Last season, the Waite Lady Indians, who were coming off a season that saw them advance to the Division I state final, were hit with a dose of reality.

They struggled to a 6-13 record that saw their season end with a loss in the sectional semifinals to Sylvania Northview, 68-40.

This season, Waite, which has won the Toledo City League title in four of the last eight seasons, looks to return to top of the conference and make a run in the postseason. Waite enters the season with a schedule that will look vastly different from those of years past. Gone are five former City League schools who left to become part of the new Three Rivers Athletic Conference.

Manny May. (Press file photo by John Pollock/www.pollock.smugmug.com)

This leaves Waite as part of a six team conference that includes league favorite Rogers and Start, which advanced to the state semifinals last season, along with Bowsher, Scott and Woodward. Waite’s non-conference schedule features high profile programs Shaker Heights, Dublin Coffman, Detroit Country Day, Perrysburg and Inkster (Michigan).

At Clay, one of the new members of the TRAC, there is good news and bad news. Here’s the good news: The Eagles return five starters from last year’s squad and have eight returning letter winners in all.

So, what’s the bad news? The Eagles, in addition to being rather young, are coming off a season that saw them go 2-18 overall and 1-9 in the City League last year.

The team is led by first-year coach Kevin Crosson, who previously served as the junior varsity head coach and as a varsity assistant for the past 11 years. The program has been led by Roger Achter since 1995, who had a career 165-166 mark during his tenure. Clay believes Crosson is the man to fill Achter’s shoes.

When Crosson was hired in April, athletic director Mike Donnelly said, “Kevin (is) the right person to take over the girls’ basketball program. His vision for building a cohesive girls’ basketball program from third grade through 12th grade will greatly benefit the entire Oregon community.”

In the Toledo Area Athletic Conference, one of the conversations is about the new addition of Gibsonburg.

“It’s a good fit for us, but it’s not going to be any easier. We think we can compete,” said first-year Gibsonburg coach John Ernsthausen.

Second-year Cardinal Stritch Catholic coach Terry Murnen would like to see his team play with intensity this season, something he says they failed to do last winter.

“We’re going to go out and challenge people this year,” he said. “We’re working on our competitiveness. Sometimes my girls are too nice, so we need to learn to be competitive and add a little swagger to our game.”

At Northwood — it’s a new face on the court, but an old face on the local sports scene. Bill Hamilton left his athletic director job and became girls’ basketball coach, replacing Geoff Milewski. He wants to see his program at or near the top as quickly as possible.

“That’s something that we have mentioned — as far as wanting to be there,” Hamilton said. “We’ve told them from the beginning that it’s not going to be easy because there are some great teams that we are going to have to face.”

(Press Sports Editor J. Patrick Eaken and contributing writers Mark Griffin, Nathan Lowe, and Yaneek Smith contributed to this article and also contributed to the Press previews in this week’s edition.)

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