Photo illustration by Ari Selvey Sleepy Eye’s Kadence Hesse was named the 2022-23 All-Journal Girls Basketball Player of the Year Thursday.

By Ari Selvey

Journal Sports Writer

SLEEPY EYE — Kadence Hesse has added another accolade to her growing high school basketball career.

Already Sleepy Eye’s all-time leading scorer and the only Indians player to cross the 2,000-point threshold with 2,087 career points, Hesse was unanimously chosen as the 2022-23 All-Journal Girls Basketball Player of the Year on Thursday as voted on by the Journal’s sports staff.

Hesse was also named the Tomahawk Conference Girls Basketball Player of the Year this season after averaging 24 points, 8.4 rebounds, 3.4 assists and 4.3 steals per game in her junior season.

“It’s super cool,” Hesse said of her awards and accomplishments. “I had this as a goal for myself but didn’t really focus on it during the season. I just tried doing my thing and hoping it would turn out how I was hoping and planning it would. It’s a super cool accomplishment, especially coming after Maddie Mathiowetz, who was a powerhouse in our area. It’s super cool to finally have my name out there a little more.”

Hesse is no stranger to All-Journal teams, making First Team as a freshman and sophomore and Second Team as an eighth-grader.

With the season over, Hesse has had a moment to reflect on her accomplishments of becoming the school’s scoring leader and passing 2,000 career points.

“I’m so very proud of myself,” Hesse said. “I don’t think I gave myself enough credit for how much I accomplished this year. It’s cool to start engraving your name into Sleepy Eye High School’s record book now, and having your name be something that all these coming players look to be like, like I did growing up playing. It was super cool to be able to leave my mark on the school and I still have a year left.”

Sleepy Eye is the only school with multiple players on the All-Journal First Team this year, as fellow Indians player Brea Mertz finished fourth in the voting. Hesse says that having a teammate like Mertz has been a huge help to her this season.

“It’s very nice to have that other player you can go to,” Hesse said. “We play very different games, so she’s always there if I need help and I’m always there if she needs help because we do very different things for our team. It’s a relief to me, and I would think it’s a relief to her, that we can just rely on each other if one of us is struggling a little bit more and we can get each other going. It’s always fun playing with her.”

Hesse and Mertz led the Indians to a 23-7 record and the Section 2A Girls Basketball Championship game this season, where the Indians finished as runner-ups in the section and one win away from securing a spot at the state tournament.

“I thought the season went well,” Hesse said. “This was the season we expected to have, looking at who was in our conference and who we had lost. Being able to see that we lost a couple of seniors last year, but we still had a good returning amount that played a few minutes for us last year. As the season went on, we found our groove a little bit and all the younger ones that didn’t play quite as much, we got to get them in the game a little bit more and learn how to play with each other. We finished with 20 wins, which is always great and a good goal to have. Getting to the finals in the playoffs was fun. Wish we could have won one more to go to state, but we can’t be too mad about what we did as a team.”

When it comes to her play on the court, Hesse said that she prefers to take the easiest shot she can, working for layups and free throws.

“I like to get myself going a little bit more,” Hesse said. “I like to get to the rim more and take the easy shots and get to the line a couple of times. I was able to really incorporate my mid-range game this year, which I hadn’t quite had as consistently in past years, which was nice for me. To be able to score on three levels and not just the 3 or the layup, which is a little bit harder to guard, it makes your scoring a little bit more efficient. It was nice to be able to round my game out more.”

When looking for areas of improvement, Hesse said that she can get better at every part of her game.

“I want to improve all of it,” Hesse said. “I’m not satisfied with where any of my game is. A lot of people don’t realize how hard I am on myself, I’m not really satisfied with any of it. I want to improve my finishing percentage, my 3-point percentage, my free-throw percentage. Being able to rely on those mid-range jumpers to go in a little bit more consistently as well.

“And then a little bit more about myself is just confidence. I need to be able to consistently be able to keep my confidence up a little bit too, which will help all those other areas to just fall into place.”

In order to reach the section title game this season, Sleepy Eye had to take down its cross-town rivals in Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s in the Section 2A, South Subsection Championship game on March 6 at Gustavus Adolphus College. The teams split with a win apiece in the regular season, but the Indians got the win when it mattered most with a 54-39 win to win the South Subsection title.

That win sticks out most from the season for Hesse.

“We had so much energy going into that game,” Hesse said. “Especially losing the past year in that same game against St. Mary’s. We came into the game wanting to win that game more than anything. It was so fun. Me and my teammates had so much energy, and as soon as that final buzzer sounded, we were having the time of our lives. As small of a moment it was, it was so much fun, and having the student section and the whole town of Sleepy Eye there made it even more special.”

With the entire team returning for next season, does Hesse think that Sleepy Eye can win that one more game next year to go to the state tournament?

“Yes,” Hesse said. “That’s the plan.”