By John Raffel
Correspondent
BLOOMINDALE — Bloomingdale girls basketball coach Tod Kubiszak said his staff has some work to do this season.
“Looking towards the 2025-2026 season we have some big holes to fill from last year’s team,” he said. “We are a very young team due to participation numbers being low this year. We will have one senior this season Meradi Bale. We will look to her to fill a guard spot for us in the early going.
“Emily Latham will be a big addition this year when she returns from an ACL tear last season. We will look to her to provide leadership and scoring.
Cadence Williams saw some varsity action last year as a freshman and looks to continue her progress during her sophomore year giving us some tenacity on our front line at forward.
“Taylor Blazys is a freshman that will add toughness to our team on the defensive end of the floor. Rebekah Youngblood is our other junior and will be a steady hand on both ends of the floor. Ruth Hodgeman is another sophomore who had playing time on the varsity last season and will continue growing into her role at the 2 guard. Each and every girl on this team will fill an integral role and contribute to the success of our team.”
The girls basketball season started with practices on Nov. 19 and the schedule tips off in early December.
“We will field a very young team this year, mostly comprised of freshman and sophomores, but with the leadership of our few seniors and juniors we will be able to bring it all together,” Kubiszak said. “I feel that our team strength will be youthful exuberance to play the game of basketball. I feel that our team is very young but with more practice and games we will be able to compete in our conference. We will round into a cohesive team as the season goes on. Our goals for this season are to grow as a team and continue to build our program and improve on last seasons record.
“Being new to the conference I am not too familiar with the other teams. I think Gobles, Centreville, Cassopolis are always tough and should continue to be that way. But you really can’t dismiss anyone as the SW10 is very balanced. I think we have a tough road ahead as very young team playing other schools in the conference with much more experience than us. But we have the desire and I see these young ladies work every day and there is no quit in them. We will grow as a team as the season goes on. I have all the faith in the world in these girls and look forward to starting our season.”
