Womens Basketball Article

Perseverance. This is the first word that should be used to describe our
womens basketball team. Through all the trials, the long days, and
very difficult games, these women have never stopped giving 100% no
matter what the circumstance. In his first season as head coach for
the womens basketball team, Coach Kevin Boozikee, used this season
as a chance to not only grow his athletes, but also to learn himself.
Coach Bo has always been in a coaching position where he has been
an assistant but now hes in a place where hes in charge of the whole
program. He said hes had to study the difference between coaching
men and women with learning what coaching styles work and what
doesnt. He also had to learn what other teams in our conference are
like, especially with the switch from assistant coaching football to head
coaching womens basketball. Runningbacks
Over the years, our womens basketball team has made improvements
from season to season. And this improvement showed through this
season more than any other. While getting somewhat of a slow start,
the team began to pick up the pace as the season went on. Returning
just one senior, no juniors, a handful of sophomores, and a plethora of
freshmen, Crown competed very well among the rest of the teams in
the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference. Crown had 9 new members on
the team, including a mix of freshmen and a few transfers. They
finished the season 6-18 on the year, and 3-11 in conference, which
resulted in a sixth place tie. Coach Bo has taken the team and made
improvements in every aspect, considering hes leading a team that
has only won four games in the past three years combined. Because
of new leadership and new recruits, the womens basketball team has
had their best season in almost a decade.
Two big aspects of Crowns success included Desiree Davis and Jessica
Klaustermeier. Davis, a 55 sophomore from Houston, Texas made her
presence known in the UMAC for the second season in a row. She led
the team in almost every category including scoring, rebounds, assists,
and steals in Crowns 14 conference games. She averaged 13.1 points,
6.1 rebounds, 3.1 assists, and 3.1 steals. Not only were her numbers
good enough to earn her All-Conference Honorable Mention, but
because she led the conference in steals, she also made the UMAC AllDefensive team. When compared with the rest of the competition in
our conference, Davis was 7th in scoring, 8th in rebounding, 1st in steals,
and 3rd in assists.
Davis best game was when Crown competed against University of
Minnesota Morris, the conference champion. She had a total of 26
points, including making 4 out of 6 three pointers. In this game alone,

she had nine rebounds, seven assists, and six steals. Desirees 68
steals on the season also set a single season record for Crown. Coach
Boozikee said he was very proud of her accomplishments this
season. Boozikee mentioned how critical it is for him to learn how to
adapt Desirees skillset to his coaching style and meshing the two
together. In the next couple of years, they should be able to adjust
and grow throughout the process.
Jessica Klaustermeier, a 56 sophomore from Waconia, Minnesota, also
made her name known among the UMAC this year. In just her first
year at Crown, she also earned All-Conference Honorable Mention. She
averaged 12.6 points per game and 5.3 rebounds, both coming in
second on the team, right behind Davis. Because of her scoring power,
Klaustermeier was 8th in the conference in scoring and also made the
second most free throws in the 2014-2015 season. Klaustermeier had
her best performance of the season against North Central University
where she scored 24 points in the teams win over the Rams. She shot
13 free throws that game, which also tied a single game record.
Because Coach knew Jessica prior to coaching here at Crown, he said
how impressed he was with the way she grew throughout the season.
Klaustermeiers season is especially impressive because she hadnt
played basketball in two years. Coach Bo said she was a track athlete
for two years and then transitioned back into playing basketball again
just this year. Boozikee was very excited about how far Jessica had
come when it came to her basketball skills, but also with her leadership
abilities on and off the court.
In addition to Jessica and Desiree, there are other members that made
a huge difference in this years season. Freshman point guard Andrea
Besa was right behind Davis, coming in second in steals in the
conference this year. Freshman Madison Stricklin and sophomore Alisa
Warnes had two of the highest shooting percentages in school history,
even though Alisa Warnes had a season ending injury midway through
the season. Sophomore, Leah Breakfield was just a few percentages
off from having the highest free throw percentage in our schools
history.
Coach Boozikee is extremely optimistic of the years to come for the
womens basketball team. He said he already has a great start and is
excited to build on the next two years. Coach Bo is all about looking
to the future and forgetting what is in the past. He plans on starting a
Junior Varsity program which would give more playing time to some of
the freshman players that arent as experienced. Coach knew at the
beginning of the season that they would have to get a lot of things out
of the way, for example a 100 game losing streak in the conference.

This year, they finally broke that and won three of their fourteen
conference games. As the head coach, Boozikee wants to reestablish
the tradition of womens basketball at Crown College.
While this season might look discouraging from the outside, its
actually quite the opposite. Compared with past seasons, Crown
Womens Basketball has made positive improvements in their overall
teamwork, scoring, defense, and even their leadership. Because of
how young the Storm are, the future is looking extremely bright for this
team.