1999/2000 Game News Last Updated: February 22, 2000

Cardinals girls persevere

February 22, 2000   BY STUART GROSKREUTZ
     THE CHIPPEWA HERALD
     The Chippewa Falls girls basketball team approaches its opening round playoff game following a breakthrough season that, at the same time, ranks as one of the most disappointing in head coach Jeff Olson’s 29 years in the sport.
     That disappointment has nothing to do with the efforts put forth by the team, however. That nobody will ever know just how good this year’s team could have been will likely leave many wondering about its immense potential.
     The Cardinals, who open the WIAA Division 1 playoffs tonight against Wausau West, finished the regular season with a 13-7 mark. The 13 wins nearly matches the combined total for the previous four seasons combined.
     Prior to last year’s 8-13 campaign, Chi-Hi suffered through three seasons with a dismal 7-56 record.
     “There’s no doubt that first year was one of the most difficult years that I’ve ever had in coaching,” Olson said of that 1-20 season, which was his first as Chi-Hi coach. “The second most frustrating season may be this year, even though we’re 13-7.
     “I’ve never lost a kid for the season in 29 years of coaching and to lose two key players in one year — and they’re both great kids — is hard to swallow.”
     This was expected to be a breakthrough season for the Cardinals, which it has been to an extent. Season-ending injuries to the team’s top two scorers and rebounders, however, has taken the Cardinals from a possible conference title contender to a dark horse in the postseason.
     Although if anybody is entitled to a few breaks, better make that good luck, down the stretch it’s the Cardinals.
     Six-foot senior post player Jolyne Burdick was averaging 11.5 points and nine rebounds per game when she dislocated her hip early in the season. She was later joined on the sidelines by 6-foot-1 senior post player Becca Spaeth, who was leading the Big Rivers Conference in scoring (15 ppg.) and ranked third in rebounding (8.5) at the time of her season-ending knee injury.
     The Cardinals have posted a 3-3 record since Spaeth left the lineup, including a pair of two-point losses to state-ranked Eau Claire Memorial and Eau Claire North and a respectable showing against No. 2 ranked Hudson.
     “Even with Becca we very well could have had a much better record,” Olson said. And with Jolyne and Becca, it could have been very interesting.”
     In addition to its run of bad luck, the Cardinals have been fortunate to have other kids on the team who are unwilling to make excuses and continue to work even harder to reach their goals.
     “You know that this is not the only team this has happened to,” Olson said. “Some people will look back on this season with disappointment because of those things. But, a lot of people are going to look back on the season and see how all of the other kids have stepped forward. People will look at these kids and say ‘look at how much heart they played with,’ because they refuse to roll over.
     “I think there’s different ways to measure a season and quite often it comes down to wins and losses, but you measure this team by character. This may be a disappointing season to say what might have been, but at the same time you count your blessings because you’ve had the opportunity to coach some of the finest kids ever.”
     Many of the players remember what it’s like to suffer through a 1-20 season, during which they lost by an average of 23 points per game and often compiled more turnovers than points scored. Spaeth, Tina Balsiger and Angie Ott were all starters on that team.
     This team is not ready to surrender, even the odds for them reaching their goals have grown longer.
     “They’ve experienced the lows and a little bit of the highs,” Olson said. “These kids still play hard, in spite of some of our goals changing when we lost those kids. We want to go to sectionals, that’s still our goal. We want to get to sectionals because anything can happen after that.”
     While spending much time dreaming about the possibilities for this season, Spaeth is confident the team can march forward. Since the injury, she doesn’t dwell on thoughts about how far the Cardinals could go.
     “We came into the season knowing we had the ability to beat the top teams in the conference, Spaeth said. “I hate looking at things like that, but with the two of us healthy I think we would have won a lot more games. We went from one of the biggest teams in the conference to one of the smallest.
     “I don’t like to look back at the year we went 1-20, but we have come so far since that year. I hate losing and that was one of the worst feelings, knowing before a game how it was going to end. We were just sophomores at that time and it just pushed us and we could start to see the future. Even though it might not have looked like it at the time, we bonded as a team, too.”
     Withstanding the loss of two starters is a testament to the transformation that has taken place from the time Olson took over three years ago. The Cardinals featured one of the top players in the conference during their 2-19 season in Steph Johnson, who accepted a scholarship to play basketball at the University of Alaska-Anchorage.
     Spaeth and Burdick cannot be replaced, but the depth has been apparent from the kids who’ve stepped to carry more responsibility
     The improvement is easy to see throughout the program, as witnessed by the fact that four sophomores have moved into key roles on the team. In fact, six sophomores saw extensive playing time in a recent victory over New Richmond.
     “What we wanted more than anything else was to have the respect of every team that we played, which hasn’t always been the case,” Olson said. “Even that second year, I think the girls had the respect of teams they played and this year it’s probably safe to say that a lot of teams recognize that we’ll be around for a while.
     “Our JV team had a good season and the program is pretty balanced throughout. It’s nice to know that every year has a group of players that can contribute to this being a solid program down the road.”
     A program that can overcome a few potholes and construction delays along the way.
     You can Reach Stuart Groskreutz at stu@chippewa.com.