Ella Boyanski’s high school basketball education off to a great start after she leads team with 17 points in her debut in a victory at Highland

Tom Keegan
Onwardtrojans.com

Even talented freshmen basketball players tend to have moments of hesitation playing with and against older players with far more experience playing in varsity games.
Chesterton freshman Ella Boyanski looked as comfortable on the court Thursday night at Highland in her first high school game as she did talking about the aggressive goals she has set for herself.
Boyanksi knows who holds the school record for points, and knows that her point total was “1,200-something. Jackie Campbell, right?” Right, and to be exact, she scored 1,212 points.
Boyanski didn’t know those facts in a detached way. Now that her first goal has been accomplished, playing varsity basketball from the outset, landing the school scoring record moves up a spot.
“Probably about the start of seventh grade, I realized I’m skilled enough that I can play in a higher level of basketball, so I started a goal and started working toward it,” she said. “This was the goal right here.”
Boyanski opened her career with 17 points, six rebounds, two assists and three steals. So it’s 17 points down, 1,196 points to go to pass Campbell.
“It’s definitely a goal I look forward to, see how this freshman season pans out and as I get older definitely work toward that goal,” she said.
Boyanski played an extremely efficient debut, making 7 of 11 field goals. On a night sophomore Lindsi McGuffey made 4 of 5 3-pointers, Boyanski made 2 of 3.
McGuffey said that her stiffest competition during 3-point shooting competitions in practice comes from Boyanski and junior Novea Brandon. Those three girls all are in the City Elite AAU program out of Michigan City, but Boyanski played on a younger team. She doesn’t play like a younger athlete.
“Very savvy,” second-year Chesterton coach Candy Wilson said. “Very, very savvy.”
Like several teammates, Boyanski has a versatile skill set that enables her to play multiple positions. Defensively, she said she feels comfortable guarding any position from a point guard to a power forward, and also feels comfortable filling any role on offense.
She has played more basketball than most freshmen and started early.
“I started playing when I was 5 years old at The Courts league with a mini hoop,” she said.
A trip to Northridge for a Saturday night game is up next for Boyanski. The Raiders are ranked No. 9 in the 4A preseason poll and returns several key players, including 5-10 forward Lily Scholl (15.8 points, 6.2 rebounds last season) from a team that went 21-5 last season.
That’s a tall order for a Trojans team so young it has just one junior and two seniors on the roster, but rather than looking at it as a reason to feel intimidated, but Boyanski instead is looking at it as a big learning day in her basketball education.
“It’ll be tough, but I’m looking forward to the challenge and to seeing what a really good basketball team looks like,” Boyanski said. “It’ll be exciting, and definitely a chance for us to grow.”