St. Edward confident going into postseason

A lot of elements have to come together to make a complete overhaul of your offense become effective in one season.

Not only do you have to possess the talent to do it, the talent has to buy into it and have some brainpower.

And the St. Edward girls basketball team is proving it has both.

Recognizing the fact that most of her players compete for AAU teams that run more of a freelance-based offense than a patterned setup, Green Wave coach Michelle Dawson thought she had the talent this year to do the same.

After some exhaustive research by sophomore coach and longtime area basketball mentor Pete Sauter, Dawson and assistant coach Denny Butzow decided to go with the Read and React offense, an attack much like the University of Iowa women’s team runs.

“We were looking for something to carry through the whole program, something that wouldn’t be so patterned,” said Dawson, whose 18-7 mark this season give the seventh-year Green Wave coach a 107-83 career record.

“Coach Sauter came upon this and he put in a ton of time researching it.”

It’s been working, too. St. Edward averages just under 53 points per game but this equal-opportunity sharing has led to no player averaging more than 14 points per game and four of the five starters averaging 10 or more.

“They’ve got all the freedom they want,” said Dawson, whose team opens its own Class 2A regional Tuesday night against either Woodlands Academy or St. Martin de Porres.

“There are some rules and some givens, but it’s all a reaction to what your teammates do and to what the other team tries to do. Our kids are all really smart ballplayers and they’ve spent so much time working on their games, we thought this might work.”

The players themselves love the new look.

“I liked our previous offenses but my travel team does a lot of freelancing on offense and this one just really clicked with me,” said senior point guard Enza Ranallo, who averages 10.6 points per game and has 31 3-pointers on the year.

“It’s an equal opportunity offense, which is perfect for me. I love the dimensions of it and the different levels.”

Junior Callie Johnson, who leads the team in scoring at 14 ppg and is the area’s second leading free throw shooter (79.2 percent), agrees.

“We just added on some new layers and now we have so many options,” she said. “We never do the same thing over and over.”

That’s what has also led to the equality in the scorebook. Sophomore Rena Ranallo averages 12.6 ppg, junior Maddie Kerr 11.6, and junior Alex Lee 8.3.

Ranallo and Johnson also agree it’s been a lot of hard work that is now paying off, as the Green Wave is a heavy favorite to win the program’s 14th regional championship next week. After losing three straight to begin 2011, St. Edward has returned to form, winning six of its last seven with the only loss being to defending Class 3A state champ Montini.

“It’s been our hard work and our toughness,” said Enza Ranallo, who intends to play at the NCAA Division III level and mentioned Benedictine and Millikin as current considerations, among others.

“We had a little letdown at midseason but we’ve worked hard in practice and we push ourselves. We make sure we always keep our energy up.

Said Johnson: “Playing hard, being aggressive, going all out and giving it all we’ve got. We play our hearts out.”

And even though this regional would appear to be a cakewalk for the Green Wave on paper, they know it’s state tournament time and it’s one loss and done. After losing to Immaculate Conception in last year’s regional final, this St. Edward group has come back strong and has lofty goals for the upcoming weeks.

“We can’t underestimate anyone because on any given night you can lose to anyone,” said Johnson. “We just can’t play down to anyone’s level and we have to be ready every night. Making it to state is the goal, but we just want to go as far as we can and know we accomplished something.”

For Enza Ranallo, St. Edward’s sixth trip to an IHSA girls basketball state final tournament would be the icing on the cake to her varsity career.

“I would love, love, love to make it to state,” she beamed. “Hopefully our hard work, our dedication, and our heart will help us go far. We’re not overlooking any game and we’re concentrating on every team we play. Coach keeps telling us not to overlook anyone and we’re not.”