Area Female Athlete: Verndale's Glenz makes history

Shania Glenz

Year: Senior

School: Verndale

Sport: Basketball

Position: Forward

Highlights: Reached 2,000 points in win over Nevis

For the past five seasons, Shania Glenz has been an imposing force on the basketball court.

It's only fitting she becomes the first player in Verndale school history to reach 2,000 career points.

The senior forward reached the mark Feb. 23 in a 48-26 victory over Nevis. Glenz finished with 14 points on 4-of-8 shooting from the field. She was 5-6 from the line. She added seven steals, five rebounds and three assists.

She only needed 11 points to reach the milestone.

"I was kind of expecting it, once I got a little closer," said Glenz. "It wasn't a big surprise or anything. It's cool, obviously. There's a lot of people in Verndale who have scored 1,000 and Teresa Meonkedick had her 1,500 and she was our highest for a long time, but scoring 2,000 is pretty awesome.

"It was a goal. After I scored 1,000, and I saw that I had a few years left, it was kind of my next big goal for myself and to just really be that leader on this team."

Glenz finished with 21 points, four steals, four rebounds and three assists in the Pirates' 57-46 non-conference victory over Upsala Feb. 21. She was 7-of-15 from the field and 4-4 from the line.

On the season, the senior is hitting 68.4 percent from the line and 47.3 percent from the field. She's averaging 16.5 points per game despite the opposition's strong effort to stop her.

"Last year, we had four girls who were 1,000-point scorers on our team so we didn't rely on one person," said Schluttner. "This year we have a lot of girls who didn't have any varsity experience so I think a lot of teams coming in had a game plan of slowing Shania down and making other girls score. She touches the ball anywhere near the paint and there is usually two or three girls guarding her."

Glenz came up with an easy solution to her extra attention. She told Schluttner she needed to work harder. But she's also helping her team in other ways.

She's averaging 8.3 rebounds, 3.1 assists and 3.8 steals per game.

"I think other teams forget she can shoot from the perimeter, but what she surprises us as a coaching staff the most is how well she plays defense," said Schluttner. "She is not a smaller girl concerning height, but she's not really tall either, but she surprises other teams with how well she can jump and how quick she is. She gets a lot of turnovers because she's quicker and anticipates. She rarely has the ball go over her head that she doesn't deflect or pick off. Defensively, I don't think she's given enough credit."

With the graduation of key seniors from last year's team, Schluttner needed Glenz to step up as a leader and he's been pleased with that. He also needed her to buy into a new, slower offense to combat the youth and lack of depth this year's team has.

She's done that, too.

"We have a bunch of younger girls this year," Glenz said, "girls who were trying to learn and adjust to how to play on a varsity team so I just had to help them with that and take on more as a leader in that way and kind of just help them adjust to being on a varsity team.

"It has been more frustrating for me, because team's know me since I've been playing varsity for so long. They know what to expect out of me so they've been throwing double teams and every once in awhile triple teams when I'm down in the post. I've had to adjust and find the open player because I don't want to shoot if I have three girls on me. I've learned to look for where the open spots are and to how pass to my players so they can get good looks."

Next fall, Glenz, a three-time Brainerd Dispatch Volleyball Player of the Year, will play volleyball at University of Wisconsin, River Falls.

"It's great," said Schluttner. "When I took over, and it's been a long time since I've been here, but at that point we didn't even have a 1,000 point scorer on the girls side. We were fortunate we had four of them last year. But Shania was a kid I knew as an eighth-grader, and what she did as a freshman, that if she continued to put those numbers up she had a chance.

"It was one of those things, for our program, it's great. It shows the younger girls that it's not impossible. I told her that she deserved it. She has worked hard and she's been a great player for us. She's been a great teammate for her team."

Other notable performances:

Basketball: Alyssa Semmler, Pine River-Backus, finished with 25 points and 10 rebounds against Bertha-Hewitt and 13 points and 10 rebounds against Northland.

Shyanne Loiland, Crosby-Ironton, finished with 23 points, 11 rebounds, five steals and four assists against Deer River and 31 points, eight rebounds and six steals against Detroit Lakes.

Karli Skog, Pequot Lakes, scored 23 points against Detroit Lakes and 22 against Pillager.