Mentioning this is Kankakee Valley junior center Olivia Adams’ first healthy season, it almost seems necessary to knock on wood.
“I haven’t been the luckiest with injuries and sicknesses,” she said. “Hopefully none this year.”
Knock on wood.
As a freshman, Adams suffered an ankle injury in her first junior varsity game after a promotion and missed about two months. Around this time last year, she began a stretch of six weeks on the sideline with mononucleosis. She returned late in the season but not at full condition.
“It just taught me how precious basketball is to me and how hard I have to work to continue to do good in basketball,” Adams said.
This season, the 6-foot-1 Adams was averaging 9.4 points, a team-high 8.7 rebounds and 1.3 steals before the Kougars (8-3) defeated Michigan City on Monday.
“I was out for a lot of last season, but I put in a lot of work,” she said. “I’ve gotten more aggressive. I’m pretty good at rebounding, so I can get those rebounds and give us second-chance shots.
“With my size, I’m the biggest on the team, so posting up and getting shots in the paint really helps a lot. Especially once those shots go in, the defense collapses and leaves the 3-point shooters open so we can get them looks.”
Adams has been an important player for a young team that already has matched its total victories from last season. Atop the Northwest Crossroads Conference standings at 4-0, Kankakee Valley could win its first title since 2019, which was its last in a run of four straight. The Kougars haven’t won a sectional title since 2021.
“She brings a great post presence for the team,” Kankakee Valley coach David Walstra said. “Every game, she just keeps getting better and better — and stronger. We keep trying to get her to attack the basket more. Her free throws have improved. Just as an all-around player, she keeps getting better and better.”
Adams averaged 6.8 points and a team-high 9.8 rebounds last season, when the Kougars’ top four scorers were freshmen and sophomores. Those four — Adams, sophomore guard Jenna Walker, sophomore guard Camry Krueger and junior guard/forward Mallorie Rose — each average at least 9.0 points this season. There are no seniors among the team’s top six scorers.
Walker, who was averaging a team-high 12.6 points and 5.2 rebounds entering Monday, is glad to have Adams on the court.
“I like passing the ball to Liv because I know she can score down low,” Walker said. “When I see her posting up, I pass it to her.
“She works very hard all the time in practice and games. You can always count on her to work hard for a rebound or to get a second-chance shot — and even kicking it out if she’s in trouble in the paint.”
Kankakee Valley’s Olivia Adams pulls down a rebound during a nonconference game against Chesterton in Wheatfield on Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2024. (Michael Gard / Post-Tribune)
Adams also is a thrower in track and field. As a freshman, she advanced to a regional in the shot put. But last spring, after one meet, her season was short-circuited by a right wrist injury she suffered in AAU basketball.
Adams attempted to throw the discus left-handed after six weeks.
“It was a lot of relaxing, and I’m usually doing something in sports, and after a while I got tired of doing nothing,” she said.
But Adams shut it down after three more meets.
“It wasn’t super good, but it was just fun,” she said.
Adams has also been having fun with a basketball team on the rise.
“We work together really well as a team,” she said. “We’re all really close in age, so we get along really well, and that reflects on the basketball court. We play not selfish on the court, and everyone knows their job and what they’re supposed to do.
“There’s going to be tough games. But if we play with confidence and we work hard at practice every day, we can go undefeated for the rest of the season.”
