Andrean sophomore Maddie Walton has started to scratch the surface of her potential.
The 6-foot forward is averaging 9.8 points, second on the team to senior guard Tori Allen, the program’s career scoring leader. Walton is leading the 59ers with 6.5 rebounds per game.
Not too shabby for someone who didn’t begin playing competitively until seventh grade.
“It’s just staying focused and knowing my role,” Walton said. “Be disciplined and play for my team and with the team. Just know what you have to do on offense and defense. Be aggressive, but also stay cool, with sportsmanship. Defend the post, rebound, make layups, finish in the paint.
“Whatever my coaches are telling me to do, go on the court and just do it. Do it and just annihilate people.”
Walton chuckled at her use of that word. She averaged 2.6 points and 3.7 rebounds off the bench last season.
“Last year definitely was a little scarier,” she said. “It was the first time I was going through things. There were little freshman mistakes I had to overcome.
“It’s different now. I can’t use that freshman title. It’s knowing how important I am to this team and how much I can help with this team. It’s changing my entire mindset.”
Walton has made significant strides for the 59ers (13-2), who feature multiple talented guards.
“She’s starting to affect games with her play now, not just a kid on the floor,” Andrean coach Tony Scheub said. “She’s starting to be a factor where teams are going to have to prepare for her.
“What’s frustrating about her sometimes, I don’t think she knows how big of an impact she has on this team. When people think about us, they think of Tori Allen, they think of Lauren Colon, they think of Lindsay Arcella. I don’t think she knows she’s a difference-maker for us.”
Walton has been beginning to grasp that notion. Scheub pointed to a Dec. 13 win against Rensselaer as a turning point for her.
“She really picked it up after that game,” he said. “She had some good games leading up to that, but she’s really taken off from there. We had a film session, and we watched some things, and she saw herself where she knows she could’ve been playing harder.
“Ever since that game, there’s a noticeable difference not only in games but in practices as well. It was kind of a wake-up call for her. She’s really come along.”
Growing up, Walton played basketball recreationally. But she didn’t join a team until middle school.
“I’m new to basketball,” she said. “My brother was a big inspiration because he played basketball. It was going on with the role of the family.”
David Walton played until he was a freshman in high school — at crosstown rival Merrillville. A senior now, he runs cross country and track for the Pirates and was a semistate qualifier in the fall.
Scheub recalled seeing Maddie Walton play for the first time in eighth grade.
“It’s funny,” he said. “She would get a rebound and then just dribble down the court faster than anyone because she’s a good athlete. She’s fast, and she’s tall and lanky and lengthy. But she’s actually a lot stronger than she looks. So she would just dribble down, beat everyone down and then miss four layups and get the rebound every time and put it in. That was kind of what she used to do.
“Then she got to high school, and it was, like, ‘Whoa, there’s a lot of kids as tall as me and just as fast as me and just as athletic as me.’ It took her a little while to pick up on that. She wasn’t using her skills that she had yet because she never really had to. Once she realized what she was up against, you could see her say, ‘I can do that.’ It’s been a lot of fun to see her grow from her freshman summer until now, and even from the beginning of the season until now.”
And about that freshman summer for Walton?
“We had some frustrated guards because they were throwing her passes and she wasn’t the best at catching them,” Scheub said. “Or if she caught them, she wasn’t the best at finishing them. She’s come a long way with that. The passes they give her now, she catches and finishes. It’s like there’s no way that’s the same kid.
“She really wants to learn, and she wants to get better. She wants to be pushed as well. We have to handle it the right way.”
As Walton’s skills have developed, her athleticism has stood out consistently.
Depending on the composition of the roster next season, Scheub said she could play more on the perimeter.
In the fall, Walton also played volleyball for the first time, after coaches initially had reached out when she was a freshman. She spent most of the season on the junior varsity team before receiving a call-up for the postseason. Andrean, which won state titles in 2017 and 2021, lost a nail-biter to top-ranked and eventual champion Wapahani in a Class 2A semistate.
The girls basketball team has been seeking similar runs. The 59ers have won three straight sectional titles and back-to-back Northwest Crossroads Conference titles. Their lone regional championship came in 1999.
“We can definitely go far,” Walton said. “We’re working hard, and we believe in each other, and we’re playing as a team, and we have the same goals. With our the chemistry — we’re always cheering for each other — with the talent we have, we can go all the way down.
“I’m just really excited for the rest of the season and ready to see what the team can accomplish.”