Girls basketball preview: Streator aims to turn strong offseason, teamwork into improvement

The Streator High girls basketball team last winter struggled to a one-win season, the seventh time in program history the Bulldogs have managed only one victory, with those seven seasons coming under seven different head coaches.

Jacob Durdan, the seventh of those head coaches, isn’t stressing improvement in the win column – at least not directly. Rather, the third-year Bulldogs coach is stressing improvement day to day for his young team and hopes the win-column portion of that improvement will take care of itself as a result.

“We have not set any numerical goals,” Durdan said. “I think this will be our ‘best season yet,’ [and] that’s being defined every day in practice. We’ve had exceptional practice after exceptional practice so far.

“If we keep this pace up, our coaching staff anticipates a much better season than last year.”

The Bulldogs went 1-31 overall in 2023-24, that one win coming against Earlville in early January. A trip to Earlville is on the schedule for this year Jan. 11. But before that, Streator will try to get off to an improved start with a change of scenery in its season-opening tournament, joining the Seneca half of the dual-site Falcon-Irish Thanksgiving Tournament hosted by Seneca and Flanagan-Cornell/Woodland.

Streator opens Monday against Serena in a pool that also includes Illinois Central Eight Conference rival Herscher and the host Fighting Irish. FCW, Marquette, Fieldcrest and Peoria Manual make up the other pool.

When the season begins, Durdan expects his two top returning players to lead the way.

Ava Gwaltney – now a junior – developed into the Bulldogs’ primary scorer last winter, using a deadly outside shot to put up 7.1 points per game and earn All-ICE accolades as well as honorable mention to the 2023-24 Times All-Area Girls Basketball Team.

Returning alongside her and complementing Gwaltney’s perimeter game is senior forward Leah Krohe, who averaged 1.5 points and 4.3 rebounds per contest last season.

Joining those two and expected to log key minutes are senior guard Maddy Martin, senior wing Maddie Wahl, sophomore guard Audrey Arambula and junior guard Isabel Gutierrez. Junior forward Robin Barrett, sophomore guards Izzy Mahan and Addy Mahan, sophomore forward Lahla Thompson and freshman wing Rhea Huey will complete the opening-night varsity roster and compete for playing time.

“Right now, I think we’ll see Ava, Isabel, Leah, Audrey and Maddy Martin starting, with Maddie Wahl and Lahla coming off the bench,” Durdan said. “We could see some sophomores coming up from JV in the rotation off the varsity bench as well.

“We’ll need contributions from everyone. I anticipate we see a lot of names in the scoring column any given night, but with the way they’ve been practicing, Ava Gwaltney and Leah Krohe should lead the way, with Isabel, Maddy Martin, Audrey or Lahla close behind.”

When asked to point to his team’s strengths, Durdan cited the play of his two returning starters, the excellent offseason/preseason the team has put in and the all-around team camaraderie.

“This will be the third year these girls have played together and my third year in the program. They really know each other, how to play together and what the coaches expect,” he said.