By Mike Warren
Sports Editor
MARSHFIELD – A junior-laden Auburndale girls’ basketball team has found early-season success by combining lots of varsity experience with a few new faces.
“I think our experience is getting us off on the right foot,” Head Coach Josh Nagel told Gene Delisio, WDLB/WOSQ, following a 5-0 start in December. “I’ve got a lot of girls with fifty career games or more under their belts and it’s starting to show. We’re able to work on some of the finer things and they’re picking some offensive tendencies up a little bit quicker. We were able to progress a little bit faster here at the start of the season, which was nice to see. They are all familiar. They know what to expect with what we’re trying to do in our system, so we were just able to hit the ground running.”
Kylie Anderson is the lone senior on Auburndale’s varsity roster this season.
“She started every game for us last year,” said Nagel. “She’s our off guard, but she’s been stepping up a little bit more this year and actually handling the point position off and on, so Gracie Hasenohrl doesn’t have to do it all the time.
“And then I’ve got Gracie Hasenohrl and her sister, Rose Hasenohrl (both juniors).
They’ve been major contributors the last couple years.
“Then there’s (juniors) Chesney Nagel and Myah Katzenberger.
“Breleigh Grimm (junior) is another one of those players. She’s a capable scorer as well,” Nagel added.
“We’re waiting for (junior) Lily Bellanti to get back off her ACL injury, so that’s just going to make us stronger.
“That junior class has gotten a lot of experience since they were freshmen, so that’s where all those career games come in,” the second-year head coach told Delisio. “They’ve had to play maybe sooner than they needed to. I don’t know what the case was, but they’ve got the experience and it’s showing here this year.”
In addition, Marti Anderson is a sophomore who’s been getting substantial minutes so far this season.
“So, we’ve got a little bit of new coming in with a lot of the old and hopefully it pays off,” said Nagel.
He added that physical strength has been the area in which he has seen the most improvement from last season to this year.
“We’ve had some girls put some time in in the weight room here this year. And that physical strength builds confidence. When you’re physically strong you’re more confident with the ball, which has cut back on our turnovers here at the start of the season. Hopefully that continues,” Nagel said.
Katzenberger, a five-foot, nine-inch forward, was a second-team All-Marawood Conference selection a season ago, and Nagel is expecting another big year out of her.
“She’s got a nice outside shot. Most people think she’s just an inside player, but she shoots the three pointer at a high clip, right around forty, fifty percent. She can play with her back to the basket. She’s passing out of the post real well. She knows she’s going to get a double team coming her way and she’s been really cognizant this year of turning around, facing the basket, and if it’s there she’ll make a move, and if not she’ll kick it out and repost,” Nagel said.
Nagel also said much of the credit for Auburndale’s fast start this season should go to his team’s man-to-man defense.
“We’re only giving up thirty-five, thirty-six points a game, and part of that is we can put great pressure on the ball. With Gracie Hasenohrl and Chesney Nagel, they can put great ball pressure on ball handlers and shooters, and the rest of the girls just know how to play help defense, so we can face guard and those other three girls on the court at any given time are always in the right spot,” said Nagel.
The Eagles are coming off a 21-5 record a season ago, which ended with a loss to Bonduel in a Div. 4 Regional Final.
Auburndale JV features international trio
Up until just recently, the Eagles’ junior varsity basketball squad had among its membership three foreign exchange student/athletes from three different countries.
Juliette Mills, 17, from Orange, Australia, 160 miles west of Sydney in New South Wales, is in Auburndale until her year abroad ends Jan. 14. While there, the five-foot, nine-inch senior competed in softball, volleyball and JV basketball.
“I never had played softball, so I wanted to try a new sport,” Mills told Hub City Times on Jan. 7. “I really liked it. It was a lot of fun. Volleyball was where I made a lot of closer friends. I just like being a part of the team. And I love watching as well.”
Since Australia has only club sports that practice and play just once a week, and does not include them in their high schools, this was the first opportunity for Mills to be a part of those experiences.
“Prom was probably my favorite part of my exchange year. I really enjoyed the summer. And the Fourth of July was cool. Oh, and I really enjoyed Homecoming,” the 2025 Auburndale Homecoming Queen added. “At photos, I fell down the stairs with my heels on, and so then I didn’t wear my heels onto the stage because I didn’t want to fall down the stairs again. So my mom told everyone that I’m her barefoot queen.”
Mills has three more quarters left of high school back home.
After that, Juliette says she will pursue a career as a flight attendant.
Still a part of Auburndale’s JV team are Lola Marchand and Iris Galetto.
Marchand, 17, is from Normandy, France and in her senior year.
“Homecoming was fun. I really liked it,” said Marchand, who added all three girls especially enjoyed watching Auburndale’s football season, since it’s a sport they don’t have in their respective homelands.
Marchand, who also played volleyball, will this spring participate in track & field, which will be another new experience for her.
France, like Australia, offers sports only at the club level and not in its high schools.
Galetto, 16, is a junior from Turin in western Italy.
“Basketball is fun. I really like watching the varsity,” said Galetto, who added she enjoys practice more than the games. “The girls on the team are really nice and they try to take us in.”
Galetto said she is more of a runner and participated in cross country in the fall and will go out for track & field in the spring — two sports she also competes in back home.
“I like track better, so I’m really looking forward to it and it’s going to be a whole lot of fun,” she added. “And cross country was really fun, but I don’t really like long distance. I’m more like a short-distance person. But the (cross country) team was really fun. They’re like a second family. I really liked the girls on the team. It was amazing and I had so much fun.”
Galetto says she will focus on running the 400 and the 800 during the track season.
She will have two more years of high school left once she returns home to Italy.
After that, Iris says she will either become a teacher or study law.
“If I could, I would just run, but I don’t think I’m good enough to run for a living.”
Both Galetto and Marchand will be in Auburndale through the end of the current school year.
