Tigers Move On To 2016-17 With Momentum

Members of the 2016-17 Tipton girl’s basketball team are, front row, l-r: Tiffany Schott, Samantha DeMoss, Danielle Kilburg, Bryanna Simmermaker, Madison Conrad, and Hunter Humphrey. Second row: Emily Hermsen, Zoe Rezac, Laken Hermiston, Allison Ryan, Cassidy Eicher and Laressa Stout. Back Row: Kailee Meyer, Rylee Conrad, Amanda Smith, Kamryn Chapman, Jamie Kofron, Bailey Schmidt, Zoe Comstock and Morgan Wendel. Photo by Ryan Stonebraker. 

By Ryan Stonebraker

Sports Editor, Tipton Conservative

TIPTON — Longtime Tipton Tiger girl’s basketball coach Chad Rezac enters his 9th season with one of the most interesting teams he has had in over five years.  The Tigers are preparing to for the River Valley Conference like everyone else this time of year.  The Tigers could have pieces in place and a truckload of potential to get back to their pressure defense, transition offense that helped them to multiple trips to the state tournament and made seating a premium in the Tipton middle school gymnasium.  Rezac, one of the longest tenured coaches in the conference and in school history, has a few things up his sleeve.

This will be a statement year for the Tigers program after having to overcome adversity from last year.  Last season All-State caliber player Alex Wiese was having an All-State season (15.4 ppg, 10.0 rpg) when she went down with a season ending ACL tear with five games left in the regular season.  To that point, the Tigers were 8-9 and had all the momentum.  After, the Tigers had to shuffle their line-up.  One of the finds in the last six games was then freshman guard/forward Amanda Smith.  Smith is back after averaging 6.5 points a game over the final six games.  Smith averaged 3.2 points a game for the season and led the Tigers in scoring in their 55-53 win over Wilton at home.  

Later, in the offseason, Wiese transferred to Iowa City Regina, leaving a longer term hole in the Tigers roster.  Instead of collapsing in team sports, Tipton rallied and had one of the best softball seasons in some time.  Then this fall, the volleyball team had a 25-match win season and were ranked for the second straight season.  Now it is basketball’s turn to show that their program is bigger than one player.

“We have worked on culture on our team.  We all know what happened last season and on paper it looks like a lot of adversity with who is not on this team.  That is over though.  We are working on being together and are rallying around having a good season,” said Tipton coach Chad Rezac.

Back for the Tigers are second leading scorer Emily Hermsen (9.1 ppg) and third leading scorer Jamie Kofron (6.8 ppg).  Both are sophomores.  Also returning are starting guards Zoe Rezac and Kailee Meyer to go with Smith to help the Tigers form a strong core of returning players.

Gone are Wiese and graduated seniors Caitlin Himes (6.5 ppg, 88 rebounds), Alyssa Crock and Sami Pruess.

Rezac said that the strength of of the Tigers team will be its depth in guard play, with the Tigers possibly going six deep at the position.  The Tigers have two upperclassmen guards (Meyer and Rezac) and their leading returning scorer also is a guard (Hermsen).

“Our guard play will be key.  We can put pressure on people on defense and get out and run on offense.  We will play a lot of four guard sets and try to take advantage of our speed and quickness.  We are going to try to be pesky on defense,” he said.

Having Kofron back will be important too.  Kofron, an all-conference volleyball selection this past fall, brings that experience back to a sport where she will play a bigger role this year.  

New faces this year fighting for playing time are juniors Samantha DeMoss, Tiffany Schott and Allie Ryan, sophomores Laken Hermiston and Hunter Humphrey and freshman Kamryn Chapman.

Rezac lists concerns are how quickly his team adjusts to the changes on offense and defense.

“We are putting in a lot of new things on offense and defense.  How well will we do that against teams other than when we practice against ourselves early at least will be a concern,” he said.

The Tigers will not leave Cedar County until their fifth game of the season on Saturday, December 10 at Midland.  Tipton starts the season with three home games (Mid-Prairie, Camanche, West Branch) before traveling to Durant on Friday, December 9 for their first road game.

The Tigers host North Cedar and Wilton before Christmas and will play five of their seven, pre-Christmas games at home.  The Tigers travel to North Cedar for a non-conference game on Saturday, January 21 and host Columbus Junction in early February in their other non-conference game.

Tipton Tigers

2015-16 Record: 8-14

2015-16 RVC Record: 6-12

2015-16 Postseason: 2/13 - North Cedar 55, Tipton 35.

Returning Starters (4/5): Kailee Meyer (3.6 ppg), Emily Hermsen (9.1 ppg), Jamie Kofron (6.8 ppg), Amanda Smith (3.2 ppg), Zoe Rezac (2.3 ppg).

2015-16 All-Conference RVC Picks: Alex Wiese - RVC Elite Team, Caitlin Himes - RVC Honorable Mention.

2016-17 Roster: Seniors — Kailee Meyer, Rylee Conrad.  Juniors — Zoe Rezac, Samantha DeMoss, Tiffany Schott, Allie Ryan.  Sophomores — Hunter Humphrey, Emily Hermsen, Amanda Smith, Laken Hermiston, Jamie Kofron.  Freshman — Kamryn Chapman.