Manning captains All-Union team

It was a strong year in girls basketball for the Union coverage area. The area had the state's leading scorer, an undefeated team and plenty of talent to go around.

The 2020-21 All-Union girls basketball team is incredibly balanced, with the six players being from six different teams. Van Buren County had this year's captain, and Winfield-Mount Union was the best represented school, with a player and the coach.

COACH

Mitch Wachs, Winfield-Mount Union

Winfield-Mount Union had one of its best years under the long tenure of Wachs, who has coached in 676 high school basketball games.

The Wolves came in with big expectations, having brought the vast majority of their talent from last year. The extra pressure didn't seem to hinder them at all.

WMU girls basketball was just one game over .500 in 2019-20, but the Wolves took a huge jump in 2020-21, winning their first 18 games en route to a Southeast Iowa Super Conference North Division title.

The Wolves went a perfect 10-0 in the North Division and 16-0 in the regular season. They knocked off both Holy Trinity Catholic and Calmus-Wheatland in the regional tournament, before falling in a semifinal showdown against Notre Dame.

The Wolves were incredibly balanced all season long. WMU had seven players who averaged five points or better, and had nobody averaged over 8.6 points per game.

CAPTAIN

Isabel Manning, senior, Van Buren

Anyone following local girls basketball could probably guess who was going to captain the 2020-21 All-Union small school girls basketball team. Van Buren County had a superstar in Manning, who closed her high school career out in style.

The Clarke University commit led the entire state with 30.2 points per game this season, earning a spot on the Class 1A All-State team. She finished fourth in Class 2A with 11.9 rebounds per game, the top guard in that category, and added 3.5 steals per game and 3.0 assists per game.

Manning was great all year, but she found a way to outdo herself in the postseason. In a regional quarterfinal win over Louisa-Muscatine, she went for 30 points and 15 rebounds, and even made the game-winning shot with 30 seconds left. In the Warriors regional semifinal loss to Iowa City Regina, she went off for 33 points and 12 rebounds.

Maddie Nonnenmann, junior, Mid-Prairie

Playing in the River Valley, a 14-team conference that had five different teams ranked at the same time during one point this season, Nonnenmann was one of 10 chosen for the RVC Elite Team.

She was second in the RVC South Division in defensive rebounds and senior teammate Myah Lugar was seventh. Lugar was also seventh in assists. Senior teammate Phelan Hostetler was third in the South with 2.5 blocks, fifth in Class 3A with 55 total. Nonnenmann was fifth in the South in blocks per game at 0.7. Hostetler led the South in field goal percentage at 50.6 and Nonnenmann was fifth at 46.5.

Nonnenmann was fourth in defensive rebounds per game with 5.4, fifth in points scored, total rebounds and third in field goals made.

Nonnenmann was the only freshman to receive league recognition two years ago and was an All-South Division choice as a sophomore.

Nonnenmann was seventh in the South Division in averages per game of both rebounds (6.7) and points (13.3) this year.

Ellah Kissell, sophomore, WACO

Kissell bursted onto the scene as one of the best players in Southeast Iowa this year, leading the Warriors in scoring in just her sophomore season.

The latest member of the Kissell family to make her way through the WACO basketball ranks scored 14.3 points per game to lead the team, but she didn't just get her work done in the scoring column. Kissell finished the year with 5.5 rebounds per game, 2.6 assists per game, 1.8 steals per game and one block per game, all of which landed in the top three for the Warriors.

Kissell ranked 11th in Class 1A in 3-pointers made, sinking 50 longballs on the year. In WACO's regional win over Highland, Kissell broke the school for 3-pointers in a game, with seven.

Marah Hartrick, senior, New London

On a team with just eight players, the Tigers' lone senior needed to be on the court for practically the entire game.

Hartrick led her squad with 14.8 points per game, and added 4.6 boards per game and 1.7 steals per game to her resume.

The Tigers' leading scorer was deadly from outside in 2020-21. Hartrick hit 47 3-pointers on the year, 14th-best in Class 1A.

Farrah Nelson, senior, Winfield-Mt. Union

The 2020-21 Winfield-Mt. Union squad could have anyone step up at any moment, but in the end one player stuck out just a hair above the rest on a team that distributed its talent incredibly evenly.

Nelson was a constant force for the Wolves both in the scoring column and on the glass. She finished the year at 8.5 points per game, just one-tenth of a point below teammate Bradie Buffington. She led the Wolves in rebounds with 7.6 per game, 3.5 of which were offensive.

Nelson was especially active in the postseason. She led the Wolves in rebounds in all three postseason games, and led the team in points for two of the three. In the opening-round game against Holy Trinity, Nelson produced 14 points, 16 rebounds and four steals.

Kerrigan Pope, junior, Pekin

A choice of Pope for All-Union was easy with only Captain Manning had a better scoring average than Pope (third in the North with 15.4 points per game) or rebounding average (sixth in the North at 7.7) of the All-Union selections.

Pekin was at its best as a team and senior teammates Erika Coleman (fifth in North at 10.0 points per game and ninth in rebounds at 7.0) and Sophie Wittrock (second in steals {and sixth in Class 2A} at 4.7, eighth in assists at 2.4 and 12th in points at 9.0) deserve mention. Pope was 12th in steals at 2.3, Coleman 17th at 1.9. Pope was sixth at 46.8 in field goal percentage.