Girls Basketball: Sophomore Hannah Treptow proves invaluable as Sandwich’s point guard

Sandwich sophomore guard Hannah Treptow (4) drives to the basket during a game in the 2022-2023 season.

Hannah Treptow does not play point guard for her AAU basketball team, and doesn’t particularly consider her ball handling a strength.

It is invaluable to Sandwich.

Treptow, a 5-foot-10 sophomore, rarely leaves the court for the Indians, averaging close to 30 minutes per game. She is Sandwich’s leading scorer in her second varsity season, and a very good rebounder for her position. But that is not her most critical asset to her high school team.

“She is unbelievably talented as far as handling the basketball,” Sandwich coach Jim Schmidt said. “Teams don’t press us with her on the court. We can’t take her off the court. She is a playmaker, handles the ball. Being 5-foot-10 with the handles she has, that’s rare.”

Treptow’s importance is evident in Sandwich’s three games with Plano. She missed the first one, and Sandwich lost by 29. The Indians won the second, with her in the lineup, by 26.

“Plano didn’t even press us the third game. We beat them the other day by 13,” Schmidt said. “The last half of the season I can’t remember the team that pressed us.”

Over 22 games Treptow is averaging 8.4 points, 6.5 rebounds, 2.5 steals and 2 blocks for Sandwich, whose 7-19 record is somewhat deceiving when considering that All-Area post Claire Allen missed the first 20 games with injury.

Treptow’s basketball acumen at a young age should not surprise.

Her dad, Steve, was an assistant with the Neuqua Valley girls basketball team for 20 years, and got her started at a young age. Hannah remembers going to summer camps and varsity practice at Neuqua. Her dad knows the owner of Breakaway Basketball, and Hannah would work on her shooting form with a shooting machine at the facility to get reps up. She also plays AAU with the M14 Hoops Basketball Academy.

During the offseason she has practice three days a week, does weight training on Mondays and rents shooting machines. She does in-place dribbling and two-ball dribbling drills working her left and right hand, and works on doing different moves into a shot.

“I’m more of a shooting guard on my travel team,” Treptow said. “I consider shooting my biggest strength.”

Schmidt knew when he inherited the program this season that he had a 5-foot-10 girl who could handle the basketball well.

“Then I came in and I thought ‘Gosh, this girl is going to be pretty good,’” he said. “Sometimes you have to get her to slow down. She is a phenomenal player. She is a great person, comes from a great family, she runs cross country in the fall and plays basketball nine months out of the year. She has great stamina, hardly ever gets tired.”

Schmidt envisions Treptow as Sandwich’s next 1,000-point scorer, and marvels at her coordination to be such a talented point guard for her height.

“At times we need to find a way to get her more shots,” Schmidt said. “She has that ability to drive in the lane, can hit the 3, can hit the mid-range shot. She is only a sophomore but she’s already an incredible 3-point shooter, a playmaker, she is able to get rebounds and putbacks because of her height. And one thing that goes unnoticed is how good she is defensively because she’s so long.”

With Allen back in the fold, Schmidt is hopeful that the Indians’ best basketball is still ahead of them. In December he did not anticipate having Allen back this season, but Allen came to Sandwich’s games over Christmas break, and texted that if her doctor released her she’d like to come back.

Allen’s first practice was Jan. 4, her first game three days later against Morris. She is averaging close to 8 points and 10 rebounds upon her return.

“That’s hard to replace. She definitely has helped,” Schmidt said. “We might not have the results – we lost in overtime to Kaneland, beat Morris by three, lost to a good Genoa-Kingston team on the road. We may not be getting the wins but we are playing better and are more competitive.”