If New Richland-Hartland-Ellendale-Geneva’s Alyssa Kerkhoff keeps going at the rate she has, a lot of teams are going to be in trouble in the coming years.

Kerkhoff, a sophomore for the Panthers’ girls’ basketball team had a stellar sophomore season in a year that was marked by personal accomplishments and team accomplishments.

Kerkhoff, the lightning-quick point guard recorded her 1,000th career point in her second full varsity season in leading NRHEG to the section finals.

It doesn’t look like she is about to slow down for anyone or anything in her next two years and is this year’s Albert Lea Tribune Player of the Year.

“This year she came into her own from a scoring standpoint,” said Panthers’ head coach Mindy Sparby. “She really worked hard on developing her game from the 3-point line on in. She’s gotten stronger which has helped her shot. She made a commitment tobe a 70 percent free throw shooter and she was. She sets goals for herself and she works very hard to accomplish them.”

Kerkhoff led all area players in scoring, averaging 22.2 points per game, up from 14 points per game last season as a freshman. She increased her numbers in nearly every statistical category and became one of the area’s most electric players with her ability to drive through the lane.

Kerkhoff tallied 133 steals this season, nearly five a game, to go along with nearly five rebounds per game as NRHEG finished the season with a 27-2 record.

Kerkhoff cited her offseason workout and playing AAU basketball as two of the reasons for her improvement.

“A lot of it was the weight room, going into the weight room during the summer and also playing AAU during the summer,” Kerkhoff said. “That helped a lot because you’re going against other girls and different competition so it makes you play differently.”

Kerkhoff also paid a lot of attention to how some of Minnesota’s top players play the game, in particular Jordan’s Brittany Chambers and Minneapolis South’s Tayler Hill, who set the all-time state scoring mark earlier this season. Both Chambers and Hill create things offensively with their slashing ability and court awareness to find open teammates with their dribble penetration. Kerkhoff has tried to emulate how they play the game.

“A lot of things happen when you drive to the hoop so that was one of my goals this year to constantly drive to the hoop because that opens up more opportunities for the rest of the team,” Kerkhoff said. “Each year you get quicker and smarter about the game so this year I just made more smart decisions on how to get to the hoop or to shoot the ball.”

Last summer Kerkhoff worked on two facets of her game to become a more complete player. Her outside shot needed work and she spent three days a week in the gym putting up 200 jump shots. Her numbers reflected the hard work this season as she shot 41 percent from the field, up from 33 percent last season, and she shot 32 percent from beyond the arc, while also improving as a free throw shooter. As a freshman she shot 53 percent from the line and that number rose to 71 percent.

She’s only getting stronger and smarter with each season.

“She, in just two years time, has developed in a very good, strong athlete who’s committed to working out,” Sparby said. “She runs on her own, she sprints on her own, she lifts on her own — she is just committed to being an athlete.”

Although the season ended in disappointment for the Panthers with a loss to Blue Earth in the Section 2AA finals, both Sparby and Kerkhoff believe the loss will only embolden a group that has an insatiable desire to reach the state tournament.

“A lot of us were frustrated because we had the dream of going to state and coming up one game short and being in that position, it’s not fun,” Kerkhoff said. “But you gotta be happy of all the accomplishments we made throughout the season. Next year it will drive us that much more because we want to try to get to that game and win that game.”