“She’s an elite shooter — one of the best, if not THE best, to come through Ohio,” said Hoffman, whose team was second nationally in 3′s at 10.1 per game last season.
“We use shooters in four spots in our offense, if not five. I think she’ll have a learning curve, as all freshmen do, but we’re looking for big things from Rylee.”
Sagester, who racked up 401 career 3′s, was named the Ohio MVP in the all-division Ohio-Kentucky all-star game April 8. And she appears to have the potential to be a program-changing recruit for Hoffman, who had to replace seven players — three who graduated and four who exited with eligibility left.
Hoffman had an even more tumultuous offseason after her first year in 2021-22, overhauling her roster with 13 new players.
“We’ve definitely had our challenges, but a lot of coaches are facing problems and hurdles that weren’t here probably four, five, six years ago,” said Hoffman, who led the Raiders to 4-19 and 8-24 records the last two years but six wins in their final 11 games last season.
“It’s a new day and age, and we’re all just trying to adjust and do the best we can.”
Hoffman and her staff are doing just fine. They picked up one player in the early signing period, 5-7 guard Ellie Magestro-Kennedy of Stoughton, Wis., and won battles with other mid-majors for four transfers with regional ties.
Alexis Hutchison, a 5-7 guard from Centerville, will have one year of eligibility after making the jump from Division II Malone. She was named All-GMAC twice and averaged 18.1 points, 6.7 rebounds and 4.7 assists last season.
“She’s really an electric guard. She plays super hard. She defends hard and has a really good knack for scoring at the rim. She can shoot it, too,” Hoffman said.
Claire Henson, a 5-10 guard from Valley View, was the 2022 Ohio Division II co-player of the year. She appeared in 26 of 29 games in her lone season at Long Island, which went 7-22.
“She brings length and can use her athleticism to get to the bucket,” Hoffman said.
“She felt like she wanted to get closer to home. That’s been the story with all our transfers. They wanted to get back to the Dayton-Cincinnati area.”
Layne Ferrell, a 6-2 guard from Franklin, was fourth in scoring (9.8 per game), third in rebounding (5.5) and tied for first in assists (3.7) in 30 starts as a fourth-year junior last season for Akron, which went 17-13.
“Layne was a big (catch) since she was pretty sought-after, being quite an impact player at Akron. She scores inside and outside. She can guard any position. She’s a really good ‘get’ for us.”
Julia Hoefling, a 6-1 post from Mount Notre Dame in Cincinnati, was injured most of last season as a senior for Loyola (Ill.), which went 6-24, but she averaged 1.8 blocks as a junior, the third-most in program history.
“She’ll give us a really good presence inside,” Hoffman said.
The Raiders graduated three of their four highest scorers and their top three 3-point shooters in Bryce Nixon, Emily Chapman and Isabelle Bolender.
Channing Chappell, who started every game in Hoffman’s first year but came off the bench last season, is transferring, as are freshmen Taylor Johnson-Matthews, Isabella Cassoni and Athena Hocevar.
But unlike last season when she had to take marginal recruits out of need, Hoffman could make more surgical strikes this spring.
“It shows we’re a desirable program now. They’re picking us over our competition. That’s exactly what we’re going for,” she said.
“Obviously, we lost some to our competition, too. But we’re building something here. I think they can see that. They want to be coached by good people in an organized program. We can offer all those things.”
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