Edgewood College Athletic Commun
The Eagles celebrate their first win of this season.
The Edgewood College women’s basketball team was the youngest in the country this season, regardless of division.
With 10 freshmen and only one junior and one sophomore, the Eagles erased the memory of last year’s 0-25 debacle and took a major step toward rebuilding a program that lacked culture and passion. “I told my players, ‘We don’t have time to grow up; growing up happens now,’” says second-year head coach Chaia (pronounced KY-ah) Huff. “Those freshmen inherited a record they were not a part of, and they believed they would be the ones to come in here, leave their mark and change things.”
By playing at least four freshmen every minute of every game, the Eagles bounced back this year, with an 11-14 record. That 11-game swing toward the “W” column was the fourth-biggest turnaround in NCAA Division III women’s basketball this season.
Although Edgewood finished eighth in the 12-team Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference and fell short of its goal to make the six-team NACC Tournament, there was plenty of reason for celebration.
Consider this trio of freshmen: Brooke Lonigro, out of McFarland High School, led Edgewood in total assists (116) and was ranked nationally; Delaney Wilhelm, from Amboy, Illinois, worked her way onto the college’s top 15 all-time list in average rebounds per game (7.4); and Abby Shane, a guard out of Brookfield’s Heritage Christian School, led the team in total points with 266.
“It’s a very hard task to go from even the bottom to the middle,” Huff, 36, says, attributing at least some of Edgewood’s success to the evolution of a team-oriented culture that stressed character, communication and confidence. “If you don’t have a culture, you might win some games, but you’ll never get to where you want to be. [Our former players] just weren’t hoopers. When we got real hoopers in here, the others fell away.”
This season’s highlights included two signature wins over Concordia University Chicago, which went on to finish runner-up in the NACC Tournament. One of those Eagles victories came at the Edgedome on Valentine’s Day and included an 11-0 Edgewood run. “My kids played out of their minds that game,” Huff says.
But she also acknowledged that, in some ways, this season was tougher than last year’s losing streak. “I needed to get my team to love and believe in each other.” she says. “When you have 10 freshmen, the distractions are everywhere. Now, they’re all very invested. We have big dreams and much more to accomplish.”
