There’s nowhere for Avery Elijah to hide on the basketball court.
The 5-foot-10 guard is only a freshman but is already one of the best players on the floor in any given game.
So perhaps it’s no surprise that when she’s away from basketball, Elijah prefers to keep to herself. That might mean drawing, painting pictures of her sister’s cat, Meeko, or spending time on her family’s 186-acre farm.
“I have a family farm I like to visit a lot,” Elijah said. “My sister has a lot of animals. We have goats, chickens, dogs, cats, all that stuff. My dad owns cows there too.”
By all accounts, Elijah is shy, at least off the court. On it, she makes sure people notice her. That mentality has fueled a monster debut season for Porter County Conference leader Kouts (12-3, 4-1).
Elijah is averaging 14.2 points and 3.3 assists, both team highs, but it’s her defense that has drawn the most attention. She’s averaging a state-best 6.8 steals.
“I feel like I’m good at anticipating passes and just using my arms really well,” she said. “So I think maybe that’s where most of the steals come from.
“But I’ve been wanting to be ranked pretty high in this since I was little, and it’s a really good feeling to know I’m up there with all these other talented athletes.”
It’s easy to see why Kouts coach Tim Schwartz was eager to find out what his newest player could do as soon as possible.
“She’s always thinking one or two plays ahead, anticipating,” Schwartz said. “In her heart, she’s a point guard who loves to distribute the ball. That’s the kind of player she is. She’s very unselfish, and that’s what I noticed even in middle school. She’s unselfish with the ball, and she’ll share it with anyone on the court.”
Kouts junior guard Bella Birky, Elijah’s backcourt mate, noticed the same traits.
“She has a really good basketball IQ,” Birky said. “We’re probably two of the quickest girls on the team, but she’s also very poised and calm. She really shows no emotion, which I really like about her, and she’s not a selfish player. She knows how to share the ball.
“I knew when she first came to practice that she was going to be in a starting-five spot.”
Elijah and Birky average nearly 11 steals between them. The havoc they create and the fast-break chances that follow have fueled the Fillies, who have already matched their win total from last season and hope to end a 20-year conference tournament title drought.
Elijah identified the key to making that happen.
“Communicating on the court,” she said. “If somebody doesn’t know what to do, just tell them where to go and stuff like that. Communicating with my (teammates) is a big thing for me, especially, because I used to not talk as much on the court. But now that I’m with these girls, I feel like I talk way more than I have before.”
That’s the latest step in Elijah’s maturation, and she has big goals for her future, too, from improving her 3-point shot in the short term to playing in the Big Ten down the road. Considering she’s already hearing from colleges, that may not be far-fetched.
If she continues her career in college, she will follow in the footsteps of multiple family members. Her father, Mark, played football at Valparaiso University, her older sister Madison ran at Minnesota Crookston, and her older sister Sidney runs at Purdue University Northwest and previously played basketball at Calumet College.
Noah Poser is a freelance reporter.
