Winamac girls basketball preview: Kroft, Popejoy, Iverson form nucleus with 6 frosh to support

Val T.
Nov 4
6 min read

BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS

Sports Editor, RTC

The Winamac girls basketball team will feature familiar faces from the teams that posted back-to-back 14-10 seasons in 2024 and 2025.

Point guard Kandace Kroft, shooting guard Sadie Popejoy and forward Marissa Iverson are back, and they combined for 35.8 points per game last year. That was 82 percent of Winamac’s scoring.

The season ended with a 36-34 loss to Knox on a late 3-pointer from Portland Minix in the sectional quarterfinals. Winamac had beaten Knox by 12 points in their regular season meeting.

Iverson missed that sectional game with a knee injury. At 8.2 per game, she is a prolific rebounder.

The return to health of Iverson restores the Winamac big three as coach Tony Stesiak begins his fourth season as coach, but the roles might have inverted from last year to this year.

Last year, Kroft, Popejoy and Iverson formed the nucleus, and the role players were older players like Mershai Loehmer and Kaelyn O’Connor.

This year, Kroft, Popejoy and Iverson are again the nucleus. Senior Corinne Ulerick returns after missing last season due to shoulder surgery, and juniors Maggie Keller and Elizabeth DeLaCruz are also back.

But the role players are freshmen. They include guards Abby Keller, Kylie Fisher and Jordan Compton and forwards Tessa Berry, Alena Day and Willa Byroad.

Those freshmen give the Lady Warriors 12 players in the program which means they will play two JV quarters this year after not having a JV last year.

Stesiak was asked what the most significant thing the team accomplished during the summer and off-season..

“I guess it’s three parts,” Stesiak said. “Getting the returning players healthy, having more players overall and having a freshman class to acclimate to the returners. Those were the big things, I think, we were able to do over the summer.”

Stesiak said they had to change “everything offensively and defensively” due to the low numbers last year.

“Trying to avoid foul trouble,” Stesiak said. “Stay healthy. Practices were different. … We had to essentially change everything to account for how you make it through the season with six, seven players. … Trying to maneuver a practice in a season … Load management gets a bad term. It’s not the same as the NBA looks at it. But like, these players, many of which played 30-plus minutes, a day of practice, play in another game or three games in a week or whatever, how do you manage that where you’re trying to get player improvement and team development but also manage health and those kinds of things.

“And of course, basketball is the one sport where the referee’s whistle decides your participation. You’re not going to foul out in volleyball. Coaches know who their softball roster and batting order is going to be and they make the change. In basketball, an official’s whistle dictates whether you can play or not or how much sometimes. That’s an unknown variable we’ve got to account for too. I’m proud of the players in what we were able to accomplish with the hand we were dealt. But at the same time, I wouldn’t want to go through another season like that again.”

Kroft is in her fourth year as the varsity point guard. Her father Kole preceded Stesiak as coach. Stesiak speaks of Kroft’s “strong internal motivation” as a player.

“She has a strong internal desire to compete and get better on her own,” Stesiak said. “She’s not a player that you have to dangle the old carrot in front of or anything like that. She’s aware, partly because being a coach’s daughter and her dad being the coach of this program, of what the numbers of the Winamac greats are and what some of those names have done and what she would like to accomplish. But also, it’s about the team more so for her. There’s been times, I think, she could have been more selfish these last three years. The assist is important to her because it helps the team. She’ll pass up a good shot if a teammate gets a great shot. So challenging her is just there are some things as a team we haven’t accomplished yet. … She doesn’t have to change her game, just get better at it.”

Popejoy evolved from a spot-up 3-point shooter as a freshman to a more complete player who could also dribble and pass as a sophomore.

“I think this year is a little bit more of a point guard sort-of mentality and the ability to drive, finish all the way and hit the pull-up,” Stesiak said. “As she gets more aggressive in those, because obviously her and Kroft get a lot of attention out the perimeter, she’s really even taken another step than she did last year of trying to handle the ball more, drive, get to that midrange game, be a better rebounder. She continues to do that, score at all three levels … all three (Kroft, Popejoy and Iverson) of those help each other.”

Iverson attempted to participate in track in the spring but was unable to finish the season and rested the knee further. She returned to limited participation during summer scrimmages at Caston and Tri-Township and open gyms.

“It was more about rehab and not as much in development,” Stesiak said. “That might be a situation where you see great improvement. I still think she has the capability to get double figures in points and rebounds. That’s the threat for her. Can she put those actual numbers up? Can she average a double-double? … Like a lot of kids, they understand this is the senior year. This is the last crack at it. I think she’s highly motivated to stay healthy. And then there’s always been that potential aspect. And she’s had some big games, but to have a consistent, full, hopefully healthy senior year is really important to her too.”

Ulerick was cleared to play during the summer, but Stesiak wanted her limited to working on her shot from 15 feet and closer. She finally started to work on “everything” this fall, according to Stesiak.

“Nobody wants to miss an entire season,” Stesiak said. “But she learned a lot sitting next to the coaches. She understands the coaches. She helped her dad (Cullen) coach the sixth grade girls, which I think was tremendously impactful and helpful. So she was able to see the game and help impart our culture at the high school to those kids. I think it was really a positive experience, and I think she’s got a coaching future if she wants it to that point. Being a part of this program is important to her.”

Maggie Keller is a top defender who will typically guard the opponent’s top guard, according to Stesiak.

“Defense is important to her whether it’s softball, volleyball or basketball,” Stesiak said.

Winamac girls basketball schedule

Winamac has added games with South Central (Nov. 8), Hebron (Nov. 24) and Logansport (Dec. 13). Delphi will host the entire Kitchen Classic Jan. 2-3, where teams will play three games in a two-day span.

Winamac will not play a conference game between Dec. 12 and Jan. 9 but will then play five conference games in an 18-day span.

Nov. 4 – at Frontier, 6:30 p.m.

Nov. 8 – vs. South Central (Union Mills), 1:30 p.m.

Nov. 11 – at North Newton, 7:30 p.m.

Nov. 15 – vs. Caston, 7:30 p.m.

Nov. 18 – vs. Culver, 7:30 p.m.

Nov. 20 – vs. North White, 7:30 p.m.

Nov. 24 – at Hebron, 8 p.m.

Nov. 29 – at Rochester, 7:30 p.m.

Dec. 2 – vs. West Central, 7:30 p.m.

Dec. 6 – at Tri-County, 7:30 p.m.

Dec. 12 – at Argos, 6 p.m.