Northwood girls returning lettermen. Back row, from left: Sandy Koch, Shana Hagle, Kelcie Hansen. Kneeling, from left: Rema Abdelhoq, Payton Wojcinski, Sammie Brisbin. (Photo: Aaron Carpenter/Sentinel-Tribune)

NORTHWOOD — The Northwood girls basketball team has taken small steps in each of coach Geoff Milewski’s
three seasons.
Entering this new season, Milewski is hoping to continue that improvement with a team that features seven
letter winners from a year ago.
“My main goal, win or lose, is to really expand on last year,” Milewski. “Each year we’ve been trying to
do more. I feel like each year we’re close as far as being able to put more of the playbook in.
“We’re going to be doing more this year than we were last year … We’d like to continue to see that and
have improvement in other areas.”
The Rangers finished 8-14 overall and 4-8 (fifth) in the Toledo Area Athletic Conference last season.
Northwood defeated North Baltimore in its first sectional game before losing to Ottawa Hills for a third
time last season in the sectional final.
“It’s really hard to say for this year,” said Milewski of this year’s expectations. “I feel like we’ve
got some good players coming back.”
Leading the returners for Northwood is a group of seniors who have seen plenty of action. Guard Rema
Abdelhoq (5-foot-1, 7.0 points per game last season), and forwards Kirsten Wegman (5-9, 5.3 ppg, 5.1
rebounds per game) and Shayna Hague (5-6, 6.2 ppg, 5.7 rpg) will each be looked upon to lead the team.

Abdelhoq was an honorable mention All-TAAC selection last season.
“They’re bringing back the leadership and experience that you’d expect from your seniors,” Milewski said.
“The best thing about seniors is they know what to do. You’ve told them in the past and they remember
it.
Also returning are juniors Sammie Brisbin (6-2, guard, 5.5 ppg), Payton Wojcinski (5-4) and Kelcie Hansen
(5-10), and sophomore Sandy Koch (5-5). Brisbin hit 39 percent of her 3-pointers last season (17-of-44).

“It does make a difference when you have those returners, whether they started or not, they know what’s
going on,” Milewski said. “We’ve been able to get them up to speed a lot more quickly than otherwise.”

Geoff Milewski

“We’re a pretty balanced team as far as the people coming off the bench, We will be able to continue what
the starters are doing,” he added. “I don’t think we have one star player so we’re going to have to do a
lot of things as a team and by committee.”
The Rangers averaged 38.7 points while allowing 42.9 per game last season. Northwood struggled on
offense, shooting 28.9 percent as a team from 2-point range and 25.5 percent from 3-point range.
“I felt last year we just needed to be a better shooting team. I liked our defense. I liked our attitude
and liked how we played together,” Milewski said. “We’ll see. We tried to work over the summer at
becoming a better shooting team. If that shows, we’ll show an improvement.”
Milewski pointed to Ottawa Hills, Danbury and Toledo Christian as being the teams to beat in the TAAC
this season.
NORTHWOOD
GIRLS SCHEDULE
Dec. 1 — at Lake
Dec. 7 — GENOA
Dec. 10 — at Ottawa Hills#
Dec. 17 — EMMANUEL CHRISTIAN#
Dec. 19 — at Danbury#
Dec. 28 — WOODWARD
Jan. 2 — GIBSONBURG
Jan. 8 — CARDINAL STRITCH#
Jan. 12 — at Delta
Jan. 14 — MAUMEE VALLEY#
Jan. 16 — at Toledo Christian#
Jan. 18 — at Otsego
Jan. 21 — OTTAWA HILLS#
Jan. 23 — at Emmanuel Christian#
Jan. 29 — DANBURY#
Feb. 2 — at Hopewell-Loudon
Feb. 8 — BETTSVILLE (varsity only)
Feb. 11 — at Cardinal Stritch#
Feb. 13 — at Maumee Valley#
Feb. 18 — TOLEDO CHRISTIAN#
#—Toledo Area Athletic Conference game