We had the opportunity to talk with Coach Ryan Schultz to talk about the 2024-2025 Womens' Basketball Season. Here is what he had to say.
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Looking back on the season, what were some of the highlights?
A couple of things to highlight would be our first win at home vs Itasca Community College and beating Minnesota North College-Vermillion to secure a spot in the Regional Playoffs!
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What are some of the improvements you saw throughout the season and how will you look to build off that within the off season?
This was a brand-new team of girls, and we knew it would take some time to find our groove. As the year went on, we learned how to play with each other. Our court chemistry improved a lot throughout the season. We will look to build off that during the off-season by getting to know our new teammates and having a few team events over the summer.
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You made the region tournament. Recap the journey there (conference and non-conference) and the tournament.
We played a hard non-conference schedule this year and although it didn't lead to many wins, it helped us prepare for our conference schedule. We lost Kaydence Bertram for the first round of conference games due to injury, but we managed to hang on and beat Fergus Falls to put us in a spot to make the Play-in game. We finally got healthy and played much better in the second half of the conference play, which earned us a spot in the play-in game. We beat Vermillion in the play-in game and despite a good first half we fell to Minnesota West in the first round of tournament play.
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Looking at the season, how do you feel things went and what are your expectations for next season?
I thought we faced a lot of adversity this year. We started by losing two girls to season ending injuries. The girls overcame that, and we played shorthanded all year. I thought we made great strides, and I was happy with the effort and commitment our girls gave all season. Next year we will have more players and that should help with a lot of the challenges we faced this season.
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Key Sophomores that will be leaving:
We are losing Lily Dean, Kaydence Bertram, Grace Jackson, and Ellaina Bergstrom. All four played key roles this year and will be greatly missed. Those four helped lay the foundation for Ridgewater Basketball and we can't thank them enough.
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Key Freshman that will be return:
We will be returning Julia Hines and Nevaeh Rahm from this year as well as Hannah Keller. Hannah was out all year due to injury and we are excited to have her back. Julia and Neveah both played a big role for us this year and we will be expecting them to set the tone for next year.
We look forward to seeing these girls back in action next year!