The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/130469
2013 basketball recruiting issue the team with 4.3 assists per game. kids who could step in right away "She played this year with a mis- and fill a lot of roles. Siera is a kid sion," Hadley said. "We probably who is capable of that. She can really had our least talented team since she handle the ball, and she is excellent has been here, but she was deter- playing off the ball." mined to put her stamp on this sea Versatile Guard son and take this thing to unheard of heights. We had never won a state Paige Rakers championship until this year, and Carlyle, Ill., is home to just 3,000 she was determined to get over that people. Towns that small don't get hump." a player who won a national free Siera's father, Mike, is a personal throw shooting competition in eighth trainer and a shooting coach in the grade or an Illinois three-point shootGardena area, and he instilled an in- ing contest in 11th grade. credible work ethic in his daughter. But Carlyle had Rakers, and head "Even after the season was over, coach Randy Voss relied on her to she was asking when she could get run the point, post up on offense back in the gym, asking me if I could and defense, shoot the three, get her run drills with her," Hadley said. teammates involved in the offense "That's the kind of kid she is. She's a hard worker in every facet of her life. and rebound — almost everything a She's very focused. She comes from a player can physically do on a basketball court. great family." "In sixth grade, we started to recThompson is only 5-7, but she ognize that she was a special player. plays much bigger. "You look at her, and say, 'She's not She's a great shooter," Voss said. "She a Big Ten player' and then she just was our point guard then, because continues to impress you," Nichols she has exceptional ball-handling said. "The bigger the stage, the better skills, but she is also a great scorer. We're a small school, so we have to she plays." Thompson scored 26 points, in- get creative with the lineup. "We tried to make sure she had the cluding 10-of-11 shooting from the free throw line, in the fourth quarter ball in her hand as much as possible. of Serra's upset win over Salesian, And that makes it hard for Paige to 62-60, in the California Division IV score sometimes, because teams will double-team her. Her strength is at state final. "It was very important for us to the shooting guard spot. Coach Arico get kids who really understand the is excited at having her as a shooting game and can play multiple posi- guard. She could play the point, but tions," Barnes Arico said. "With us she's more valuable as a shooter." The Wolverines identified Rakers losing such a big, experienced group from last year, we had to bring in through her AAU program, Team