Hun’s Gratch makes even bigger impact
By: Justin Feil
Emily Gratch reluctantly will tell you that she has grown to 6-foot-1.
She downplays her size, but it is getting harder and harder for her to downplay her impact on The Hun School girls’ basketball team. And Gratch has plenty of impact, from her team-high scoring to her team-high rebounding and her steals, assists and blocks.
"I try to keep it quiet," said the Hun junior. "I don’t go around talking about it."
Gratch will talk only about her scoring when prompted. She’d rather discuss how much she enjoys being a part of the Hun team and the Raiders’ success.
"That’s how she is," said Hun head coach Bill Holup. "She’s still so unselfish. She feels guilty if she scores so much. She wants everyone to be involved. She wants to be known as a very good basketball player and very good teammate.
"She’s a nice kid. She worries about that. She wants everyone else to do well."
Gratch had a fine sophomore year to follow up quite a freshman debut. She topped both seasons with a monster junior year. Gratch averaged 18.2 points per game, shot better than 42 percent from three-point range, averaged 8.5 rebounds, 2.4 assists and 2.3 assists per game to go with 20 blocks in the season and went to the foul line more than 200 times. She scored the 1,000th point of her career in a regular-season win over The Hill School.
"I wasn’t expecting to do it this year," she said. "Having it as surprise, the way it happened, it was cool having the whole team be a part of it. It showed a lot what our team was like that they were so happy for me."
Gratch certainly did her part to help lead Hun to the North Hunterdon Lady Lions Holiday Classic, the Mid-Atlantic Prep League and the state Prep A finals. The Raiders finished with a 23-6 record.
Emily Gratch is the Princeton Packet Girls’ Player of the Year.
"What makes her special is she’ll do whatever the team needs her to do," Holup said. "Whether it’s posting inside or giving something up offensively to play the best offensive player on the other team. Or playing more on perimeter and handling the ball, she’ll do it. That makes her a special player. She’s willing to sacrifice any of her numbers to beat these teams. She’s the epitome of a team player."
The evidence of that came every time she took to the court. Dozens of college coaches came to see Gratch play this season, many whom project Gratch as a wing player at the next level. Yet, for the Raiders, Gratch chose to focus on becoming the post presence that they needed.
"I didn’t shoot outside as much as I did before," Gratch said. "I concentrated so much on becoming a better post player. From last year to this year, that made a major difference. I grew a lot too. I just keep growing.
"I tried to make my game more well-rounded. My outside game was fine last year. I tried not to be all outside. I still have a lot to improve for next year."
Gratch is a tough matchup regardless of where she is shooting from on the court. Opponents had a hard time stopping her combination of size and quickness inside, which resulted in an unforeseen boost in her scoring. It was the perfect complement to the Raiders’ outside shooting threats.
"Even if teams did match up with us size-wise," Holup said, "Emily is such a special player. If she gets the ball in the post, she can still take that person even if it’s someone her size. If they double team, she always finds the person who’s open. That was something she really improved on. If they double-teamed down low, she could find the other forward down low. And she can still have the ability to step outside and drive or shoot the three. She shot less threes, but only because she was so dominant inside."
Added Gratch: "Last year, I knew I had to score more because we lost Shantee (Darrian). Being the tallest one on the team this year, I knew I had to develop post moves for down low. I used to stay more outside. That’s what helped me, developing the post moves. We had to get more scoring because we lost Amanda (Sepulveda, a freshman at Rider now) who was a large part of our scoring. I didn’t think it would jump as much as it did. I was never expecting that."
Some of her most impressive games are the ones she’s least likely to discuss.
They’re the ones that she worried afterward if she shared the ball enough or didn’t do enough to help her teammates. Twice this year, she scored 30 or more points which contributed to an incredible 50 percent increase in her scoring average from a season ago.
"She increased her scoring average by about six points this year," Holup said. "That’s a lot. There were some games where she completely exploded. She scored 35 against Army Prep and at Padua she scored 30 and those were games she didn’t play the fourth quarter.
"We tried to look for her. In the state final, when we were playing Peddie, when we were down nine with a minute and a half left, we didn’t panic. Myself and Coach (Julie) Davis insisted, let’s still get the ball inside to Emily."
Not even sickness could slow Gratch much. She played in the state final despite being in the hospital that morning to receive intravenous treatment for dehydration from an illness. After not scoring in the first half, Gratch had 10 points down the stretch in the two-point loss.
"I got really sick the night before," Gratch said. "I went to the hospital in the morning and got an IV. I was feeling really sick. In the first half, it was affecting me. I knew we could have stayed with them. I wanted to play. I’ve never gotten sick before a game. Of course, it was the last game of the year."
It ended another fine season for the Raiders, who won at least 20 games for the third season with Gratch in the fold. They twice lost a one-possession game to Peddie, but otherwise dominated MAPL competition.
"I thought it was a very good year," Gratch said. "It was a much stronger team than before. We played well but didn’t get to pull it out in the end, which I was pretty upset about. Maybe next year. The team chemistry was good overall and we had a strong team.
"This year’s team, we’ve been playing together for a while. Preseason in the fall helped. Pretty much everybody didn’t play a fall sport. We were a lot closer because of that. That definitely made a difference."
It also made a difference that the Raiders’ top player was so willing to do all the other parts of the game. She rebounded and she played defense with a passion, including matching up head-to-head with Germantown Academy guard Caroline Doty, who has committed to Connecticut. Playing defense, even on the opponent’s top weapon, is nothing new to Gratch.
"That’s always been a major part of it," she said. "Before scoring, I think that’s the most important thing. I always thought of doing that. I love playing defense. I know defense is a big part of a game and no matter what happens, your defense is always there. Maybe your shots aren’t going, but you can always rely on your rebounding and defense. That’s what I try to concentrate on."
What sets Gratch apart from some is she is as dominant against the best teams as she is against the weaker ones. She made a big impact regardless of who the Raiders played.
"She does step up when we play that better competition," Holup said. "It doesn’t matter if she gets into foul trouble or what happens. She’s always ready to play. She’s focused. That’s a player."

