Local girls spent much of their summer on the court

HARTINGTON — Several area athletes spent at least part of their summers on the hardwood playing in camps and various leagues to keep sharp and grow their talents for next winter’s high school season.

Addison Walter has parlayed her summer activities into a scholarship offer as the Cedar Catholic junior-to-be received an offer from Mount Marty University to play basketball beginning in 2026.

Walter has played AAU basketball since she was in the sixth grade and has moved up the ladder to where she played on a team through the Sanford Sports Academy in Sioux Falls this summer along with seven other girls from South Dakota, Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota and Nebraska.

“Its really fun to get to know all of these girls and develop a relationship with them,” Walter said. “You travel with them, practice with them, compete with them, it’s like a whole new family.”

She is playing on a 16-and-under team and her team will have played in nine tournaments when the summer is over.

“We played in Minnesota for three tournaments, went to Texas for one tournament and we’ve had a couple in Sioux Falls,” she said.

She also had games in Ohio, Kentucky, South Carolina.

Obviously, basketball is a big part of the reason she plays, but she has discovered additional benefits for her endeavors.

“I’m seeing a lot of things I wouldn’t be able to see if I wasn’t traveling to these tournaments,” she said. “And its an opportunity to play with different players, different coaches, I like our coaches at Cedar Catholic but you get different philosophies and different view points. It makes it more fun.”

She plans to use the immediate lessons and benefits when she comes home to play for the Lady Trojans.

“I’m learning some new skills and sharpening some of the skills I already have,” Walter said. “I can’t wait to bring them back and use them to help us be better next winter.”

She has taken on more of a perimeter role with her summer team.

“We like to shoot the 3 and get up and down the floor,” she said. “We are always moving the ball to look for a good perimeter shot and I’ve really improved my shooting percentage from outside.”

One of her Cedar Catholic teammates also took her game on the road.

Anisten Wortmann played for a travel team out of Norfolk and for many of the same reasons as Walter, she’s enjoying the experience.

“You develop new friendships and skills with all of the different players,” Wortmann said. “You get to play with different players that you have played against and you have different coaches with different ideas, its been really great.”

Wortmann is also looking to improve on a very impressive freshman campaign by finding new talents and developing talents she already knew she had.

“You are fine tuning some things and some things you are just learning,” she said. “I just want to improve and grow and take it back to my team to help us be successful.”