Relying on returning letter winners, the Fredericktown High School girls basketball team hopes to build off a strong foundation going into the 2022-23 season.
Last year, the Freddies finished third in the KMAC – behind Danville and conference champions Cardington-Lincoln – with a 7-5 conference record and a 15-8 record overall. Fredericktown’s strong record landed it a tournament spot, but the Freddies dropped their only tournament game against Amanda-Clearcreek in a 54-44 loss, ending a four-game winning streak and the season.
Outscoring their opponents by 121 points (1,098 to 977), the Freddies looked for more scoring last season, while their swarming and aggressive defense thwarted the majority of their foes.
Coach Tim Maceyko is returning for his fifth year at the helm. Fredericktown has gone 43-48 overall during his time and he has guided the team to two consecutive winning seasons.
Despite having graduated three seniors from the squad, including the team’s leading scorer last year – Gabby Daniels (13.5 points per game, 8.3 rebounds per game and 2.5 steals) – Maceyko has high hopes regarding the returning class. He said that the team has three returning letter winners: senior Grace Sipes (6.7 ppg, 3.9 rpg and 2.8 spg) junior Jill Bouton (9.7 ppg, 7.3 rpg and 2.9 steals), and sophomore Cally Carpenter (9.7 ppg, 4.0 rpg and 2.5 steals).
Maceyko anticipates that Bouton will “take a huge leap forward this year” and said, “In just a few days of practice, I already saw a major improvement in the things she is doing.” He also speaks highly of Sipes. “Grace will end up a four-year letter winner,” he said, “and will certainly be a leader for us this season.”
Maceyko, however, is concerned by the lack of depth on the roster, saying, “We are going to have to stay healthy and out of foul trouble if we want to achieve our goals.”
Maceyko believes Fredericktown will be dynamic and aggressive on the court.
“Being aggressive on both offense and defense is a staple of what we are going to do,” he said. “We are excited by the fact we can run the floor and push the tempo, but that we also have the size to attack the post in a slowed down half-court game.”
He plans for the team to be adaptable on the court. On offense, “we plan to use a modified version of the triangle offense and … some basic motion rules. This will be the third year that we’ve been adding elements of the triangle into our offense and feel like with our size and skill sets this may be the season we commit to that set more often.”
On defense, Maceyko added, “Our defense may prove a bit more fluid this year as we adjust based on our depth. However, ideally we will be using our 3-2 more frequently. Of course, everyone also knows that Fredericktown is likely to throw an aggressive 1-3-1 at you, which is something we have used every season since I came here.”
Fredericktown is hardly complacent in the wake of its recent success, as the players are not content with their tournament loss.
“The girls took last year’s tournament loss really hard,” Maceyko said. “The comment was recently made [by a current player] that ‘we don’t want to feel like that again, coach.’ So making a tournament run at the end of this year is the biggest goal for some.”
Fredericktown also believes that the KMAC league title is in play for them this year. The Lady Freddies started the season with a 50-41 overtime win over Highland, and begin their KMAC competition vs. Cardington-Lincoln on Nov. 30.
