DUKE CENTER — Otto-Eldred girls basketball coach Shawn Gray delivered Katie Sheeler a simple message before the season began: be ready to play, and play a lot.

“I kind of told her before the season that she’s playing and that she would make some mistakes and learn as the year goes on,” Gray recalled saying to his freshman point guard. “But I was not going to pull her from the game; she wasn’t coming out.”

That confidence from Gray, as well as Sheeler’s skill on both ends of the court, led to a stellar campaign for the Lady Terrors’ floor general.

Sheeler, who was named to the North Tier League girls all-star team, helped Otto-Eldred to a 16-9 record, a first round District 9 Class A playoff victory, and a fourth straight trip to the PIAA playoffs.

“We definitely knew what we had coming into the year and she had played with us in the Portville (summer league) and the team camp at St. Bonaventure as an eighth-grader,” Gray said. “There were some times last year that I wished we were in New York State (where eighth-graders can play on varsity) because I really needed a point guard.”

And though it might take most freshmen a couple weeks of game experience to adjust from the skill level of junior high to varsity ball, it took Sheeler just a few games to make an impact in the scorebook.

Sheeler was named the team’s starting point guard prior to the season opener, and in Otto-Eldred’s second game — a 56-16 win over Oswayo Valley — she registered just two points, but added seven assists, six rebounds and four steals. In the team’s next game a few days later, also against OV, she secured her first-ever double-digit varsity performance with a 10-point game and seemingly never looked back from there.

“The thing about her is that she makes everything so effortless playing basketball,” Gray said. “She works so hard and makes it look so easy and effortless you wonder if she actually is working hard. She is, of course.”

Sheeler, who was teammates with her older sister, Emmalee, this season, let her play do most of the talking and was a quiet leader on the court, according to Gray.

“Emmalee (Katie’s sister) told me last year that ‘Basketball is Katie’s sport,’ and that I was going to love her,” Gray said.

“She’s really shy, but she leads by example and that’s a good thing,” Gray said. “She’s really goofy but you’ve got to pull it out of her…I started to learn that as the year went on. She doesn’t say anything usually.”

Maybe most impressive from Sheeler’s freshman season in which she averaged 9.1 ppg, 4.2 spg, 3.2 rpg and 3.2 apg, was her ability to step up and match the level of competition.

Her top scoring games of the year included: a season-high 20 points against Cameron County that included the game-winning free-throws with nine seconds left; a team-high 16 points in a loss to Class AAAA Bradford; 27 combined points in a season split against the 16-7 Port Allegany Gators; and saving one of her best games with the season on the line with a 15-point, five rebound, four-steal game against Cameron Co. in the first round of the D9 playoffs.

“She had her biggest games against the better teams we played this year which I think says a lot about her competitiveness,” Gray said.

The second-year head coach added that what he found remarkable in Sheeler’s stats from her frosh season wasn’t the points or steal numbers, but rather her ability on the boards — which came as a surprise, even for him.

“I really didn’t expect her to rebound, especially if we were playing our 1-3-1 (defense),” Gray noted. “But for her to grab three rebounds per game at five-foot-nothing, that’s pretty great.”

Sheeler’s prowess defensively extended to the perimeter, where she guarded the opposing team’s point guard or second-best 3-point shooter, and according to Gray, “If you’re going to put the ball on the floor around her, she just might take it.”

He added: “It’s a lot of instinct and knowing the game and seeing what’s going on and knowing where to make a move. She didn’t get out of position too often.”

Sheeler wasn’t alone in having a strong freshman season for the Lady Terrors. Bri Heller, a 5-foot-9 forward, was a commanding presence in the post for O-E. She appeared in all 25 games and registered 5.2 ppg and 6.2 rpg.

Gray said that the strong seasons from Sheeler and Heller would not have been possible without their teammates buying in.

“They were the most together team that I have ever coached,” Gray said. “I probably had a dozen people come up and tell me that. Closest, most together team that I’ve been around.

The kids wanted to win and they knew what it took.”

The good news for Gray, of course, is that he gets to coach Sheeler for the next three years. And with the Lady Terrors losing just one senior from this year’s team to graduation, they’re poised for another postseason run in 2020-21 — with Sheeler at the point.

“You don’t have to tell her that she can get better because she wants to,” Gray said. “She’s a gamer…a baller.”