Girls' All State basketball: Hoyle’s dominance earns third team, all-state distinction

By BRANDON HURLEY

Sports Editor
sports@beeherald.com

It’s rather difficult, at times, to fathom Paton-Churdan’s Danielle Hoyle still has a full year of eligibility remaining.
The junior forward has been so incredibly dominant for so long - and the state of Iowa is starting to take notice. Oh, and she also helps the Rockets win, that’s not too shabby of a characteristic to possess.
The Rolling Valley Conference’s leading scorer, best shooter and top defensive markswoman was named to the Iowa Print Sports Writer’s Class 1A all state third team Monday, March 9, putting a cap on a statistically marvelous season.
Hoyle has been one of Iowa’s premier shot-blockers her entire career, producing a 1A-best 105 blocks this season (a career-best 4.4 blocks per game), which was also the third most deflections in the state, across all classes. She was top 10 in 1A in four different categories – scoring, rebounding, blocks and field goal percentage, clearly earning the right to be named to the elite team.  
Only Van Buren County’s Taryn Scheuermann (143 blocks) and West Lyon’s Brooklyn Meyer (107) recorded more blocks this winter than Hoyle. The junior was also a remarkable offensive force, scoring with relative ease and regularity. Hoyle, who stands well over six feet tall, absolutely spun circles around opposing defenses, scoring 18.3 points per game, which was the ninth-highest mark in the state.
She averaged a double-double this winter, hauling in 11.3 rebounds per game, also the ninth-best mark in the state. If that weren’t enough, she converted on 62.4 percent of her shot attempts, the sixth-highest rate of anyone in the state. Hoyle has already surpassed the 1,000-point mark as a junior to become just the second five-on-five player in P-C history to do so, as she’s tallied 1,059 career points in just three seasons. She’s also blocked 269 career shots while hauling in 692 career rebounds, bolstered by a career-best 270 boards this winter, the fourth-best total in all of 1A.
Hoyle led the Paton-Churdan Rockets to a 15-9 record during the 2019-20 campaign, as the girls’ squad racked up a pair of postseason victories, wins over Coon Rapids-Bayard and Glidden-Ralston before bowing out against 2020 state champion, Newell-Fonda. The Mustangs clawed back from a double-digit fourth quarter deficit in the 1A state title game to defeat Bishop Garrigan, 65-63. Newell-Fonda has now won back-to-back state titles, tallying a 54-game win streak along the way.
Montezuma’s Sahteah Wetering led 1A in scoring this winter at 23.2 points per game while West Harrison’s Emily McIntosh was tops in the state with 13.5 rebounds per contest.
Hoyle is Paton-Churdan’s first all state selection since the Rockets’ all-time leading scorer, Carleigh Paup earned all state honors in three consecutive seasons, her last coming following the 2016 winter campaign. Hoyle is second to only Paup on P-C’s all-time scoring list. Paup scored 1,833 points during her four years of varsity action from 2012-2016.
Hoyle was also named to the 2019-20 Rolling Valley All-Conference first team after leading the league in three different categories and earned a spot on the IGCA West Central, all district squad.  

CORRECTION: In the March 5 edition of the Jefferson Herald, a story on the Rolling Valley all-conference teams incorrectly stated Hoyle as the league’s leading rebounder. She was second at 11.3 rebounds per game while West Harrison’s Emily McIntosh not only led the conference at 13.5 rpg, but also the entire state.