By Joey Peterson —
A successful season in any sport has high and low moments; however, the key is to have more high moments than low moments. During the low moments, a team will be tested and have to face adversity, but overcoming adversity can only make a team stronger.
For the Blue Devils women’s basketball team, the season finished with a 10-16 overall record, which was good enough for a 6th place finish in the WIAC conference and a spot in the conference tournament.
“We accomplished some very positive things throughout the season and we dealt with some disappointments,” said Mark Thomas. “But it was never due to the fact that we didn’t prepare and play hard.” The head coach of the Blue Devils is in his 29th year of coaching at the University of Wisconsin–Stout.
Two games stand out during Stout’s season, the first being the road victory over the University of Wisconsin–Oshkosh. “They were the conference champions,” said Bailey Diersen (Fr, Greenville, Wis.) “So it feels pretty great to say that we could compete with anyone that we played against this year.”
Coach Thomas also agreed with Diersen.
“We got great effort from our players, we ended up beating a nationally ranked team on their court,” said Thomas. “Just seeing the team play with great toughness, passion and focus was rewarding for us all.”
The second game that highlighted the season came on senior night as the Blue Devils dismantled the University of Wisconsin–Platteville with an impressive offensive performance. “Scoring 40 points in the 3rd quarter is something that is impressive to accomplish and finishing the game with 99 points,” said Thomas.
Earlier in the season, the Blue Devils won both games in the Music City Classic in Nashville, Tennessee with victories over Penn State-Behrend and Hamilton College (N.Y.). Also, Stout made the conference tournament, but was unable to get past Stevens Point, losing 55-44.
Coach Thomas and his team pride themselves at keeping the score close and having a chance to win each and every game.