Sycamore girls basketball coach Adam Wickness knows each summer, he’s going to miss players at various games due to multisport athletes and their commitments.

But this summer Wickness and the Spartans have battled through another wrinkle. Three of their five projected rotational players have missed time due to injury or illness.

Callie Countryman, a two-sport athlete who has also been sick, said it’s obviously better to go through the injury bug in June than in February.

“Now is honestly the time to get hurt or get fixed,” said Countryman, who plays softball as well as basketball. “It’s summer, it doesn’t hurt as much as when we get to normal season.”

That’s what Quinn Carrier elected to do. The reigning Daily Chronicle Player of the Year has an extra muscle in her feet, causing extra pain. Wickness said Evyn Carrier, Quinn Carrier’s sister and the 2023 Daily Chronicle Player of the Year, had the same condition. Evyn Carrier transferred to UIC in April after playing for Toledo and Western Michigan.

Macy Calendo, a 5-foot-10 shooting guard who was fourth on the team in scoring with 3.8 points per game last year, had been to every game and practice up until Monday. But she hurt her knee. The extent of the injury isn’t known yet, Wickness said.

Wickness said Calendo was having a great summer. After shooting 23.4% from the floor and 25.2% from 3-point range, Wickness said Calendo’s game was improving all around before her injury.

“She was ready for the challenge,” Wickness said. “Obviously she can shoot it. But I like the confidence she’s shown in taking the basketball to the hole. She’s finished really well. She’s starting to get tougher on defense and rebounding.”

Wickness said Calendo should become a consistent third scoring option behind Quinn and Sadie Lang, who put up nearly identical numbers last year. Carrier averaged 17 points per game last year as a junior.

Lang, heading into her junior year, averaged 17.7 points per game last year and is the only one of the five projected starters who’s been at every game and practice. Carrier has been out with the foot injury, Calendo had missed time with sickness before the knee issue, Countryman had been sick and also has softball obligations and Kelsie Ryder has soccer obligations.

“Summer is always kind of a crapshoot as to what you’re going to get with multisport athletes,” Wickness said. “I do ask them to share time. There’s kids at volleyball, there’s kids doing softball stuff. That’s okay. There’s nothing wrong with that at all. We just kind of go with the flow.”

The plus side, Wickness said, is getting to see what a bunch of freshmen and sophomores can do. He said it’s hard to single any out, but he likes what he’s seen from them as a group.

Besides, he said, there’s a long time for them to figure things out. And when he was putting together the summer schedule in March, he loaded up with varsity games in Geneva and JV games in DeKalb. And due to the shorthandedness, those young players are getting to double up.

“There’s different kids that do different things,” Wickness said. “I’ve been impressed with the attack mode of some of our freshmen. I’ve been impressed with competing for loose balls and playing hard from some of our sophomores. Some of the passing and ball movement has been real good out of those two groups as well. There have been glimpses where you see it. ... But like when you’re a kid and you’re really young, there’s games where you look really good and games where you look really bad.”

Wickness said he’s been impressed with how Calendo, Lang and especially Countryman have stepped up into leadership positions.

Countryman has been impressed with the freshmen and sophomores. She still has softball duties this summer as her Sycamore Sycos travel team continues to compete, but she’s excited as the basketball team continues to grow.

“I think a lot of them have potential,” Countryman said. “They’re pretty close with each other, so if we get them to be close with us and trust us a little bit more, I think it’ll benefit everybody.”