Invisible would be an ironic way to describe Jamie Armstrong and company's prowess in the painted area throughout the WIAA Division 2 state tournament.
After leading Monroe in scoring a dozen times this season, none more notable than Friday's 17-point body of work against Altoona in the semifinals, not one of the 6-foot, 1-inch sophomore's showcases shimmer light on her impact Saturday that even WIAA's statisticians couldn't document.
None of the zeroxes reflected the intangibles in Monroe's title run. Much like the stat of "hurry" in American football, 13 "altered shots" spurred the Cheesemakers' disciplined interior effort.
While football clubs fear the bend-not-break mentality that allows touchdowns against lax defenses, coach Kevin Keen insisted from day one that Monroe's bigs don't commit fouls once they've known they're beaten at the block, particularly when holding a lead.
When they swiveled their 6-foot frames into the hardwood Satuday not only did Ashley Hermanson and Armstrong, along with super-sophomore-sub Morgan Kennison, find out that their counterparts weren't being allowed free throws. Their marks also were ill-finishing as they sprawled around their persistent opposition.
Just because fans often associate Monroe with being Wisconsin Jr. doesn't mean coaching staffs read word for word from the same book. Keen implemented an elastic zone, a concept that someday will make Bo Ryan turn in his grave, that enveloped Verona in a 44-36 season-turning victory Jan. 25.
"In 20 years that I've coached, I've never seen a ballclub come so far," Keen said. "It's unbelievable just to get to this point and the kids have worked so hard to get that zone down."
Said zone smothered the up-tempo Irish style that had broken formerly-undefeated and defending champ Grafton in the semifinals. While Monroe's perimeter playerss hawked and denied entry lanes, any paint touches typically found Freedom's bigs looking small as they habitually shied away from the well-positioned twin towers of Armstrong and Hermanson.
"Coach always says you should never change your shot, but it the beginning we couldn't finish," 6-1 Freedom senior Stacie Van Handel said. "It seemed like there was a lid on the hoop."
Perhaps Van Handel didn't account for how often she and her fellow Irish were contorting their bodies to repel the pin-point position of the Cheese.
The most invisible statistical category in sports, right next door to hurries for football's defensive stars, the AS category had the Irish fumbling after fool's gold after defeating Grafton on Friday.
"They packed it in with their matchup zone," Grafton coach Mike Vander Loop said. "We've done a good job of handling that this year by putting a girl in the middle and then looking to the corners, but they defended us pretty well tonight and that made the difference."
"It's more of a switching man-to-man and the kids have done a nice job," Keen said.
When the Irish threatened with a 6-0 run that opened the third and cut Monroe's lead to 24-21, Armsrong perhaps evoked Rufenacht's fire. She had just conceded a hoop to Irish senior Van Handel before beating all nine other players down the floor to score all alone.
"Both of our post players had tremendous tournaments," Keen said. "Jamie gets up and down the floor very well."
Despite Monroe's stonewall interior, the Irish attempted only two free throws as the Cheesemakers administered the bend-not-break defense down low that Keen's driven home all season.
"I really can't explain it. On our sectional semifinal at Waunakee we only had four fouls," Keen said. "At the beginning of the year if you'd said we'd be a defensive ballclub, I probably would've questioned your sanity."
Junior captain Emily Rufenacht's eyes, once again, were as big as saucers as she madly led the charge off the floor when the final horn sounded, but there's little mystery as to where the magic was sprung on a regular basis.
"No question, Jamie's post presence is the key to our team," Keen said.
"You never know when your opportinuties are going to come along," he added. "It takes a little luck and a break here and there to get to the state tournament. It isn't something that's just going to happen. We said we've got an opportunity here with this group right now, let's take advantage of it."
- Christopher Heimerman is sports editor of The Monroe Times. He can be reached at
sportseditor@themonroetimes.com.
After leading Monroe in scoring a dozen times this season, none more notable than Friday's 17-point body of work against Altoona in the semifinals, not one of the 6-foot, 1-inch sophomore's showcases shimmer light on her impact Saturday that even WIAA's statisticians couldn't document.
None of the zeroxes reflected the intangibles in Monroe's title run. Much like the stat of "hurry" in American football, 13 "altered shots" spurred the Cheesemakers' disciplined interior effort.
While football clubs fear the bend-not-break mentality that allows touchdowns against lax defenses, coach Kevin Keen insisted from day one that Monroe's bigs don't commit fouls once they've known they're beaten at the block, particularly when holding a lead.
When they swiveled their 6-foot frames into the hardwood Satuday not only did Ashley Hermanson and Armstrong, along with super-sophomore-sub Morgan Kennison, find out that their counterparts weren't being allowed free throws. Their marks also were ill-finishing as they sprawled around their persistent opposition.
Just because fans often associate Monroe with being Wisconsin Jr. doesn't mean coaching staffs read word for word from the same book. Keen implemented an elastic zone, a concept that someday will make Bo Ryan turn in his grave, that enveloped Verona in a 44-36 season-turning victory Jan. 25.
"In 20 years that I've coached, I've never seen a ballclub come so far," Keen said. "It's unbelievable just to get to this point and the kids have worked so hard to get that zone down."
Said zone smothered the up-tempo Irish style that had broken formerly-undefeated and defending champ Grafton in the semifinals. While Monroe's perimeter playerss hawked and denied entry lanes, any paint touches typically found Freedom's bigs looking small as they habitually shied away from the well-positioned twin towers of Armstrong and Hermanson.
"Coach always says you should never change your shot, but it the beginning we couldn't finish," 6-1 Freedom senior Stacie Van Handel said. "It seemed like there was a lid on the hoop."
Perhaps Van Handel didn't account for how often she and her fellow Irish were contorting their bodies to repel the pin-point position of the Cheese.
The most invisible statistical category in sports, right next door to hurries for football's defensive stars, the AS category had the Irish fumbling after fool's gold after defeating Grafton on Friday.
"They packed it in with their matchup zone," Grafton coach Mike Vander Loop said. "We've done a good job of handling that this year by putting a girl in the middle and then looking to the corners, but they defended us pretty well tonight and that made the difference."
"It's more of a switching man-to-man and the kids have done a nice job," Keen said.
When the Irish threatened with a 6-0 run that opened the third and cut Monroe's lead to 24-21, Armsrong perhaps evoked Rufenacht's fire. She had just conceded a hoop to Irish senior Van Handel before beating all nine other players down the floor to score all alone.
"Both of our post players had tremendous tournaments," Keen said. "Jamie gets up and down the floor very well."
Despite Monroe's stonewall interior, the Irish attempted only two free throws as the Cheesemakers administered the bend-not-break defense down low that Keen's driven home all season.
"I really can't explain it. On our sectional semifinal at Waunakee we only had four fouls," Keen said. "At the beginning of the year if you'd said we'd be a defensive ballclub, I probably would've questioned your sanity."
Junior captain Emily Rufenacht's eyes, once again, were as big as saucers as she madly led the charge off the floor when the final horn sounded, but there's little mystery as to where the magic was sprung on a regular basis.
"No question, Jamie's post presence is the key to our team," Keen said.
"You never know when your opportinuties are going to come along," he added. "It takes a little luck and a break here and there to get to the state tournament. It isn't something that's just going to happen. We said we've got an opportunity here with this group right now, let's take advantage of it."
- Christopher Heimerman is sports editor of The Monroe Times. He can be reached at
sportseditor@themonroetimes.com.
