Semoball

SEMO Sizzle squad having fun (and successful) summer

The SEMO Sizzle 2022 girl's basketball squad poses recently after winning the MAYB Cape Girardeau Tournament at the Cape SportsPlex.
Submitted photo

There may be no time of the year that is meant to have fun by young people than summer, and even though the SEMO Sizzle girl’s basketball teams are each working hard to prepare for their future, make no mistake about it, the athletes are definitely having fun in doing so.

The 2022 squad recently had a lot of fun in winning the MAYB Cape Girardeau Tournament at the Cape SportsPlex by going unbeaten in five games against teams from Oklahoma, Arkansas, Springfield, and Tennessee. And veteran coach Matt Rubel explained the team’s style of play is founded on having fun – and being successful in doing so.

“It is a lot more free-spirited basketball,” Rubel said of his offensive philosophy. “It’s more reacting than ‘I cut here’ or ‘I pass here.’ It’s just playing basketball.”

The victory was the second of the summer season for the 2022 team, which also won the Select Super 16 Summer Showcase at the Sportsplex last month. The squad will wrap up its schedule this weekend at an event in Indianapolis that runs Friday through Sunday.

Rubel first put the team together nearly a decade ago when his daughter Lexi, now a Notre Dame junior, was in the third grade.

She was joined by younger sister, Tori, now a Notre Dame sophomore, and both have been part of a “core group” that have played together for years.

“We’ve added some new pieces each year,” Rubel said. “We started with our core group and I’ve lost a few kids and picked up a few kids.”

One of the key “pick ups” this year was a talented post player from North County.

Kamryn Winch is a 6-foot-3 junior and she forms the focal point of a 4-out (and) 1-in offensive system.

“We’ve got two good post players,” Rubel said. “Our offense is a little more simplified. It’s more going out and reading and reacting and just playing basketball versus running a lot of set offenses.”

Rubel has surrounded his post players with a slew of athletic perimeter players, who can all shoot, handle, and pass, which allows it to succeed in the fast-paced world of summer hoops.

“Everything is a little more simplified and you just try to use your skills,” Rubel explained. “It’s up and down the court. It’s usually fast-paced. Most of the teams we have been playing typically will be five guards and won’t even have a post player. That makes it interesting.

“They full-court press you, get up and down the court, and shoot a lot of 3s.”

Lexi is a 6-foot skilled athlete who already holds an NCAA Division I offer Southeast Missouri State among other programs.

She was the Southeast Missourian Player of the Year this past season and her father said his cell phone includes “about 10” numbers of DI coaches who closely follow the team.

“Most of the (programs) are in the Midwest,” Rubel said. “A lot of our kids want to stay around the Midwest area.”

The Rubel sisters and Winch have also been joined by fellow Bulldog teammate, Leah Jansen, who Rubel said has been a “defensive specialist” for the team, as well as Jackson junior Jordyn McClellan, who has also been a strong performer for the group.

Rubel said not only are girl basketball players more skilled than ever before, but more are competing than in years past.

The team annually participates in the Run for the Roses Tournament in Louisville, which attracts over 10,000 athletes.

“There are so many more girls playing basketball than there was 15 or 20 years ago,” Rubel said.

Why wouldn’t they be? The game can be a lot of fun, especially when you win.

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