GREEN BAY – The Notre Dame Academy Tritons are hoping that this season allows them to regroup after struggling last season with a young roster and several injuries.
The Tritons fell just short of their hunt for the four-peat at the WIAA State Championship in the 2023-24 season with a 52-60 loss to Pewaukee. Last season, they struggled to find their footing after losing top scorers Trista Fayta (17.9 ppg), Gracie Grzesk (17 ppg), Sydney Whitehouse (11.9 ppg) and Paige DeMoulin (5.8 ppg) to graduation, as well as losing now-senior Kaia Waldrop to an injury early in the season.
“I don’t know that there was anything we necessarily struggled with last season, we just lost a lot of seniors from the year before and then had injuries in addition to that. At the moment we have a very new team and are all healthy so that’s exciting and I’m excited to see who is willing to step up and lead and who can be a consistent player on the court for us all the time. There is a lot that I’m excited to see from them and that will all unfold as the season rolls on,” said Tritons Head Coach Sara Rohde.
“I think we struggled a lot with communication and being consistent. I think we did really good playing the first half of a game, but after that it would kind of die down and that’s how we lost most of our games,” added Waldrop.
“I’m looking forward to us bringing something we didn’t bring last year. Last year was really hard for us with injuries and I think that this year we have a really good chance of going farther than we did last year. I think it will also be a really good chance to just show what we have now that everybody is back.”
However, despite the internal struggles the team faced, the Tritons still managed to finish the season with a record of 17-9 overall and 15-3 in the FRCC in which they took second place in the standings.
Rohde said that this season will be another fresh start for the program and she is looking forward to seeing what the off season has bred for them.
“We have a very different team with the loss of some seniors, some kids being healthy that were not healthy last year, and just some new kids coming in. I’m just excited to see how they step up and how they play together and move into new roles this season. Honestly, it’s kind of a mystery because I haven’t really seen our whole collective group all summer long. I think this will be a good chance to see who we are and what we are made of,” said Rohde.
This season, though the Tritons will be without leading scorer Peyton Musial (20.3 ppg), Waldrop is making her return to the court after recovering from her ACL injury last season and according to Rhode, senior Aspen Abel will also play a big role for the Tritons this year.
“I would think some of our seniors, like Aspen Abel, who was a starter for us last season and Destiny Webster had some really big minutes last year, will be big players for us. Kaia Waldrop played four games and started off the season really strong and then she tore her ACL, so I would expect Kaia to come back and be a really strong leader for us as well,” said Rohde.
“I think we have some juniors coming back who could step up and we have some young kids who really gained valuable minutes last year because of all the injuries and they have grown a lot this year, so I think that the door is wide open for a lot of kids. With the season being the length it is, we will have time to develop them and really help them become the best basketball players.”
Waldrop said that the team has a few key points they need to focus on in order to see success on the court.
“This year, I think it’s definitely just taking it one step at a time and one game at a time. Especially with players like me coming back from an injury — I think it’s really important for me to do things right and make sure I don’t re-injure myself. We also need to make sure we do all the little things right with our offense, with our defense and making sure everything is as clean as we can get it,” said Waldrop.
After facing Pewaukee, Oostburg and Hartford Union at the end of November, the Tritons will face the De Pere Redbirds on Friday, Dec. 5.
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