By Randy Gregory, Michigan Sports Radio
Photo courtesy of Miles Postema
After making the trek to the Breslin Center at Michigan State for the Division 1 Final Four each of the last three seasons, the girls’ basketball team from Rockford looked to really challenge themselves when they set the schedule up for this year. The Rams will play eight contests against teams ranked in the top fifteen in the state in their 22-game schedule. Rockford has already topped state powers Wayne Memorial, GR Catholic Central and Haslett and fallen to Ann Arbor Gabriel Richard in a contest they led for most of the game before going stone cold from the field in the final quarter.
The Rams record sits at 5-1 so far as they prepare to take on another pair of powers in Howell and Grand Haven this week. The Howell contest is at Wayne Memorial on Monday, December 30 and the Grand Haven game is at Rockford on Friday, January 3 at 5:30 P.M. And the kicker is that they have done it all without standout junior forward Sienna Wolfe. Wolfe suffered a torn ACL late last season and is still awaiting clearance from the powers that be to take the court this year. Her return is hopefully imminent and will make an already formidable team even better going forward.
The Rams are led by senior Miss Basketball candidate Anna Wypych. Wypych had an incredible game last week against GR Catholic Central where she set no fewer than four career school records in the same evening. Not only did she set the scoring mark, she also set new standards for assists, steals and free throws made. The Butler signee has been doing it for the Rams in every facet of the game and shows no sign of slowing down.
Wypych is joined in the starting lineup by juniors Kate Higgins, Jordan Mateer and Audrey Muterspaugh and freshman Addison Wypych. Every single one of these players is capable of putting together double figures in scoring, and they all have at one point or another. The top two players off the bench are senior Des Donley and freshman Kendall Bires. It is a deep, talented roster that will only get better when Wolfe returns from her injury.
“We knew the schedule we had set up was going to be a challenge,” said Rockford Coach Brad Wilson. “But this will only make us better as the season progresses. We felt like the OK Red probably got a little depleted from a talent perspective this year and wanted to beef up the non-league games to make sure we stayed sharp. We have been to the Breslin each of the last three years and feel like this will give us a great opportunity to return there this year as well.”
