By RICHIE HALL
This year’s Hamilton Southeastern girls basketball team will be young, but the Royals are set to have a very strong season.
Southeastern has one of the top juniors in the state, plus two sophomores who already have multiple Division I offers. Add to that a handful of returning letter winners, and there is quite a bit of potential with this year’s Royals team.
“We are eager to see what this team can accomplish,” said HSE coach Brian Satterfield.
Leading the way is Maya Makalusky. The junior brings back 15.4 points and 3.9 rebounds per game from her sophomore season, second only to her older sister Riley Makalusky, who is now playing at Butler University. Maya is also going the D-I route, as she has committed to Indiana University.
The two sophomores returning are Kennedy Holman and Kayla Stidham. Holman averaged 6.1 points, 4.0 rebounds and 2.8 assists from last season, while Stidham brings back 2.8 points per game.
“This is a good nucleus for our group to build around this year,” said Satterfield. “Maya has brought great leadership while Kennedy brings great energy every day.”
The Royals have two seniors this year: Zoe Lawless and Hannah Wade.
“Neither played varsity last year but are contributing in different ways to be valuable pieces,” said Satterfield.
The three other returning letter winners are juniors Maine Hooks, Kayla Brinley and Addison Van Hoesen. Hooks played in all but one game for Southeastern last year, while Brinley and Van Hoesen saw action in 10 games. The Royals were 21-3 last season.
“It will be interesting to see how the entire group handles the lights being turned on,” said Satterfield. “We as a staff feel they are progressing and getting ready for the challenge, but it is hard to tell until you really get out there to see them in live action. Our scrimmage went well, so we hope that is a good indication as to how our team will perform moving forward.”
Other varsity players for the Royals this year are juniors Abby Brown, Tommi Burton, Abi Clayton and Kenley Johnson, sophomore Antonnette Green and freshman Abby Orme.
“We have had some good team bonding experiences this fall,” said Satterfield. “Our group volunteered at AgriPark in Fishers for an event where kids could play on rides and carve pumpkins. We had them get into two teams and compete at the Escape Room. We hope these team bonding experiences helps to gel this group as we start to get into the daily grind.”
Southeastern begins its season Saturday afternoon at Ben Davis, then hosts Franklin Community Tuesday for its home opener.