’re not just great athletes; they’re good in the school as well,” Galetka said of her players. “They’re student-athletes, and you’ll see that on and off the court with them. Just come out and support us with some good sportsmanship to show the kids you’re here for them as well.”

The Cardinals played their first game at home against Black River Falls on Tuesday night. Their second game is marked out for Friday night, when they travel to take on the Crickets of Fall Creek at 7:30 p.m. 

Excited to show the community the hard work they have already put into the season, the Cardinals team is looking forward to the cheering of their loyal fans.

“We really appreciate their support,” Hart said of the community. “We hope they can make it out to as many games as they can. It means a lot to us when they’re there.”

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