DFJ ALL-DECADE TEAM: GIRLS BASKETBALL
Kalli Richardson
Kalli Richardson, Northeast Hamilton (2007-11)
Northeast Hamilton graduate Kalli Richardson played just one season in this past decade, but what a season it was.
The tiny backcourt dynamo popped off for nearly 500 points as a senior and averaged 20.8 points per game to power the Trojets to a 17-7 season in 2010-11. She also put up 5.2 rebounds, 3.1 steals and 2.5 assists per game.
In the history of Hamilton County, only one girl has scored more career points (5-player) than Richardson’s total of 1,457, that being South Hamilton’s Katie Gustafson (1,553). Richardson averaged 16.3 points per game over her career.
THE NUMBERS
Taylor McKinney
•1,457 points, the second-most in the history of Hamilton County (5 player girls basketball).
•Averaged 16.3 points per game over her career.
•352 rebounds, 277 assists and 231 steals during her career.
WHAT MADE HER SPECIAL?
The first time I saw Kalli play was in the fifth grade and you could tell she was a ball player from day one. She lived to play basketball and, pound for pound, she was one of the greatest competitors I’ve ever coached. She wasn’t afraid of the big moments.
Shannon Hoyle
–Brandon Frohwein, former Northeast Hamilton head coach
Taylor McKinney, Webster City (2016-20)
Over the past decade, Webster City’s Taylor McKinney was Miss Basketball in Hamilton County. With an impeccable handle and a buttery jump shot, she was poetry in motion in a Lynx uniform and the featured attraction on a nightly basis.
McKinney could score … and score, and score some more. She was also an underrated passer and, when she needed to be, a one-girl press breaker.
There’s no doubt, she’s the best 5-player girls basketball player that Webster City has ever seen.
Taryn Wicks
THE NUMBERS
•1,340 points, a WCHS 5-player school record.
•469 field goals, a WCHS 5-player school record.
•188 3-point field goals, a WCHS 5-player school record.
•19 games with 20+ points.
Cassidy Nerland
•5 games with 30+ points.
•1 game with 40 points, also a WCHS 5-player school record.
WHAT MADE HER SPECIAL?
It was the work she did before she got into high school, the time she spent in the gym as a little kid and all the way through her playing days. Those are the things that made her rise to the top.
–Nicole Muhlenbruch, current Webster City head coach
Shannon Hoyle, South Hamilton (2008-12)
A bulldog, that’s the best way to describe South Hamilton graduate Shannon Hoyle on the basketball court.
She wasn’t big, she just played like it, and she could do so many things to help make her teams successful.
Hoyle could score. She could distribute. She could rebound. She could play defense. In other words, she was the ultimate team player for a South Hamilton crew that won 34 games over her junior and senior seasons.
As a senior in 2011-12, she averaged a double-double — 12.8 points and 11.4 rebounds per game.
THE NUMBERS
•641 points over three years in a varsity uniform for South Hamilton, an average of 9.0 points per game.
•274 rebounds as a senior (she was a guard!).
•Career totals of 536 rebounds, 163 assists and 161 steals.
•34 wins as a junior and senior.
WHAT MADE HER SPECIAL?
Shannon was tenacious, she didn’t like to lose. She was always ready to go, she was always game on and she was the ultimate competitor. For every 50-50 ball, you could bet Shannon was someplace around the ball.
–Kathi Fisher, former South Hamilton head coach
Taryn Wicks, South Hamilton (2008-12)
Sneaky good, or sneaky really good, would be the best way to describe Taryn Wicks during her days at South Hamilton.
Whether it was from the outside, on pull-up jump shots, or in the lane, Wicks had so many skills that left opponents helpless in trying to stop her.
In three years at the varsity level, she challenged 1,000 career points and led the Hawks to their best run in nearly 20 years. She averaged better than 20 points per game as a senior in 2011-12.
Wicks went on to an all-conference career at DMACC and also played collegiately at Minnesota State.
THE NUMBERS
•989 career points in three years.
•Averaged 14.1 points per game over her career.
•As a senior in 2011-12, averaged 20.4 points and 6.5 rebounds per game.
•Also registered 283 rebounds, 169 steals and 115 assists over her career.
WHAT MADE HER SPECIAL?
She was the silent threat almost. Outwardly, Taryn didn’t have that aggressive appearance, but she would sneak up and get you like a snake.
–Kathi Fisher, former South Hamilton head coach
Cassidy Nerland, Northeast Hamilton/Webster City (2014-18)
Northeast Hamilton and Webster City can both take credit for Cassidy Nerland’s four-year arc on the hardwood, and what a career she produced.
Her primary responsibility was rebounding, and no one did it better.
Over her four-year career — one season at Northeast Hamilton in 2014-15 before the high school closed, followed by three seasons at Webster City — Nerland ripped down 819 rebounds to go along with 845 points.
Nerland holds the 5-player school record for rebounds at WCHS with 612. The 255 caroms she collected as a senior is a single-season school record.
THE NUMBERS
•845 points and 819 rebounds in four years at Northeast Hamilton and Webster City.
•Averaged 9.5 points and 9.2 rebounds over her career.
•At WCHS, 612 career rebounds, a 5-player school record.
•255 rebounds as a senior, a WCHS single-season record.
WHAT MADE HER SPECIAL?
It’s her work ethic, during the basketball season and throughout all of the sports. There was no way she was going to let anybody out do her.
-
- Kalli Richardson
-
- Taylor McKinney
-
- Shannon Hoyle
-
- Taryn Wicks
-
- Cassidy Nerland