Lewis said she thought about waiting until next April to sign but decided to sign now in case she got hurt during the season. Other schools she considered where Toledo and Michigan Tech, “but I wanted to do something new and they didn’t really trip my trigger.” Lewis still has her senior season at Brodhead but it definitely looking forward to playing college basketball. “I’m so excited to be a college athlete.”

Last year she averaged 14.5 points, nine rebounds and two blocks for an 18-4 Brodhead team. She likes that the school is near Baltimore but not in it. She also likes that the school is close to the ocean, “which is cool.”

The University of Maryland-Baltimore County, nicknamed the Retrievers, has been looking at her for the last year and a half, said her dad, Dan. “They were really honest and they stepped forward and put the offer out there.”

Dana said that Retriever coach Phil Stern has “always been straight up with me and he’s a genuinely nice guy.” He never lied to her or told her only what she wanted to hear, she said. The program is similar to Brodhead because it plays against good competition. They also run the style of offense that she is used to. Chuck Chandler, her AAU coach, says Lewis is ready for the challenge. “She definitely has got a Division I body,” said Chandler. “She did a great job this summer with extending her offensive game. She knocked down some three’s this year and just wasn’t a true back to the basket, five player, which is really going to help her at the next level. I think she will do well. In fact, I will be very surprised if she doesn’t play her freshman year.”

Of course, her parents Dan and Rhonda Lewis are definitely proud of her. It wasn’t just innate ability that got her to where she’s at, he said. She’s also worked hard. “Since junior high she’s worked hard. It took a lot of work. It’s not as easy as some people think. We’re extremely proud of her.” It’s exciting for a school the size of Brodhead to have a Division I recruit, said Brodhead girls basketball coach Brad Pickett. Pickett is the new girls coach this year and doesn’t coach Dana in a game until Saturday.

Lewis’ size will help her tremendously, said Pickett. “She does have a nice soft touch around the basket,” and her work ethic will help her, too.

Now the squad is hoping for more. The team returns many of its players from last year, said coach Brian Kammerer, but the coach notes they will have to replace the senior leadership last year of Ryan Miller and Micah Wallace. The team is still young with only one senior but last year’s experience and success should bode well for this year. “Hopefully, we can build on that year’s success,” said Kammerer.

Jacob Cole, the team’s only senior, will man one guard spot at 5-9. He averaged 11 points, three rebounds, 1.5 steals, and 3.2 assists per game last year.

J.J. Panoske, a 6-9 forward center, looks to build on a fine sophomore season. He averaged 16 points and 6.2 rebounds. Panoske is already getting attention from college scouts.

Nick Jacobs, a 6-4 junior, gives the Cardinals more height up front.  He averaged almost five points each game last year and grabbed 3.2 rebounds per contest.

Kammerer said last week that the team was still determining the other two starters. Brandon McKee, a 6-2 junior, played in 21 games last year. He scored 48 points and grabbed 56 rebounds.  Michael Peterson, a 6-3 junior, played in 17 games last year. He scored nine points and had 33 rebounds.

Carson Scheidegger, a 5-10 junior, saw action in 15 games and scored 14 points. Junior Alex Wallace, 5-11, is another guard. He scored two points and got into 13 contests last season. Three juniors who didn’t see varsity action last season are 5-9 guard Blair Chapman, 5-10 guard Noah Trueblood and 5-11 guard/forward Donnie Nieman.

Kammerer said almost every-one is back in the conference this year and hopefully, Brodhead will finish among the top three spots. “We all know it’s going to be a tough conference race.” However, he feels “the sky’s the limit for this group,” depending on how hard players want to work.

The Lady Cardinals had a stellar 18-4 season last year and Pickett is excited about this year.

“I think we’ve got a pretty decent group that work pretty hard,” he said last week. The best part, he said, is how well they get along together. “Sometimes you find kids not getting along well, but they seem to get along well on and off the court.” The Cardinals return six seniors: Dana Lewis, Megan Heller, Amanda Johnson, Riley Olson, and Janae Squires. Lewis and Heller both started last year and Olson and Johnson both got some playing time, noted Pickett.

“We got a little bit of experience coming back. Hopefully, a few juniors are able to step in and then we’re going to actually have a couple freshman who are going play some varsity, too, so hopefully they will be able to step in.”

Pickett doesn’t see this season as a rebuilding year, although he admits that other people might.

“I like what we have so I’m hoping that we’re able to get some things worked out, we’re able to compete.”

Any talk about the Lady Cardinals starts with senior Dana Lewis, a 6-2 post player who just signed to play Division I basketball next year. She averaged 14.5 points and 9 rebounds a game last year on her way to first team all-conference honors.

“We’re hoping for big things from her, obviously,” said Pickett. Running down some other players, Pickett said that Megan Heller, a 5-6 guard, is a pretty good shooter. Amanda Johnson, a 5-7 guard, handles the ball really well. Pickett calls Riley Olson, a 5-7 forward, “a strong kid” who rebounds well and has a good shot. Janae Squires, a 5-7 guard, and Meaghan McGuire, a 5-6 guard, are not bad shooters, he said.

Looking at some juniors, Mariah Mohns, a 5-9 junior, had a good year on the jv team last year, he said. “Hopefully she can step into some minutes on the varsity this year.”

Those are the players they are looking at right away, he said, “and maybe we’ll get a few surprises in there, too.” Other players are Blair Baumgartner, a 5-11 junior forward, Shianne Strommen, a 5-6 junior guard, freshmen Taylor Douglas, a 5-7 guard, Amanda Pickel, a 5-5 guard, and Mariah Ahrens, a 5-8 forward. Pickett said last year’s team “liked to get up and down the floor” and he expects that to be true this year as well. With their quickness they should be able to get up and down the floor offensively and defensively, he said.

“I think we’ll be able to pressure some teams and force some turnovers with some of our quick guards.” Pickett was 47 and 59 in his coaching stint at Monticello but the conference championship was their first one in about 10 years, he said.

While it worked out coaching at Monticello and teaching here, it should be a lot easier teaching and coaching in the same building, he said. “It’s ten times easier just because you’re seeing the kids every day and that sort of thing and able to communicate with them.” Pickett has coached girls softball at Brodhead as an assistant coach and doesn’t see a big difference between coaching boys and girls basketball.

“You still got the orange basketball and you’ve still got to put that orange basketball in the orange basket.” You still have to rebound, protect the basketball on offense and play good defense, he added.