2022-23 Hillsboro Lady Indians Basketball Preview
Lead Summary
By
Stephen Forsha-sforsha@gmail.com
The Hillsboro Lady Indians have a new head coach — that being Heather Storer, who comes from being an assistant at Fairfield High School — who wants to take the Lady Indians to a higher level of play for the 2022-23 season.
Hillsboro began their improved play last season under now-former head coach Chad Fields, as he resigned after two seasons leading the Hillsboro squad. Storer takes over the Lady Indians as a first-time varsity head coach, but she gained experience as an assistant coach at Fairfield, while she was also one of the top scorers in FHS basketball history during her high school playing days.
Now entering the 2022-23 season at Hillsboro, the Lady Indians have two returning starters, as those players are junior Rylie Scott and sophomore forward Blake Herdman.
Herdman averaged 8.7 points per game last season, while also averaging 6.5 rebounds per game. She was an All-District selection as a freshman.
HHS also has seven other players returning to the program who earned varsity letters.
HHS lost their leading scorer from last season, Gracie Dean, due to graduation. Dean, who averaged 16.6 ppg in 21 games, was an All-Ohio selection and was an All-Frontier Athletic Conference and All-District honoree, including being named Division II Co-Player of the Year by coaches in the Southeast District.
Also gone from last season due to graduation are Brynn Bledsoe (9.1 ppg and an All-District selection) and Eden Edenfield (7.5 ppg), as they were a big part of Hillsboro finishing 11-11 overall. HHS was also 6-4 in the FAC last year, as there was a three-way tie for second place in the conference.
The Lady Indians enter this season with no seniors, but they have six juniors, five sophomores and six freshmen. The juniors are forward Reagan Eastes, guard Morgan Garman, guard Addyson Miles, Scott, forward Maddie Taylor and forward Gracie Thoroman.
Sophomores this season are guard Peighton Bledsoe, center Amani Cumberland, center Madison Dearmon, center Kallie Fraley and forward Herdman.
New to the program are freshmen center Kiara Boris, center Aubrey Burton, forward Kyra Boyd, center Reagan Leeth, guard Kayla Seeling and guard Kobie Miles.
“There are several kids that we are excited about here at Hillsboro,” Storer said. “The junior and sophomore classes have played ‘limited roles’ on the varsity team in the past, and we are excited to put them in the positions to compete this year and see what they can accomplish.
“In addition, the freshman class has several players that could also make an impact on this season. These girls are in a special position with getting to have the same team for the next two-plus years, and it will be fun to watch them grow together and develop as a team.”
Opportunities were available for the Lady Indians this offseason, and they took full advantage of it, whether it was during the summer or in the preseason with practices and scrimmages before the start of the regular-season games.
“This offseason was filled with a lot of opportunities for our team and coaching staff to get to know each other and start building our program,” Storer said. “We spent this summer at Cedarville and also hosted the Highland County Shootout and our own shootout with nine teams in attendance.
“With a whole new system to put into place, this summer was crucial in the team bonding together as a whole and seeing what these girls could do on the floor against good competition.”
A positive Storer mentions when describing her team is their work ethic, as eventually that will make a difference at some point this upcoming season.
“Our team comes in every day and works hard to compete and get better. We talk about bringing lots of energy and effort into everything that we do,” she said. “We also want to continue to get fundamentally better every day. We want to become the best teammates we can be and never settle.
“Our motto for the year is to ‘Create Your Legacy,’ and these girls have every chance to leave a legacy here at Hillsboro.”
Goals for the Lady Indians in Storer’s first season don’t involve a certain number of wins; rather, she’s building the program with a vision in mind of getting better each game, while having goals for each game this season.
“As a coach, of course you want to win games, but for a new coach in a new league, I am not putting a ‘goal’ on the wins. As a team, we have created game goals to accomplish every single game, and if we continue to check those goals off, the wins will follow,” Storer said. “The expectation is to get one-percent better every day.
“That is a message that my staff is preaching daily to our girls, and if we can do that by the end of the season, that is a huge leap for our program. Coming to every practice and every game with full focus, lots of energy and all-out effort is our main goal.”
The Frontier Athletic Conference will be competitive from top to bottom this season, and this is the first time Storer has coached in the conference as she competed in the Southern Hills Athletic Conference as a player and assistant coach.
“With this being my first experience coaching within the FAC, I have to go mostly off what I know and what I have heard,” Storer said when speaking about the conference. “Jackson and Chillicothe are teams that return some really good players. Miami Trace and McClain are teams that have always been known to play aggressive and scrappy, and Washington will be improving as well. Overall, this should be a competitive league with lots of good players and coaches within.”
The non-conference schedule for Hillsboro includes: Blanchester, Peebles, Zane Trace, Lynchburg-Clay, Whiteoak (at Hoosier Gym), Goshen, Adena, Paint Valley, East Clinton, Fairfield, Western Brown and Wilmington.
“This year, we will play a challenging non-conference schedule, playing teams like East Clinton, Lynchburg-Clay, Adena and Western Brown,” Storer said. “These are just some of the teams that we will play that have talented players to help us prepare for tough league games and tournament play.”
Two words came to mind for Storer when describing her team, and those are “coachable” and “competitive.”
“Coachable and competitive are a few words, which are probably the best two traits I could ask for in a team,” Storer said. “‘Young’ would be the word that most people will use to describe this team, but it is absolutely not an excuse for us.
“Our girls are expected to show up every day and work just as hard as any senior/junior-heavy team would be expected to. Being labeled as ‘young’ means you work that much harder. The future is very bright for the Lady Indian basketball program.”
Hillsboro opened the 2022-23 season Friday, Nov. 18 at home against the Blanchester Lady Wildcats in non-conference play.
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Hillsboro began their improved play last season under now-former head coach Chad Fields, as he resigned after two seasons leading the Hillsboro squad. Storer takes over the Lady Indians as a first-time varsity head coach, but she gained experience as an assistant coach at Fairfield, while she was also one of the top scorers in FHS basketball history during her high school playing days.
Now entering the 2022-23 season at Hillsboro, the Lady Indians have two returning starters, as those players are junior Rylie Scott and sophomore forward Blake Herdman.
Herdman averaged 8.7 points per game last season, while also averaging 6.5 rebounds per game. She was an All-District selection as a freshman.
HHS also has seven other players returning to the program who earned varsity letters.
HHS lost their leading scorer from last season, Gracie Dean, due to graduation. Dean, who averaged 16.6 ppg in 21 games, was an All-Ohio selection and was an All-Frontier Athletic Conference and All-District honoree, including being named Division II Co-Player of the Year by coaches in the Southeast District.
Also gone from last season due to graduation are Brynn Bledsoe (9.1 ppg and an All-District selection) and Eden Edenfield (7.5 ppg), as they were a big part of Hillsboro finishing 11-11 overall. HHS was also 6-4 in the FAC last year, as there was a three-way tie for second place in the conference.
The Lady Indians enter this season with no seniors, but they have six juniors, five sophomores and six freshmen. The juniors are forward Reagan Eastes, guard Morgan Garman, guard Addyson Miles, Scott, forward Maddie Taylor and forward Gracie Thoroman.
Sophomores this season are guard Peighton Bledsoe, center Amani Cumberland, center Madison Dearmon, center Kallie Fraley and forward Herdman.
New to the program are freshmen center Kiara Boris, center Aubrey Burton, forward Kyra Boyd, center Reagan Leeth, guard Kayla Seeling and guard Kobie Miles.
“There are several kids that we are excited about here at Hillsboro,” Storer said. “The junior and sophomore classes have played ‘limited roles’ on the varsity team in the past, and we are excited to put them in the positions to compete this year and see what they can accomplish.
“In addition, the freshman class has several players that could also make an impact on this season. These girls are in a special position with getting to have the same team for the next two-plus years, and it will be fun to watch them grow together and develop as a team.”
Opportunities were available for the Lady Indians this offseason, and they took full advantage of it, whether it was during the summer or in the preseason with practices and scrimmages before the start of the regular-season games.
“This offseason was filled with a lot of opportunities for our team and coaching staff to get to know each other and start building our program,” Storer said. “We spent this summer at Cedarville and also hosted the Highland County Shootout and our own shootout with nine teams in attendance.
“With a whole new system to put into place, this summer was crucial in the team bonding together as a whole and seeing what these girls could do on the floor against good competition.”
A positive Storer mentions when describing her team is their work ethic, as eventually that will make a difference at some point this upcoming season.
“Our team comes in every day and works hard to compete and get better. We talk about bringing lots of energy and effort into everything that we do,” she said. “We also want to continue to get fundamentally better every day. We want to become the best teammates we can be and never settle.
“Our motto for the year is to ‘Create Your Legacy,’ and these girls have every chance to leave a legacy here at Hillsboro.”
Goals for the Lady Indians in Storer’s first season don’t involve a certain number of wins; rather, she’s building the program with a vision in mind of getting better each game, while having goals for each game this season.
“As a coach, of course you want to win games, but for a new coach in a new league, I am not putting a ‘goal’ on the wins. As a team, we have created game goals to accomplish every single game, and if we continue to check those goals off, the wins will follow,” Storer said. “The expectation is to get one-percent better every day.
“That is a message that my staff is preaching daily to our girls, and if we can do that by the end of the season, that is a huge leap for our program. Coming to every practice and every game with full focus, lots of energy and all-out effort is our main goal.”
The Frontier Athletic Conference will be competitive from top to bottom this season, and this is the first time Storer has coached in the conference as she competed in the Southern Hills Athletic Conference as a player and assistant coach.
“With this being my first experience coaching within the FAC, I have to go mostly off what I know and what I have heard,” Storer said when speaking about the conference. “Jackson and Chillicothe are teams that return some really good players. Miami Trace and McClain are teams that have always been known to play aggressive and scrappy, and Washington will be improving as well. Overall, this should be a competitive league with lots of good players and coaches within.”
The non-conference schedule for Hillsboro includes: Blanchester, Peebles, Zane Trace, Lynchburg-Clay, Whiteoak (at Hoosier Gym), Goshen, Adena, Paint Valley, East Clinton, Fairfield, Western Brown and Wilmington.
“This year, we will play a challenging non-conference schedule, playing teams like East Clinton, Lynchburg-Clay, Adena and Western Brown,” Storer said. “These are just some of the teams that we will play that have talented players to help us prepare for tough league games and tournament play.”
Two words came to mind for Storer when describing her team, and those are “coachable” and “competitive.”
“Coachable and competitive are a few words, which are probably the best two traits I could ask for in a team,” Storer said. “‘Young’ would be the word that most people will use to describe this team, but it is absolutely not an excuse for us.
“Our girls are expected to show up every day and work just as hard as any senior/junior-heavy team would be expected to. Being labeled as ‘young’ means you work that much harder. The future is very bright for the Lady Indian basketball program.”
Hillsboro opened the 2022-23 season Friday, Nov. 18 at home against the Blanchester Lady Wildcats in non-conference play.
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