Eight Valley Conference coaches chose senior Greta Hahn to be included in the 15-member All-Conference team while her teammates picked her to take home the Clippers’ Most Valuable Player award.
Hahn and the other 17 members of the girls basketball team were honored at an awards banquet, held on the commons on March 11.
Hahn led the team in total points with 325 and three-point baskets with 47.
“A lot of times she was the girl that brought home the storm,” said head coach Joe Remiger. “If something needed to change defensively, she would do that. Offensively, there would be times she could hit three threes in a row or say ‘I’ve had enough of this. I’m going to drive for the bucket.’”
With 66 assists, Hahn also earned the Most Assist award.
“There were times you knew when she was going to the hole, but as the season progressed, she did a good job getting the ball up the court and dishing it.”
Hahn was second in steals with 36 and was second in deflections with 53. With 30 offensive rebounds and 112 defensive rebounds Hahn’s 142 total rebounds was the third most for the Clippers.
“That’s a big deal when most of the time she is standing out in three-point land,” Remiger said.
Senior Mariah McCabe and junior Ava Hahn were among the 15 All-Conference Honorable Mentions.
McCabe had nine blocks, 29 deflections, 53 rebounds and 11 steals. McCabe and Ava Hahn also took home a Defensive Player of the Year award.
“Mariah was really good at stepping in and helping out,” Remiger said. “With the defense we run, we really relied on her being on the backline and being able to step in.”
Ava Hahn pulled down 119 rebounds from the defensive glass and 41 offensively for a total of 170 to earn the Most Rebounds award. She also won the Most Steals award for her 65 steals. She was just behind her sister in assists with 63 and led the team in deflections with 99 and blocks with 12. She had the second most points for the Clippers with 256.
“For the most part, the best player was put on Ava to guard,” said Remiger. “She came really close to getting All-Conference.”
Coming on strong as the season went along, freshman Keira Shipper earned the Most Improved Player award.
“She just kept getting better and better,” Remiger said. “We’re going to expect great things from her next year.”
Besides the award winners, earning letters were juniors Lacey McCabe and Addi Holden; sophomores Olivia Reinhardt, Mollie Bowman and Samantha Baker; freshmen Delaney Thompson, Kaitlyn Flowers, Taylor McCabe and Taylor Wolf; and eighth graders Cecelia Gair, Kiya Sohn, Valentina Rohlfing, Jocelyn Kortuem and Ava Kluntz.
Other stats to note: Holden was second in rebounds with 33 offensive and 113 defensive for a total of 146. She had 34 assists and 20 steals.
Lacey McCabe had 84 defensive rebounds and 25 offensive rebounds for 109 total. She was third in steals with 23.
Taylor McCabe had 65 rebounds, 10 assists, 38 deflections and 22 steals.
With a GPA of at least 3.5 during the season to earn All-Conference Academic awards were Gair, Kluntz, Kortuem, Sohn, Wolf, Schipper, Flowers, Thompson, Holden, Bowman, Ava Hahn and the McCabe trio.
The varsity girls had a seven and 19 record. The season ended with a section loss to host New Ulm Cathedral, but Remiger said the Clippers, who sometimes gave up during the regular season, never threw in the towel in that game.
“It was a good way to finish out the season with the never-quit mentality.”
Remiger said the theme this year was the acronym of TEAM.
“Toughness: physically and mentally we have to be tougher. Our effort and attitude and then motive. Those are things we are going to keep pounding in over the summer and into next year. Some of the things we struggled with were rebounding. We talked about it every game. If we do not rebound, we’re going to struggle, and we struggled a lot from the rebound end. And then turnovers…”
The Clippers had 18 girls from season start to finish, an improvement from the 10 girls Remiger had in his first season as head girls basketball coach. He was also pleased the Clippers had a C-squad for the first time in over a decade and a half.
“To see the numbers growing is really encouraging. I know we didn’t get as many C-Squad games as we wanted, but some of that is growing the first year.”
Remiger said it was good to have Kaylee Karels on the coaching staff this year. Coming right out of the ranks after graduating last year, Karles brought a fresh perspective. Assistant coach Chris Seely, who also coached the B-Squad, said he and Remiger gel well together and said adding Karels was a smooth transition.
“It was good to be able to bounce ideas off of someone else.”
The B-squad had some good wins, Seely said.
“We had a number of tight games. A couple of them we won. A couple of them we lost, but it was really fun to see what you girls do with those tight games. In some, the girls executed perfectly after the timeouts. It is fun to see the girls grow and respond with what we tried to tell them, what we tried to teach. With varsity, we had our ups and downs, but we learned a lot.”
“It’s great to have that new connection with the girls,” Karels said. “For JV, C-Squad and varsity, this was a year of team building, learning everyone’s strengths and weaknesses and see how we could put them together as a team. We improved so much. I know that is kind of hard to see, but as a coach, I could see it.”
Remiger thanked athletic director Rich Kern.
“He puts up with a lot of phone calls a lot of what’s going on here; help me up with this, even setting up tonight.”
He thanked Dean Koppelman for driving the bus and keeping the book.
“He has been a rock for us. He is one of the Cleveland girls basketball’s biggest fans.”
He thanked Brady Hahn for athletic training and keeping the scoreboard. He thanked Carter Kern and Becky Michels for keeping the scoreboard.
Remiger thanked captains Ava Hahn, Greta Hahn and Mariah McCabe for their leadership.
“If I ever had a question, I never had to wonder if they were going to give me an answer that I wanted to hear or if they were going to be honest with me. It was always honest.”
Above: Top award winners, Greta Hahn, Ava Hahn, Mariah McCabe and Keira Schipper.
Greta Hahn