The Chambersburg girls basketball team put together one of the program’s better seasons in recent years in 2020-21, going 6-11 overall and 4-8 in the Mid Penn Commonwealth Division.

Blake Schildhauer

However, the Trojans graduated six seniors who played a lot of minutes, had one returning starter (Kiki Walker) move to North Carolina, had one potential starter (Ahsia Thomas) decide to concentrate on her soccer career and had another potential starter (Rosalyn Diehl), transfer to CD East.

That leaves quite a challenge for new coach Blake Schildhauer, who was named to the post in September, taking over for Justin English. She gets her first look at her team in action Friday afternoon at Waynesboro in the second game of the Franklin County Tip-Off Tournament, playing the host Maidens around 5 p.m.

“The culture of the team has to change,” Schildhauer said. “We need to be better on defense and better on offense, and we need to play together. I think coaching defense is my biggest strength, but we need to be able to put points on the board.”

Allison List

The Trojans will have to do so with previously unproven scorers emerging.

Only four girls return who played varsity last year — 5-foot-10 senior guard Allison List (2.6 points per game), 5-9 senior guard Joelle Rheam (2.0 ppg), 6-0 junior forward Kylie Miller (1.3 ppg) and 5-3 sophomore guard Lilly Cornwell, who played in just seven games.

Others who will factor in this year include tall freshman forward Addi Kegerries (6-1), Bridget Kemerer (jr., 5-9, F), Titi Kelly (so., 6-0, F), Ella Parker (so., 5-10, F), Brooke Strayer (fr., 5-8, G), Kiana Purvis (jr., 5-6, G) and Catharine Kaufman (sr., 5-7, G).

The team consists of three seniors, three juniors, five sophomores and a freshman, and three are at least 6-foot tall.

Schildhauer said, “We’ve really shaped up in the last two-and-a-half weeks, and I think lots of growth can happen this year. The girls are extra coachable. The girls have been positive, even though they know we have a lot of growing to do.

Joelle Rheam

“We started out being not very aggressive, but we’ve stepped up our game in that aspect, especially on defense. In our division, teams play very physical, so we have to be, too.”

Schildhauer came to Chambersburg last year as a teacher and was the program’s freshman coach. She is a native of Westminster, Md. and graduated from McDaniel College. She was the junior varsity coach at Westminster H.S., and she has coached an AAU team for nine years.

Her staff will include assistant Doug Stuart, JV coach Matt Smith and JV assistant Allison Baney.