Illinois Valley Times

College basketball season is just around the corner, and Illinois Valley Community College's (IVCC) men's and women's teams are both gearing up for exciting seasons.

The men's squad is led by third-year head coach Chris Herman, who plans on improving on last year's 12-19 team with a cadre of talented incoming freshmen and one star sophomore.

IVCC women's basketball team | Contributed photo

Forward Ricky Calvin, who was one of the team's biggest offensive threats last season and finished as second team All-Region, returns to lead the Eagles, and Herman is once again expecting big things from him.

"He's worked extremely hard over the summer," Herman told Illinois Valley Times. "He went to the Top 80 JUCO camp out in Kansas City. Ricky's a great kid to build around -- respectful, good student. He's a great post player, and he can step out and shoot the ball. He's capable of knocking down the three. He can handle the ball a little bit, and he's a great rebounder."

Herman has an incoming group of 13 freshmen this year as well. This is just his second recruiting class since he's come to IVCC, and he took a different approach to that process this season compared with last year, when he felt he focused too much on transfer students, possibly to the expense of team chemistry. This year, he focused on guys who were a good fit with each other. Some of them have even played together before. That new recruiting principle has the Eagles off to a fast start in training camp.

"I'm real excited about this team," Herman said. "I think we've made a lot of improvements in the overall makeup of our team. We've got more length. We've got better character-type guys -- IQ is better. Just overall, I think this team came in ready to learn, and they're very coachable so far. Their work ethic has been really good, and they've been pretty responsible. This team has been very unselfish so far. We've got some guys that can really pass the basketball."

Freshmen to watch are Alex Vaverka, Christian Soderholm, Isaiah Tubbs, Brady Huebbe and Keymonta Johnson, all local players with skill, size and basketball IQ that will help IVCC improve on some of last year's weaknesses.

"Last year, we really struggled on the road," Herman said. "We won just one game on the road. We had a hard time finishing games, and a lot of times, that came down to IQ and selfish play... I think that rebounding is going to be much improved, and I think our overall IQ and court sense. This year, playing together and giving the ball up at the right time, I think that's also going to be improved."

In addition, there is an interesting quirk to this year's squad. There are five lefties on the team. Lefty ball-handlers often cause trouble for opposing defenders, especially in the drive-and-kick game. Herman plans to utilize that to his advantage this year, and even channels one of the NBA's most famous lefties when instituting his game plan.

"I've already got a sideline out-of-bounds play that we call 'Rockets,' and it's set up for James Harden (of the Houston Rockets), and I put one of my left-handed kids at that top spot where they can attack off the dribble," Herman said.

Ultimately, while Herman expects the occasional growing pain due to its youth, this year's team will be fun to watch. With all of the local talent aboard, Herman also hopes to see a bigger atmosphere at the Eagles' home games.

"They're just a fun group to be around," Herman said. "They're respectful; they listen. I've had no complaints about them in the community, so I'm excited about them. There will be some times where we hit a rough patch here and there, but I told them I'm not going to use our youth as an excuse for failure. We'll have some adversity, and that's what I'm looking for. With the local kids that I have, I'm looking forward to more community involvement and just people getting out to watch us."

IVCC starts the regular season on Tuesday, Nov. 1, at 7 p.m. at home against Danville Area Community College.

The IVCC women's team is also expecting to see improvement this year. Fourth-year head coach Tom Ptak is still looking for his first over-.500 season at IVCC, and he feels this is definitely the year the Eagles are going to do it. Ptak has a much deeper squad this year than what he was forced into last season.

"We have a very good outlook simply because of numbers," Ptak told Illinois Valley Times. "Last year, I had eight players or seven players due to injury, and this year, I have 16 players, so that's a big difference. I have five returning players, and they were all starters at one time, so things are looking good."

Those five returning starters consist of Daniella Pavlovich, who was first-team All Conference last season while averaging 18.0 points per game and finishing second in the nation in steals; Jill Wignes, who averaged 13.0 points per game last year; Hannah Wolfe, who finished with a double-double last season, scoring 12.2 points and snagging 10.5 rebounds per game; Ellie Herrmann, who averaged 5.0 points per game; and Emily Hoscheid, who is returning from an ACL injury last year.

IVCC will be in good hands leaning on its veterans, and it also recruited an exciting group of incoming freshmen to give the team an extra boost. Ptak said they'll be looking to push the pace a little more this season, and the team went out and found some guards they feel are capable of contributing.

"We were definitely looking for a point guard, and it feels like we landed two of them," Ptak said. "So that will be a nice asset to have -- someone to run the offense -- that we haven't had in the past...We're really working on pushing the ball and being a fast-break team, and we're also looking at pressing -- things we couldn't do in the past. We're going to take advantage of having a bunch of people that can play, so by pressing and pushing the ball every day in practice, we're going up the floor as fast as we can."

Ptak is assisted by Sammy Kromm and Nick Bernal. Kromm is a former player who soon will be inducted into the University of Wisconsin Hall of Fame, and along with Bernal, she is in charge of teaching post play. With two great assistants and a group of experienced local girls, Ptak feels the sky's the limit for IVCC this year. And like the men's team, Ptak's also hoping the heavy local presence on his roster will result in well-attended games and a home-court crowd advantage for the Eagles.

"I think we're definitely going to be able to compete, and one of our goals is to win the conference. I can tell with how we've been practicing so far that we're going to have a very competitive year. We're going to be strong this year. We have 15 girls that are in-district. We have local girls. We are represented very well by all local kids. It would be nice to have more than just extended family watching the game. I'm looking forward to some people filling up the stands and watching some good basketball."

The IVCC women also play their first game at home on Nov. 1 this season, in a game against Robert Morris, set for a 5 p.m. start.