SPORTS

West guard making name for herself

Tim Johnson

USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin

Maddie Schires was a second team all-Wisconsin Valley Conference selection last year as a freshman

WAUSAU - Maddie Schires sports No. 23 for the Wausau West girls basketball team in homage to a former Warriors standout who she idolized.

"Jessica Waldvogel. She's the reason why I wear 23," Schires said during practice Monday. "She was an amazing player and I loved watching her. When I was little, I used to come to West games all the time, and my goal was to be just like her."

Waldvogel helped the Warriors reach the WIAA state girls basketball tournament in 2010 and was a first-team selection on the Associated Press all-state team that year. Schires is making a name for herself with the program and likely inspiring some young fans along the way as well.

The Warriors guard is coming off a freshman season in which she averaged 15.6 points per game and was a second team all-Wisconsin Valley Conference selection. Schires, who has an offer from Youngstown State, is a tri-captain this season for a Warriors team that is expected to contend for the Wisconsin Valley Conference title this season.

"She's put in a lot of time in the offseason and is a tireless worker. She constantly wants to be in the gym developing her game," West coach Jason Teske said. "She's earned a lot of respect from her teammates ... and she has kind of become the face of the program because of how she works. She has done a lot with the youth program and I think there is a lot of kids who would like to emulate her, because of not only how good she is but how hard she works at it."

Daily Herald Media stopped by practice recently to ask Schires the following questions about her hopes for the season and becoming a leader on the team:

There is a little bit of a buzz about this team with what you are bringing back. Just the excitement of being back out on the court with your teammates: It was a lot of fun being back out on the court (last Friday against Pulaski). We have a lot of returners and everyone was excited to be out there again.

It's one game, but what was the biggest takeaway from that loss (to Pulaski)? That we have a lot of potential to play with teams and hang with them. We know what we have on our team and what our strengths are. We also know what we need to work on.

People feel this team could be one of the top ones in the (Wisconsin Valley Conference) this year. Does that add pressure or does it just reinforce the expectations this team of itself already? Well, we think highly of ourselves. Coach Teske always pushes us to do our best. We have a lot of potential and we expect ourselves to play the way we want to play. We want to play as hard as we know we can and hopefully it will turn out good for us.

What do you see as the strength of the team this year? When we work together we can be very strong. At some points against Pulaski, we did play strong and together. But other times we weren't talking a lot, which didn't help us. When we have our talking going on, we are a very strong team.

What did you want to work on coming into this season individually? Defense, definitely. I know Coach Teske wants me to be able to get up on opponents and play them as hard as (teammate) Alexa Sheehan. Coach wants me as intense on defense as I am on offense. I totally agree with him.

Talk about the development of your role with the team. You are being looked at to be more of a leader this year? I have the privilege of being one of our captains this year. Last season it was kind of hard coming in as a freshman and finding my place. At the end of the year I kind of got to it. I knew I had to be a leader on the team this year. Coach Teske and I talked about that. I feel the maturity level for me this year compared to last year is huge. I think Coach Teske saw that.

Tim Johnson: 715-845-0731, or timothy.johnson@gannettwisconsin.com; on Twitter @timmyjo11