BCR girls basketball preview: 5 storylines for the 2024 season

The 2024-25 girls basketball season tips off Monday. Here are five storylines to watch in Bureau County.

New coach at Bureau Valley

Jonathon Henegar has taken over the reins of the Bureau Valley girls basketball program. He has coached basketball in Kewanee the past 12 years, most recently as the varsity boys assistant coach. Henegar, 34, succeeds Matt Wasilewski, who resigned after three seasons.

The new Storm coach is introducing a fast-paced game wanting a get-up-and-go style offense.

“I think the kids have really bought into the idea of playing fast this season. There has been a lot of positive energy and enthusiasm at each and every practice,” Henegar said.

Henegar is the eighth coach in program history.

Coach Ptak returns to St. Bede

Tom Ptak can’t seem to stray far from St. Bede basketball.

After serving as interim head coach for the 2021-22 season, Ptak said he was retiring for good. But when the call came in to coach again following the resignation of Stephanie Mickley as the Bruins girls coach after their fourth-place state finish in 2023-24, Ptak returned to the bench.

Ptak led the Bruins to a 14-17 record in 2021-22. He also served as an assistant coach in the program under Tom McGunnigal from 1997 to 2008, was an assistant in the St. Bede boys program from 2010-12 and was IVCC’s women’s coach from 2013-19.

The Bruins return a strong core from last year’s state squad that went 29-9 and won the Tri-County Conference regular season and tournament titles in senior Ashleyn Ehm (F) and Quinn McClain (G) and junior Lili McClain (G).

Can Tigresses continue their winning ways?

The Princeton girls program has posted a 67-17 record (.798) over the last three seasons with a run of three straight conference championships.

“I don’t want to put a limit or a standard on what the girls can or should accomplish this season. We don’t just rise to the level of our goals or expectations, we fall to the level of the work we put in daily,” PHS coach Tiffany Gonigam said.

They have plenty of returning players to maintain their winning ways, led by juniors Keighley Davis (F) and Camryn Driscoll (PG). Both were named unanimously Three Rivers East all-conference and first-team All-BCR.

Driscoll averaged 12.9 points, 5.7 rebounds, 2.3 assists and four steals per game while Davis averaged 13 points, seven rebounds and three steals.

Seniors Paige Jesse and Olivia Mattingly and juniors Makayla Hecht and Reese Reviglio also saw key minutes for last year’s 20-9 team.

Hall looks to take step up

The Hall Red Devils have been in the hunt in the Three Rivers East, placing second last season and third the year before.

Will this be the year, they climb to the top?

“Our goal is always to compete for a conference title. We’ve been close a few years but haven’t been able to secure that,” Hall coach TJ Orlandi said.

While the Red Devils lost 1,000-point scorer McKenna Christiansen to graduation, they return a strong nucleus with seniors Ella Sterling and Kennedy Wozniak and juniors Charlie Pellegrini and Natalia Zamora.

Sterling averaged 11.8 points, 7.7 rebounds, 1.7 assists and 2.1 blocks per game after transferring to her dad’s hometown from Seneca. Wozniak averaged 5.5 points, 7.6 rebounds, 3.1 assists and two steals, Pellegrini averaged 7.5 points, two assists and two steals, and Zamora was the team’s first player off the bench.

New tournament at BV

There will be a new tournament at Bureau Valley this season, starting Monday. The four-team round-robin includes Erie-Prophetstown, which followed the Storm from the Princeton tournament, plus Rock Falls and Riverdale.

Games will be played at 5:30 and 7 p.m. on Monday, Wednesday and Friday nights at the Storm Cellar.

There will be a F-S tournament playing in Storm Gym with the game times flipped from the varsity contests each night.