AJPOTY: Batt ends career at NUHS as all-time leading scorer
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NEW ULM -- For New Ulm High School girls' basketball fans, Joey Batt was not only a joy to watch on the court, but she was also a leader and hero for her team on numerous occasions during her five years as a varsity starter.
For opposing teams, however, she was a nightmare.
Taking down her opponents with phenomenal 3-pointers, hounding defense and drives to the hoop, it wouldn't come as much of a surprise to hear how happy other high school teams in Minnesota are for no longer having to worry about playing Batt after she graduates this spring. Wrapping her career up with a NUHS and City of New Ulm record 2,301 points, Batt dominated in her final year as an Eagle and was unanimously selected by The Journal's sports staff as the 2018-2019 All-Journal Girls' Basketball Player of the Year as a result.
Despite having a Big South All-Conference and All-Journal season last year, Batt didn't settle with where she or the team was at coming into this season.
"Personally, I had to work on my shooting," Batt said. "I think I kind of extended my range a lot better and became more versatile, like being able to shoot off the dribble. As a team, we tried to really focus on playing together, not individually, and helping each other up when we're down."
Batt averaged 26.4 points per game, 3.3 rebounds per game, 5.1 assists per game and 6.1 steals per game this season. The 5-foot-5 senior was also selected to the Big South All-Conference Team for the third consecutive year and was honored by the Minnesota Girls' Basketball Coaches Association as part of the AAA All-State team.
Batt also had her dad, Brian, as head coach the past two seasons at NUHS and said that she was happy to be able to experience that.
"We didn't argue as much this year, which was good [laughs]," Batt said. "He was really supportive of me and I know he wants me to do the best I can, so he's always pushing me and never went easy on me. It was just really enjoyable because I've played basketball with him for so long."
Although the Eagles had an early elimination this season in the Section 2AAA playoffs at the hands of Hutchinson, Batt still enjoyed her final season and took away positives from it.
"I thought that we had a pretty successful season with our 20-plus wins for the third year in a row, since we had several years in a row that we didn't have any wins," she said. "I was hoping that we could improve from last year, but we had the same [amount of wins]. But it was fun because a lot of girls from last year stepped up, like the younger kids."
The Eagles went 23-6 in the 2016-2017 season and finished the following season with a 20-7 overall mark. This year, the Eagles finished with a 20-6 overall record.
The struggles and nightmares may be over for Batt's high school opponents, but now colleges will have to deal with her as she continues her basketball career at Minnesota State University, Mankato next winter.
"I'm really excited to play for MSU," Batt said. "The recruits that we have coming in from my grade are phenomenal. Three of them are from Iowa and one of them is from St. Louis Park. Two of them competed in state championships a few weeks ago. The coaches have talked to us plenty of times and have said that they're really excited for us to come and hopefully make a run later into the postseason."