Optimism is high in Gates Mills as the Hawken Hawks open the 2024-2025 season with five returning starters and seven others with varsity experience.
“This Hawks team has a ton of potential,” said second-year head coach Jamee Gerrick. “It’s a group that has returned every player from last season’s very young team. The majority of the roster is still pretty young, but we have more experience. We have a group that is determined despite having a tough season last year. We have seen more intensity in the gym. We’re still developing but we’re all feeling optimistic.”
The Hawks finished 3-19 overall and 1-7 in league play last winter, but valuable experience was gained and the Hawks are a better team for it.
“This team has been building an identity over the past year,” Gerrick said. “With such a young team last season, we needed to figure out who we are and where we can find success at the varsity level. We’ve proven to be a defensively intelligent group with a few extremely aggressive players. We’re planning on employing a series of defensive schemes to keep teams uncomfortable.”
Among Hawken’s returning starters are seniors Sarah Liu and Cami Courtad.
Liu is a guard who averaged 9.0 points, 4.5 rebounds, and 1.8 assists per game last season while Courtad, a center, averaged 3.2 points, 7.0 rebounds, and 1.6 assists per contest as a junior.
Rounding out the projected starting lineup are junior guard Sophia Cicerini, sophomore forward/center Tess Peterson, and sophomore guard/forward Julia Scales.
Cicerini averaged 5.1 points, 3.5 rebounds, and 1.1 assists per game last season. Peterson dropped 1.9 points with 4.1 rebounds and 1.0 assists per game last winter while Scales averaged 13 points, 8.8 rebounds, 1.4 assists, 1.7 steals, and 1.0 blocks per game.
Sophomore guard Maddie Mailer, freshman guard/forward Sasha Miller, and freshman guard Eliza Nelson will provide the Hawks with depth.
“We’re still very young in terms of a basketball program but especially as a varsity team,” Gerrick said. “We expect older, more experienced teams to try to rattle us or push us around, but we have a ton of kids who are showing that they’re not going to be bullied by an opponent. We’re much better at handling physicality and pressure than we were last season.”
With a year of experience under their belts, the young Hawks are hoping to continue to make progress and remain competitive throughout the season.
“Our goals for this season are to continue the development of our younger players and be more competitive than we were last season,” Gerrick said. “We had an extremely young roster last year and started to take some steps in the right direction in the latter part of the season. We’ve returned our top six players in minutes per game last season, so we’re looking to continue building from last season. With virtually the whole team back and the addition of a few very hardworking freshmen, we plan to be over .500 this season.”
