Sophomore Hannah Treptow proves invaluable as Sandwich playmaker – Shaw Local
Hannah Treptow doesn’t play point guard for her AAU basketball team and doesn’t particularly consider her ball handling a strength.
It’s priceless for Sandwich.
Treptow, a 5-foot-10 sophomore, rarely leaves the field for the Indians, averaging nearly 30 minutes per game. She’s Sandwich’s leading scorer in her sophomore season and a strong rebounder for her position. But that’s not his most critical asset for his high school team.
“She’s incredibly talented when it comes to basketball,” Sandwich coach Jim Schmidt said. “Teams don’t rush us with her on the pitch. We can’t get her out of the field. She is a playmaker, handles the ball. Being 5ft 10in with the grips she has is rare.
Treptower’s importance is evident in Sandwich’s three games with Plano. She missed the first and Sandwich lost by 29. The Indians won the second, with her in the lineup, by 26.
“Plano didn’t even rush us in the third game. We beat them the other day by 13,” Schmidt said. “The last half of the season, I don’t remember which team pressed us.”
Over 22 games, Treptow is averaging 8.4 points, 6.5 rebounds, 2.5 steals and 2 blocks for Sandwich, whose 7-19 record is somewhat disappointing considering the post All- Area Claire Allen missed the first 20 games with injury.
Treptow’s basketball acumen at a young age should come as no surprise.
Her father, Steve, was an assistant on the Neuqua Valley women’s basketball team for 20 years and started it at a young age. Hannah remembers attending summer camps and college workouts in Neuqua. Her dad knows the owner of Breakaway Basketball, and Hannah would work on her shooting form with a facility shooting machine to get some reps. She also plays AAU with the M14 Hoops Basketball Academy.
During the offseason, she trains three days a week, does weight training on Mondays, and rents shooting machines. She does spot dribbling and two-ball dribbling drills by working her left and right hand, and works on making different moves in a shot.
“I’m more of a shooting guard on my travel squad,” Treptow said. “I consider shooting to be my greatest strength.”
Schmidt knew when he inherited the program this season that he had a 5-foot-10 girl who could handle basketball well.
“Then I walked in and thought ‘God, this girl is going to be pretty good,'” he said. “Sometimes you have to slow it down. She’s a phenomenal player. She’s a great person, from a great family, goes cross-country in the fall and plays basketball nine months a year. She has great endurance, almost never gets tired.
Schmidt envisions Treptow as Sandwich’s next 1,000-point scorer and marvels at his coordination to be such a talented playmaker for his size.
“Sometimes we have to find a way to get more pictures of him,” Schmidt said. “She has this ability to drive down the lane, can hit the 3, can hit the mid-range shot. She’s only a sophomore but she’s already an amazing 3-point shooter, a playmaker, she’s able to get rebounds and throwbacks because of her height. And one thing that goes unnoticed is how good she is defensively because she is so long.
With Allen back in the fold, Schmidt hopes the Indians’ best basketball is still ahead of them. In December, he wasn’t planning Allen’s return this season, but Allen came to Sandwich games over the Christmas break and texted that if her doctor cleared her, she’d like to come back.
Allen’s first practice was on January 4, his first match three days later against Morris. She averaged almost 8 points and 10 rebounds in her return.
“It’s hard to replace. She definitely helped,” Schmidt said. “We may not have the results – we lost in overtime to Kaneland, beat Morris by three, lost to a good Genoa-Kingston team on the road. We may not get the wins, but we play better and are more competitive.