Senior Audrey Annee led Class 4A regional champion Center Grove in scoring last season.
Daily Journal file photo
In August, Center Grove senior Audrey Annee made a future-altering decision by committing to attend the United States Military Academy at West Point.
Awaiting her are the tissue-requiring 60-second goodbye to loved ones, weeks of basic training and the type of regimented lifestyle certain to be a jolt to Annee’s system.
Initially, at least.
“At first, I just didn’t know a lot about (West Point), honestly,” Annee said. “Then, last April, they started recruiting me during my AAU season. All of the medical aspects that they have to offer, that drew me to them.”
Annee, who ranks 62nd in her class of 665 students academically with a 4.4 grade-point average, aspires to one day become a surgeon, possibly in a hospital trauma ward.
But before continuing her academic pursuits and playing women’s hoops for the Black Knights, Annee is determined to make her final season at Center Grove as productive and memorable as possible.
The ingredients are there.
Annee, a 5-foot-8 guard, led the Trojans in scoring last season with her 13-point average. The team, which advanced to the morning semifinal of a Class 4A semistate and finished with a 21-5 record, also returns senior starters Aubrie Booker, a guard, and post Rachel Wirts, along with junior wing Lilly Bischoff.
It was certainly a few months of substantial growth for Annee, whose level of consistency enabled her to score in double figures 22 times as a junior, including each of the Trojans’ final seven games.
“I learned a lot last season,” Annee said. “I was kind of out of control at the beginning of the season, but I feel I’m more mature going into my senior year.”
Center Grove coach Kevin Stuckmeyer began seeing glimpses of Annee’s potential during the waning stages of the 2021-22 season.
It was then, as a sophomore, that Annee averaged 9.3 points over the team’s final six games (she’d averaged 5 points through Center Grove’s first 16 contests).
“I thought Audrey had as good of a junior year as anybody,” Stuckmeyer said. “I thought her tournament run last year really sparked us. When the game matters, she makes plays. Not everybody has that.”
The coach references Annee’s third-quarter performance during last season’s 42-25 victory over Mooresville in the championship game of the Class 4A sectional at Bloomington South.
Center Grove trailed 21-20 at the half before Annee scored all 13 of her team’s points in the third.
Said Stuckmeyer: “Audrey hit maybe two or three straight 3s that put us on a little bit of a run.”
One the senior carries over into a 2023-24 season brimming with possibilities, regular season and beyond.
Going through the process with Booker and Wirts promises to make the journey, beginning with the Nov. 2 opener at home against Franklin Central, enjoyable.
“I’m with them, like, every day. They’re probably my best friends,” Annee said. “On the court, it helps us with the chemistry. We can hold each other accountable, and we know it’s not personal.
“Our starting five should be very strong. It will take a couple of games, but I think we’ll be pretty close to last year’s team. It will take composure, but just setting the tone at the beginning of the season will make a difference.”
SCOUTING THE TROJANS
Coach: Kevin Stuckmeyer
Last season: 22-5, lost to Bedford North Lawrence in Class 4A semistate semifinal
Key returnees: Audrey Annee, Aubrie Booker and Rachel Wirts, seniors; Lilly Bischoff, junior
Top newcomers: Ava Grant and Emerson Vlcan, juniors; Hannah Gin, sophomore; MacKenzie Pierce, freshman
Outlook: The Trojans’ senior nucleus of Annee, Booker and Wirts has logged a great deal of varsity minutes playing in crucial games over the past two to three seasons. The 5-foot-7 Booker started as a freshman, while the workloads for Annee and Wirts increased as they got older. A junior, Bischoff is also expected to play a major role in the team attempting to look as formidable on the floor as it does on paper. The 5-8 Annee averaged a team-high 13 points a game, while Booker, the 6-3 Wirts and 5-9 Bischoff produced scoring norms between 6.2 and 6.8 points.
Stuckmeyer, now in his seventh season, doesn’t feel this team possesses the overall depth of a year ago. However, he feels Grant, the 6-1 Vlcan, Gin and Pierce are all capable of significant contributions. Annee attempted more than one-third of the 494 3-point shots attempted by the 2022-23 squad. Her share of the makes — nearly 47% — proved even more impressive.
“Every year is different, so you have to come in with the expectation of doing what you have to do to be successful. Just as a program, we know we have to put in the work,” said Stuckmeyer, whose record at CG is 113-43. “Aubrie Booker, this being her fourth year as a starter, she might be the only one who’s done that since I’ve been here. It’s pretty hard to do, but even as a sophomore, she began to take on more of a leadership role.”
