Grand Island Senior High Islanders Logo, (GIPS, Courtesy)
GRAND ISLAND — After careful consideration and months of conversations, Grand Island Senior High (GISH) has canceled the 2024-25 Varsity schedule for Girls Basketball.
At this time, GISH does not have any Junior or Senior student athletes going out for the sport. Looking ahead to the future of the program, the GISH Girls Basketball Coaching Staff, Activities Office, and District Administration worked together to brainstorm solutions for supporting the program. Discussions were had with Middle School and High School parents and student athletes throughout the process to ensure the commitment to the program remained at the forefront.
Ultimately, the decision was made to invest in developing younger players through the typical process of Reserves and Freshman levels rather than field a Varsity team filled with Freshman and Sophomores. Keeping student experience and safety at the forefront, the GISH Girls Basketball program believes hitting the “pause” button on the Varsity season will be what’s best for all involved.
Coach Kathryn Langrehr and her Coaching Staff will remain with the program as the “paused” Varsity season is intended for the 2024-25 season.
With the immediate news being unfortunate GISH is approaching the situation with an enhanced commitment in mind.
“We’re committed to this program. And it’s because of our commitment to cultivating girls basketball at Grand Island — and our state — that we are taking this difficult but innovative approach.” Chris Ladwig, GISH Activities Director, said, “We want to provide the best student athlete experience we possibly can for our kids. Right now, we don’t have the numbers to roster an upper-class Varsity team. So, our focus will be to continue developing our Freshman and Sophomore players and put together a “full court press” towards re-building our youth programs in our community. We stand behind Coach Langrehr and her vision for this program — she has our full support.”
Looking at the larger landscape, the shrinking numbers in high school girls basketball programs is a hurdle many schools are facing.
“Unfortunately, we’re seeing a trend across the state.” Matt Fisher, GIPS Superintendent, said, “Numerous high schools across all classes are facing challenges with fielding teams for Girls Basketball. As difficult as the decision is to not offer a varsity schedule for a year, we agree with our Activities Department and Girls Basketball Coaching staff that we need to be more proactive in building long term solutions for the program. In this case, that means taking a step-back so we may develop our student athletes the right way. We remain committed to girls basketball and to student experiences.”
What’s next for the GISH Girls Basketball program?
GISH plans to offer a schedule for Freshman and Reserves for the 2024-25 season.
Coach Kathryn Langrehr will continue her role as the GISH GBB Head Coach and will move forward with her vision of making girls basketball accessible for all students Elementary through High School.
The GISH GBB Coaching Staff will be at full capacity to accommodate spending more time investing in your youth and Middle School programs along with developing our Freshman and Sophomore players.
“The Islanders aren’t going anywhere.” Ladwig said, “For us, it starts by developing our young high school players and recalibrating our youth programs.”
