Lakes senior Kaylee Anderson, one of the top rebounders in the Northern Lake County Conference, realizes she might not look the part.
But the 5-foot-7 forward is proof that rebounding isn’t about height.
“You don’t have to be that tall,” Anderson said. “I’m not very tall, but I still get a lot of rebounds. If you think you can do it, you can.”
Lakes senior guard/forward Adey Martin said Anderson also knows what she’s doing.
“She positions herself so well and tracks the ball so well that when she gets a body on someone, she somehow always gets the rebound,” Martin said. “You wouldn’t think she was a good rebounder by looking at her. She’s not the tallest or jumping the highest on the floor. She just is comfortable tracking the ball and figuring out where the ball will bounce.”
Anderson said she wants to do whatever she can for the team.
“I feel like I’m helping my team by getting offensive rebounds and putbacks and pushing it up the court to get a fast break,” she said.
Anderson made an immediate impact as a junior in her first varsity season. She recorded 19 rebounds in her second game and eventually set the single-season program record with 204.
“After I got 19 rebounds, I knew rebounding was one of the things where I would help the most,” Anderson said. “It felt really good. It boosted my confidence, and I just felt a part of the team.”
This season, Anderson is averaging 8.3 points and 7.2 rebounds, both team highs for the Eagles (4-7, 2-1), along with 1.6 assists, 1.3 steals and 1.8 deflections.
“She’s not the tallest or fastest, but she found a thing that she’s really good at,” Lakes coach Grant Murray said. “She’s very quiet and unassuming. She doesn’t think of herself as anything special.”
Anderson, who has recorded two double-doubles this season, scored a career-high 16 points against Wheeling on Nov. 23 and grabbed a season-high 13 rebounds in a loss to Crystal Lake South on Dec. 14.
Lakes, which came into the season with five returning seniors, has leaned on Anderson more since senior forward Emily Ovaska was sidelined with an injury earlier this month.
“She’s incredibly important to us,” Murray said of Anderson. “She’s a great a leader for us. She’s a bulldog. She finds ways to make things happen. She scores a lot of points in the paint.
“She extended her game out this season and knocked down a few 3-pointers. That’s one of the things we challenged her to do the last couple of years because we knew with her size that she wasn’t always going to be able to do what she wants in the paint.”
Anderson, who has a 4.4 GPA and helps coach one of Lakes’ feeder teams, credited her background in tennis for helping her become a better athlete and stay in shape. She’s prepared to put that to the test for the rest of this season.
“I’m trying to get more shots and improve my shooting and rebounding as much as I can — and maybe break the rebounding record again,” Anderson said.
Bobby Narang is a freelance reporter.
