Blue Devils keeping expectations high

SAULT STE. MARIE — Sault High faces a familiar opponent in it’s girls basketball season opener Friday night.

The Blue Devils play host to the Escanaba Eskymos at 6 p.m. Friday. The teams have played regularly in the early season for awhile now, and also faced each other again in the regionals the last two years.

The Blue Devils are coming off a condensed season in which they finished 14-2 and were named the U.P. Division 1-2 Team of the Year last winter. The Sault must retool its lineup, having lost four starters and five of their top six scorers to graduation.

“We go into every year with most of the same goals and expectations,” said Sault High coach Pat Bennin, who begins his 18th season. “We want to win the conference and the district again. We work towards those goals by trying to get a little better each day.

“We’ll have a younger team and less experience than we’ve had lately,” Bennin said. “Our coaching staff has been doing more teaching in our early practices. We lost seven seniors from last year, so one thing we’ll be working on is filling new leadership roles.”

Among the graduation losses for the Sault were a pair of All-U.P. players — Jordyn Haller and Lilly Alaspa.

One All-UP player is back however, as junior Claire Erickson returns to give the team someone to build around. The 6-foot forward was the Co-Straits Area Conference Player of the Year and led the Blue Devils in scoring and rebounding with a near double-double 11.2 points and 9.6 rebounds.

“Claire has the versatility to play all five positions,” Bennin said. “She can handle the ball and run our offense and impacts the game on offense and defense. She can also be more of a scorer if needed, and this year we’ll need more scoring from her. She’ll kind of have a target on her back now as the returning conference player of the year. Other teams will be game-planning to defend her, but she can affect the game as much with her passing as her scoring.”

The Blue Devils have ten players on their roster, including six returnees. Returning players include seniors Sagen Nolan, Taylor Pratt, Audrey Smith and Hanna Eavou, and juniors Kenzie Bell and Claire Erickson. Newcomers to varsity are juniors Laura Innerebner, Hanna Maurer, Ella Marchand and Chelsea McLeod.

“Kenzie Bell was the second player coming off the bench for us last year,” Bennin said. “She gained some valuable experience as a sophomore and will play a bigger role now. Laura Innerebner gives us some more size at around 6-foot, 6-1. We also have several kids who have played different roles and who maybe haven’t had extended minutes yet. But they’ve been in our program, and have learned what it takes to compete at the varsity level. Now they will get a chance to step up and play more.”

The Blue Devils will be tested early, facing many tough teams as part of eight games scheduled in December. Sault High visits Marquette and Rudyard next week, and also plays Mona Shores, Gaylord, St. Ignace, DeWitt and Alpena this month.

“We’re going to be thrown right into the fire,” Bennin said. “We’re facing some very good teams and some bigger schools right away. We’ll find out a lot about our team during December. However we come through this month, it’s all about building and getter better as we go forward.”

Sault High has won three district titles in the last four seasons and is the defending Straits Area Conference champion. Over the last two seasons the Sault is 35-3. During that stretch the team had a school record 28-game winning streak.

Contact Sports Editor Rob Roos at rroos@sooeveningnews.com. Follow him on Twitter, @rroosTEN.

This article originally appeared on The Sault News: Blue Devils keeping expectations high