Park girls basketball will have its guards up

Posted 11/23/22

Park will unleash a flurry of veteran guards at opponents this season as the Wolfpack return four of its top six players from last year’s team, including three starters returning at guard. …

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

Log in

Park girls basketball will have its guards up

Posted

Park will unleash a flurry of veteran guards at opponents this season as the Wolfpack return four of its top six players from last year’s team, including three starters returning at guard. Returning for Park are senior point guard Syndee Nelson (8.6 ppg), junior guard Tori Henderson (9.3 ppg), senior guard Emma Ambroz (5.1 ppg) and senior forward Bryleigh Dana (4.7 ppg).

The Wolfpack must replace the firepower of leading scorer Justine Jameson (14.8 ppg.) and guard Elsa Olson (5.1 ppg).

“We do have some good ones coming back,” said veteran coach Stephanie Tolkinen, who is starting her 18th season as head coach and 23rd year at Park High School. “We’ve got good leadership in Sydnee Nelson, our point guard coming back, we’ve got toughness in the paint with Bryleigh Dana coming back and we’ve got Emma Ambroz, a good shooter this year. Eddie Walton is coming back off an ACL surgery. These are all seniors who are going to be back. And we’ve got Tori Henderson who’s been starting for us since her freshman year and just adding so much to her game.

“So, we’re really excited that core group and then we have the Leick twins (Finley and Morgan), they’ve played a lot of JV in the past, but I think they’re going to supplement and help us out coming off the bench this year and hopefully Juliana Lane will be coming back after a knee surgery as well,” Tolkinen continued.

The Wolfpack had a successful season in 2021-22, finishing 17-12 overall and 11-7 in the Suburban East Conference, good for fifth place. The Wolfpack topped Hastings (54-47) and Eagan (43-39) in the Section 3AAAA playoffs before bowing in the section championship to Rosemount (52-30).

Highlighting the regular season was a 49-47 at White Bear Lake, against a Bears team which would go on to finish third in the Class AAAA state tournament. Park easily swept rival Woodbury in two games, but in turn was swept by East Ridge.

This year’s strengths should be team quickness, team chemistry, and team smarts.

“Their basketball IQ is pretty good,” said Tolkinen. “They’re understanding the game and Syndee is like another coach on the floor. She really understands what’s going on. And we want them to build their trust a little but with each other, but I think their chemistry and communication as they continue to pay together is going to be our strength. I think skill-wise we have some kids who can handle the ball pretty well and we have some kids who can shoot the ball pretty well. Those are going to help us. We’ve got to put ourselves in good situations to score and you’ll see and I hope our defense will be a strength this year, too.”

Park’s experience should also play dividends this season.

“Especially since we have a big senior class,” said Ambroz. “we’ve all grown up playing together so this year is our last year and we’re super excited. We’re going to go all out and play for each other.”

One thing Tolkinen would like to see is improvement in rebounding and just overall team toughness.

“We didn’t show our best defense at times last year and we just have to be better in our toughness. I just think we have to be just tougher on the defensive end, just being able to work a little harder and to keep people off the boards a little bit more,” said the Park head coach.

Nelson could quickly put her finger on what she sees as team strengths. Team weaknesses was a little harder to describe.

“I think our strengths are definitely shooting threes and playing fast and getting down on defense and playing our game,” said Nelson. “I think our weaknesses are when we don’t run our offense.”

Nelson said she sees this year’s Park team as similar to last year’s squad, with one notable exception. “This year we’ll shoot a lot more threes, I think, but I think we have about the same team.”

SEC teams were tough lasts season with Stillwater (23-5), East Ridge (20-8), White Bear Lake (22-10) and Roseville (22-10) all winning 20 games or more. Those same team are expected to be strong again.

“You don’t have a night off in our conference and then and our non-conference are our section opponents, so we just have a really tough schedule but it’s building us for the end of the season.”

Regardless of the quality of the conference opponents, Ambroz said the team’s confidence is high.

“I definitely feel like we can beat every single team if we play our best,” said Ambroz. “But I think its good because a lot of other teams also lost kind of big players, so I think that really helps us. I felt a lot of the teams are more evenly matched. But obviously I think like East Ridge, Stillwater, will still be tough.”

Park hosts Burnsville in a non-conference contest to open the season, starting at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 29


Junior guard Tori Henderson returns after averaging 9.3 points per game last season, second highest on last year’s team. Photo by John Molene