Any new Ladies recruited yet

Record-playing Loden on a path to becoming record-breaker at Mascoutah

Sophia Loden isn’t playing basketball to set records. Winning games is what most interests the Mascoutah High School junior.

Playing records is an entirely different topic. We’re talking vinyl.

It might seem strange for a soon-to-be 17-year-old to even recognize such relics, let alone possess an understanding of how they function.

Not for Loden. She owns about 40 albums and is on the prowl for more.

“Whenever I’m at home, I’m using my record player. I love it. It’s nice and peaceful,” Loden said of a hobby that began two years ago when an aunt presented her with a turntable on her birthday. “My record player is a newer one, but yeah, you pick up (the album) and put it on the player.

“I’ve told all my friends about my record player. They all know about it.”

That includes junior Katie Schneider, Loden’s teammate.

“I think it’s cool,” said Schneider, who hasn’t yet seen Loden’s record player but is eager to learn about it. “She’ll have to teach me how it works.”

Loden isn’t 100 percent old-school. She’s not spinning Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones, Credence Clearwater Revival, The Who, Black Sabbath or Van Halen. “Peaceful” probably isn’t a word associated with those classic bands.

“I listen to current music. My favorite artist is Taylor Swift. I listen to her all the time,” said Loden, who also squeezes in music from Olivia Rodrigo, Shawn Mendes and Ed Sheeran. “Just kind of everybody.”

Loden is nearly as passionate about shopping for, and acquiring, a new album as she is about basketball, a sport she is mastering on the local scene.

“I usually go out looking for one, then I’ll see another one I want,” said Loden, who has a friend that also collects albums. “We’ll go record-hunting on a Saturday. We like to go to record stores, but there are none that are close to where we live, so we have our parents take us to the record stores.”

Loden has two or three go-to locations for albums, but her hobby is especially rewarding when she runs across them at “the most random stores.”

“Now they make records on different colored pressings other than black,” Loden said. “I have one that’s red and I have some that are clear. They’re so cool.”

The 5-foot-11 Loden, called “Sophie” by family and friends, isn’t a musician, but she is on a trajectory that could make her a record-holder of a different sort.

The third-year starter, despite being limited to 16 games as a sophomore because of the COVID-19 pandemic, on Jan. 17 became just the 11th player in the history of the Mascoutah girls basketball program to score at least 1,000 career points. The Indians’ all-time leading scorer is Bec Harris with 1,724 points. Loden, if she remains injury-free, could sail past that mark.

Loden, also an honors student, reached the 1,000-point plateau with a first-quarter jumper in a 52-31 victory over Greenville in the Vandalia Mid-Winter Tournament. She entered the game with 999 points after missing an opportunity to accomplish the milestone in a 45-39 win over visiting Highland on Jan. 13.

“She would have loved to have done it in front of the home crowd,” Indians coach Frank Evans said. “But she’ll take beating Highland every night.”

Winning. That’s what drives Loden more than anything. The Indians (15-13) are on track for their first season with more wins than losses since 2015-16.

“I really want my team to do well, and I know we can,” Loden said, adding that individual accomplishments “feel good, but getting wins feels better.”

Loden averages 22.6 points, 12.5 rebounds, 2.9 assists and 3.6 steals. She scored 40 points against Centralia, 36 against Wesclin, 32 against Columbia and 31 against Civic Memorial. Corralling rebounds is Loden’s favorite art. She snared 21 against Civic Memorial, 19 against East St. Louis, 18 against Triad and Waterloo, 17 against Father McGivney and Highland and 16 against Centralia and Effingham.

“If the ball goes up, it’s mine when it comes down. That’s how I’ve always played,” Loden said. “Rebounding is something a lot of people don’t do anymore, but it’s so important. It’s, ‘How much more do you want it than the other girl?’

“I just want the ball more than other girls. If I can get a defensive rebound and convert it into points, that’s the best thing I can do. A lot of times, Katie Schneider, if she sees I have a rebound, will already be up the court and I can give the ball to her. We know each other so well.”

That’s hardly a surprise. Loden and Schneider, along with juniors Bella Hart and Annie Beck, have been teammates since fifth grade at Holy Childhood School in Mascoutah. It was Hart who recorded the assist on Loden’s basket that eclipsed the 1,000-point mark, hitting her in stride with a long pass.

Loden and Hart, in fact, have a deeper history. They played together in a YMCA coed league as 5-year-olds. Basketball quickly became Loden’s first love.

“It was always fun. I liked it right away,” Loden said. “I enjoyed the competitiveness.”

Evans said Loden’s rebounding proficiency begins with an attitude.

“She’s ferocious on the boards,” Evans said. “If she misses a shot inside, with bodies flying everywhere, she’s getting the ball and she’s going to put it back in. She plays with such high energy and all-out hustle. When we need to hit the accelerator, Sophie is the one who says, ‘OK, here we go,’ and turns it on.”

Loden also leads the Indians in floor burns. Kara Loden, a former soccer player, has grown accustomed to seeing her daughter sacrifice her body to get the Indians an extra possession.

“Throwing herself on a hardwood floor, I would never think of her doing that, but she’s out there doing it. She amazes me with that,” Kara Loden said. “She’s got a lot of fight in her that I love seeing out there on the court. Off the court, she’s kind-hearted, caring, concerned about other people. She’s got a big heart.”

That endears Loden to teammates.

“Sophie proves to the team how much she cares about basketball, and everyone can see what kind of work she puts in on her own time as well,” Schneider said. “She does a really good job of leading by example. She’s always encouraging and is leading in all the stats as well. It’s cool to see her play her game, and she does a good job at it. She’s an uplifting teammate and always there for me.”

And others, according to Jonathan Loden, Sophia’s dad, who stands 6-4 and is credited with passing on the height gene to his daughter.

“She can go to a basketball practice, training session or camp and know absolutely no one, but by the end of that session, it’s like she’s best friends with four or five girls,” he said. “I’m completely amazed by that.”

Heck, even opposing players enjoy being around Loden.

“She’s one of a kind,” said Civic Memorial senior Claire Christeson, one of Loden’s AAU teammates with the Southern Illinois Hawks.

Loden wears the “gym rat” label that coaches often assign to their hardest worker. It’s an apt description. Jonathan Loden remembers instances when his daughter was upset because a practice was canceled.

Earlier this season when COVID-19 infections were on the rise, Evans decided he would give his team a day off. Loden pleaded with him to open the gym so she and a few of her teammates could shoot. She promised they would wear masks and practice social distancing. Evans obliged. Loden was happy.

“I hate taking days off,” Loden said. “I feel like someone else is getting better when I could be getting better. I don’t want to be that player that slacks off all the time and thinks they should be getting more minutes when they’re really not doing anything. I want to be the best I can be.”
Sophia Loden - Home Court Advantage

To satisfy Loden’s appetite to improve, Jonathan Loden decided to make it as easy as possible. He had a court installed in the family’s backyard.

It’s not regulation size, but the dimensions of the lane, the free-throw line and the 3-point line are accurate. The goal is placed in concrete and is adjustable.

The best thing? It’s purple and white, mirroring Mascoutah’s colors.

Loden can roll out of bed, grab a snack and make a fast break for the court. Jonathan Loden smiles when he hears the basketball bouncing, often as early as 8:30 or 9 in the morning. Sophia’s younger brother, Jackson, 13, typically joins her, although Loden said: “He’s more of a baseball player.”

“We were getting our swing set taken down from when we were younger,” Loden said. “We were trying to think of what we could put up. I was like, ‘Can we put a court up?’ My whole family loved the idea, so we had it put up.

“My brother and I, during the summer, play a lot of one-on-one. And I take a lot of the training moves my coaches have done with me and do them with my brother. We have fun back there. He’s taller than me and he likes to foul.”

Jonathan Loden declined to reveal how much he paid for the waterproof, tile court — “It was not cheap,” he said — but it appears to be worth the investment. He claims not to have experienced buyer’s remorse.

“They put the court together in a warehouse,” Jonathan Loden said. “Then it’s like a jigsaw puzzle. They took it apart in order and brought it here. It took them a week or a week and a half to get the concrete base laid and settled. But when they came out to put the court in, it took them maybe three hours.

“COVID played a big part in it. There was nowhere for us to go shoot. The YMCA was closed, we couldn’t get into any gyms, the IHSA (Illinois High School Association) wasn’t allowing open gyms for kids. So we got the court put in. It gave her a place to shoot, and my son uses it, too.”

The list of people who have played instrumental roles in Loden’s course to becoming one of the best players in the area is long.

Heading the way is Richard Thompson, Loden’s maternal grandfather. He’s 75 years old and still mixes it up with Loden in a game of one-on-one.

“My dad is the one that took her under his wing and got her excited about basketball,” Kara Loden said. “He taught her the ins and outs of the game. He’s really worked with her on shooting — making sure she’s standing right and has everything lined up, making sure she’s not pushing the ball.

“It’s really touching, honestly. They have a very close relationship. They sit down and talk about plays, go over different games and film and talk about what she can do better and what she did really well. They’ve had a really close relationship. It’s been cute to see.”

Sophia Loden reflects with fondness on the early years of learning the correct, fundamentally sound way to play basketball. Grandpa was behind all of it.

“My grandpa has done a lot,” she said. “He coached my seventh- and eighth-grade basketball teams (at Holy Childhood) when we ended up winning our diocesan tournament. Our record was like 26-1 in eighth grade, and that was with Bella and Katie and Annie.”

Loden dabbled in soccer, which was natural since her parents were both proficient in the game. That didn’t last long, not with Grandpa in the neighborhood.

“He just helped me to fall in love with the game,” said Loden, who wears No. 40 to honor her grandfather. “We would play in the backyard together and also watch basketball games. Back in eighth grade, he would record all our games, and we still watch them now.”

Loden also has enjoyed support from AAU coaches Kenny Nance of the Southwestern Illinois Jets and Jonathan Denney of the Hawks, along with trainer Dave Ruckman. Loden’s aunt and Kara Loden’s sister, Kristen Meng, who played basketball at Mascoutah in the late-1990s, also wearing No. 40, has provided inspiration and instruction — and Sophia’s first pair of basketball shoes. Brian Hart, Bella Hart’s dad, was Loden’s first coach in fifth grade.

“There are a lot of people who had a hand in this,” Evans said.

Loden has made a commitment to become stronger. Ruckman, who played at Freeburg High and McKendree University, has trained Loden for the last five years. Loden also works out with Tucker Athletic Performance Training in Belleville, which has enabled her to boost her vertical leap.

“My dad doesn’t get the credit he deserves,” Loden said. “He got me interested in club basketball and he found all these trainings I can do. And Mascoutah has a weights program. I take my weights class before school every day.”

The next level

Finishing her junior year on a high note and helping Mascoutah continue its ascent to becoming an elite team in 2022-23 are Loden’s top priorities.

But she is keeping one eye on her future at the next level. She already has scholarship offers from Missouri S&T, Southwest Baptist, Purdue University Northwest, Quincy and Southwestern Illinois College. More are sure to come.

Loden will offer versatility to any program she joins. She’s a “freelance” player who feels comfortable about anywhere on the court, although she projects as a shooting guard or small forward. Loden said she expects to make a decision about her college career next season or at its conclusion.

“I want to get through July and that showcase period,” Loden said, adding that she’ll play “wherever my coach needs me to play.”

“If there’s a shorter girl on me, I can post her up,” she said. “I can drive on a bigger girl. I can honestly play wherever they need me to. I think I’ll be more of a guard. I love playing guard. It’s just so much more fun.”

Evans said adding strength and honing her 3-point shot will make Loden an effective college player. Her other skills are advanced.

“She’s going to have to get stronger and her guard game has to improve as far as shooting goes,” Evans said. “But the kid can handle the rock, she’s got great footwork in the paint, she can shoot with either hand inside and her court vision is getting better and better — as well as the touch she has on her passes.

“As good as she is right now, she has a lot of upside to her game. And she wants to be coached.”

The work ethic is clearly in place.

“She definitely wants to play at the college level. It’s a passion for her,” Kara Loden said. “The kid goes from practice to training to games, and sometimes all on the same day. She wants to do it. She has the drive for it.

“She’s really happy with the schools that have made offers. She’s looking at them closely and I’m proud of her because she’s weighing her options.”

Another intangible Loden will bring to a college team is mental steadiness. She no longer permits one bad trip down the floor to affect the next possession.

“I’ve been keeping my head up a lot more,” she said. “Obviously, I’m getting better with my shooting and finishing, stuff like that. But I feel like the big thing for me this year has been keeping my emotions in check.”