Hamilton girls basketball coach Trevor Neider remembers the moment because it was kind of strange.

During a game when a ball went out of bounds, sophomore Maddie Frederick went to retrieve it. What is noteworthy, though, is not that she went to go get the ball but how.

Neider said Frederick took off at a dead sprint to get the ball when most would have just lightly jogged.

It was just another time Neider was surprised at what he saw from the budding sophomore.

“Her work ethic is kind of off the charts,” said Neider, who is in his first year at Hamilton after a successful run at Mountain Pointe. “She does it in the classroom, she does it on the court and everything we do she has a great attitude and a great work ethic and that’s carrying over into this season and hopefully the future.”

Frederick is averaging 15 points per game but what may be an even more impressive than her scoring average is the number 4.5. That’s not her rebounds or assists or steals per game – that’s her GPA.

“I try and push myself in the classroom as well as on the court,” Frederick said. “It’s really important to me to get a great education while I’m here in high school, and I really want to pursue a career as well as basketball.”

Both are well within reach.

Frederick has already received attention from Division I colleges, and the recruiting process won’t hit full-steam until her junior year. That means she still has time to continue refining her game.

The interesting thing for Neider is how to approach improving her game. With Frederick being so advanced already, Neider finds himself in the interesting position of both coaching her to improve and letting her continue with what’s working.

“There’s a lot of stuff I’m trying to work with her on but at the same time I don’t want to screw some stuff up because she’s playing so well right now,” he said. “I don’t want to make her go backwards with something that’s been working already.”

Much of Frederick’s motivation comes from within.

Coaches and teammates push her as is always the case, but senior Makayla Filiere has noticed just how much of an internal drive Frederick has.

“You can tell in every single drill that she does she goes hard in,” Filiere said. “She’s very self motivated, and she doesn’t need coaches or other players to tell her to work hard, she’s that player that always works hard.”

It’s too early to tell where Frederick is going to go as far as college and career are concerned and to try to prognosticate might be a disservice because she still has two more years of ball to play.

But one thing is for certain, just like after that loose ball, she’ll be sprinting there.