Alex Wheatley insists she didn’t give a whole lot of thought to the fact that the Council Rock South girls’ basketball team had won just five games the year before she went out for the team as a freshman.
“I guess I was kind of an oblivious eighth grader,” the Rock South junior said. “I was nervous for high school. I wanted to play, and I had heard about this good new coach.
“I didn’t really know what to expect.”
What few people could have anticipated was the rapid ascent of the Golden Hawks’ fortunes with the arrival of Wheatley and coach Monica Stolic. Senior Brooke Beidler experienced the transformation first hand.
“We all had really low self esteem because of what our record was,” Beidler said. “Everyone was excited because we had a new coaching staff.
“Coach (Stolic) brought everyone together and told us we had all the talent, we just needed to bring it out. She brought it out and did an amazing job of just turning the team around completely. Everybody learned to play together really well, and there was just really good team chemistry.”
The transformation under Stolic was immediate. The Golden Bears won 15 games in her first season and last season won 21 and advanced for the first time ever to the PIAA State Tournament, earning a spot in the state’s Sweet 16.
Things figured to be a whole lot tougher this time around with the graduation of Chelsea Allen, Emily Nowicki, Lea Britton and Jackie Webber – or a total of 34 points.
“I didn’t know what to expect coming into the season,” Stolic said.
Neither did her players.
“Right after the seniors left, I was a little bit worried because they are so key to everything,” Wheatley said. “They were huge, but as the season got closer, and I saw some of our freshmen, and I saw the freshmen that were now sophomores that had really, really improved over the summer, I got more confident.
“Going into the season, I was really confident. Not stupidly so, but I had a lot of faith in my team.”
That faith turned out to be well founded. The Golden Hawks finished in a tie for second to Rock North in the SOL National Conference standings with a record of 11-3. They are 16-5 overall, and they accomplished all of this with a starting lineup that features one senior (Beidler), one junior (Wheatley), two sophomores (Alexis Hofstaedter, Courtney Brown) and one freshman (Caitlin Jackson).
“Coming into the season, we lost a huge part of our team, but we still had team chemistry,” Beidler said. “Playing together and having that team chemistry has really helped us.”
This year’s Rock South squad is proof that age doesn’t matter.
“I love our team dynamics,” Wheatley said. “The grade you’re in doesn’t matter on our team. It all depends on what you do on the court.”
The Golden Hawks also had no regard for age when they elected three captains that included a representative from the senior, junior and sophomore classes – Beidler, Wheatley and Hofstaedter.
“You know what – I really didn’t plan it that way, but that’s how the team voted,” Stolic said. “I knew coming in we were losing so much leadership.
“I do post-season conferences with the returning players, so I had them vote, and that’s how it came up – even.”
The tri-captains proved to be a perfect fit for a young Golden Hawk squad.
“Brooke is the vocal leader,” Stolic said. “As a senior, she provides such leadership.
“Alex is the leader by example – I needed her to pick up, and she’s done more than expected. Hof controls the offense. She starts everything with our transition game, which is very important. She’s more quiet, but as the year has been going on, she is getting more confident, especially offensively. She sees the floor very well.”
“We all kind of balance each other out,” Beidler said. “So it works well that way.”
If there was a defining moment in the season, it came after the Golden Hawks coughed up a late lead in a disappointing loss to Abington.
“We were up by six, and we folded,” Stolic recalled. “I was mad after that game, and I was still mad on Wednesday. I went into practice and said, ‘I’m still not happy with what happened, and you shouldn’t be either, but we have to learn from this. If we don’t learn, it will make or break our season.’
“We did some drills, and I said, ‘We’re watching the tape of our first (Council Rock) North game. I want you to see how you can beat them.’ I guess they finally believed they could.”
The Golden Hawks didn’t just win, they won convincingly. Sparked by the brilliant 31-point effort of Wheatley, who is averaging close to 20 points a game this season after averaging 13 last year, the Golden Hawks handed the top-ranked Indians their first defeat, 53-40.
“Winning that game was huge for us,” Beidler said. “When we played them the first time, we were in the game the whole time. We knew we could beat them, and that’s the mentality we had going into the game.
“North is an incredible team, and the fact that we beat them shows we’re a good team too, and we can play with the best.”
“That was huge,” Hofstaedter said. “Just beating North – the whole rivalry is just amazing. It gives us a lot of confidence knowing we can beat anyone if we work hard and have the right mindset.”
“The North game is a very emotional game,” Wheatley added. “Going in with a loss - that could either make us or break us.
“After the loss (to Abington), I was thinking, ‘We have one day to be down because we have the North game, and we have to get back up.’ Even though we’re a young team, they definitely did that. They were really mentally strong and came out in the North game and wanted to win.”
The Golden Hawks enter district play the 10th seeded team. Nine teams advance to the state tournament. If the young players are feeling pressure to duplicate their success of last year’s squad, they aren’t letting it show.
“We have a lot of confidence,” Hofstaedter said. “We know if we work hard we’ll be fine.”
“Coming into this season, the bar was set high,” Beidler said. “How we have done this year shows us that we are a good team. The bar is set high, but we’re all pretty confident we can get there.”
“It’s really exciting,” Wheatley added. “We have come a long way, and each year we’re getting better. We have to keep working, and we have to keep getting better.
“That’s the magic in it. It’s a lot of fun. We work hard every day because you want to keep it up, you want to keep getting better and you want to keep making South a known name in the basketball world.”
Rock South has established itself as a legitimate presence in the district, and on Tuesday night, the Golden Hawks will take the next step in preparation for districts when they play a game against Central Bucks East that was postponed several times because of the weather. The Patriots are the district’s eighth seeded team.
“We had some easier games this past week, so to have a harder game like this is good going into districts,” Hofstaedter said.
“As far as the game goes, it’s good because win or lose, there are no consequences except for seeing the competition and getting a taste of the quality of the teams we’re going to play in districts,” Wheatley said. “There’s no penalty if we lose, there’s no gain if we win.
“It’s not important, but it’s important.”
The two teams will tip off at 7 p.m. at Council Rock South.
Just the Facts
This year’s record: Council Rock South 11-3 SOL (16-5 overall), Central Bucks East 14-0 SOL (18-2 overall)
Last year’s record: Council Rock South 11-3 SOL (21-8 overall), Central Bucks East 13-1 SOL (23-6 overall)
Last meeting: March 6, 2010 – Council Rock South 39, Central Bucks East 38 (CR South: Alex Wheatley – 15 points, Chelsea Allen – 8 points, Alexis Hofstaedter – 8 points; CB East: Liz Martin – 13 points, Sarah Martin – 10 points)
Last game: Council Rock South 53, Bensalem 43 (Alex Wheatley – 24 points, Alexis Hofstaedter – 10 points, Caitlin Jackson – 9 points)
Central Bucks East 50, Souderton 32 (Courtney McManus – 18 points, Lindsey Kelly – 10 points, Lexi Scrivano – 8 points)
Council Rock South
Projected starters:
#3 - Brooke Beidler* (5-6, Sr.)
#11 - Courtney Brown (5-7, Soph.)
#14 - Alexis Hofstaedter* (5-8, Soph.)
#21 - Alex Wheatley* (6-3, Jr.)
#24 - Caitlin Jackson (5-9, Fr.)
The rest of the Golden Hawks:
#10 - Kady Schley (5-5, Sr.)
#12 - Taylor Dillon (5-4, Fr.)
#13 - Kara Riehl (5-7, Fr.)
#32 - Taylor Hunt (5-7, Jr.)
#33 - Rachel Jacob (5-11, Jr.)
*Tri-captains
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