GIRLS BASKETBALL: Barnes returns to lead Hilltoppers

Updated: November 14, 2011 6:38PM

New Elgin Academy girls basketball coach Charlie Porter wasn’t quite sure what he was going to have on the court this season when he took over in July.

It was too late to schedule any basketball camps. The team only went 4-19 last season. And he only has nine girls in the program, and they’re all on the varsity team, including the three girls who have never played organized basketball before this year.

But one thing he knows he has is senior point guard Ashley Barnes, and that’s a good place to start.

“We haven’t even started this season and I’m already worried about what we’re going to do when she leaves,” said Porter, who was an assistant coach at Immaculate Conception before coming over to Elgin Academy. “She’s got all of these intangibles with her. She’s one of the quickest girls I’ve seen. She’ll get the girls going. She’s a good leader on the floor. I think we’ll live and die with her this season.”

The soccer standout is definitely the best returner for the Hilltoppers, which feature one of the smallest enrollments in the area. The other senior returning is forward Angie Martinez.

Junior forward Samayra Siddiqui and sophomore guard Susanna Cain are also back from last year’s varsity squad. The rest of the team is extremely raw. Senior Veronica Alix is one of the players who has never played organized ball before. Freshmen Zainab Abbasi and Maggie Veltri are also relatively new to the sport.

But Porter does see something in a pair of other freshmen that figure to be in the rotation all season. Freshman Kaitlyn Pearson is a forward with tremendous leaping ability that did play at the grade school level. But Alysson Wittmeyer intrigues him the most.

Wittmeyer is 6-foot-2 and strong for a freshman and will be a key player in the post for the Hilltoppers.

“She’s got some potential,” Porter said. “She needs a lot of work, but she’s not so raw that she can’t play. Around the basket, she finishes well. It’s the footwork that she has to work on. But she works hard and I think if she sticks with it and loves it, she has the potential to be a top conference player.”

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