Father McGivney girls basketball preps for new season

The Father McGivney girls basketball team is using the summer to prepare for its ninth season in program history.

And for the fourth time, the Griffins will be moving on from an All-State player with the graduation loss of Sami Oller. An Illinois Basketball Coaches Association All-State third-team selection for the second straight season, Oller averaged a team-high 10.9 points and 4.9 rebounds. She also had a team-high 104 steals, a team-high 39 blocks and 49 assists.

Oller ended her career with 1,063 points for third most in program history behind Anna McKee (1,361 points) and Charlize Luehmann (1,113).

Father McGivney coach Jeff Oller – no relation to Sami Oller – is confident the Griffins will have right pieces in place by the time the season rolls around in November.

“There has always been someone important that has left and there has always been someone there to step up,” Jeff Oller said. “We’ve seen that this summer. It’s a little different, though, with a lot of different players stepping up.”

Sami Oller was one of four seniors on last year’s team that helped Father McGivney to a 24-11 season and a regional championship. The Griffins lost 41-29 to eventual state champion Okawville in the Class 1A Nokomis Sectional championship game.

It was the fifth 20-win season for FMCHS.

Taking a run at a sixth 20-win season will be an experienced group that has been gelling together this summer.

Despite the loss of Sami Oller, along with Emily Johnson, the Griffins bring back three scorers from their top five, including rising junior guard Natalie Beck (8.6 ppg.), rising junior forward Mia Lieberman (6.8 ppg.) and rising senior point guard Devin Ellis (3.8 ppg.).

“A lot of our juniors and seniors have a lot of experience inside the program. They all our contributing. It’s to the extent to where that load is not going to be put all on one person,” Jeff Oller said.

Beck and Ellis are among the returning guards. Also included in the group are rising seniors Ava Giovando, Julia Behrmann, Izzie Venarsky and Sabrina Ivnik and rising juniors Sofia Rossetto and Alexa Jones.

“We return all of our guards, which is very valuable,” Jeff Oller said.

With the departures of Sami Oller and Johnson, minutes have been freed up for returning post players. Rising juniors Zoe Oller and Peyton Ellis, along with Lieberman have seen the most minutes this summer.

FMCHS has been using the summer to try and piece together the right lineup.

“This summer has been good for us because it has allowed us to experiment with some different offenses where we can go guard-heavy if we want to go that way. I do like our post players, too, with Peyton, Zoe and Mia,” Jeff Oller said. “We will adjust as needed.”

Regardless of who is one the floor for the Griffins, finding that player to take shots in clutch time will be key.

“The first tournament we played this summer, it was OK. We were kind of waiting for someone to step up. We hadn’t talked about it yet,” Jeff Oller said. “Since then, we’ve seen multiple people step up. It’s from people who have been in the program the last three or four years that are now getting their shot.”

This summer, Father McGivney has played in shootouts at Illinois College, Greenville, SIUE and Triad. It also hosted scrimmages and went to SWIC. FMCHS is scheduled to go to Rolla on July 12-13.

The Griffins went 5-0 at SIUE and 2-2 at Belleville West.

“It’s been a good summer,” Jeff Oller said. “We’ve had really good dedication. We’ve had waves of substitutions in games with so many juniors and seniors in the program and talented sophomores as well.”