Flyer girls begin season at Owens with limited lineup
Since taking over as head girls’ basketball coach at Lake High School in 2008, Denny Meyer has rebuilt the program from the ground up. 

Meyer has guided the Flyers to back-to-back SLL championships — something that had never been done in the history of Lake basketball.

The Flyers have never lost a regular season game under Meyer, posting 20-0 seasons in each of his first two seasons, but that could change this season as the program that had been rebuilt and was full of so much talent and promise is on the verge of destruction.

This year, it will be difficult to continue that success. 

The Flyers will be without five key contributors — Jessica Abbey, Drew Plummer, Emily Whitmore, Kayla Reilly, and Kim Meyer — from last season’s district runner-up team.  Meyer and Reilly graduated, but Abbey, Plummer, and Whitmore are eligible to play but will not.  Abbey, who provided much of the scoring for the Flyers last season, and Whitmore, a key contributor off of the bench a season ago, have reportedly decided not to play due to various reasons.  Plummer, the team’s best post player last season, will not play because of an ACL injury suffered during soccer this fall and junior Lindsay Hoffman, who would have been a key contributor on varsity this season, has also decided not to play. 

Coach Meyer has lost more than ten players in the program who would be eligible to play this season since he took over as head coach.  Because of that, Coach Meyer now finds himself with only a combined 13 players in all levels of the program and many uncertainties heading into the season. Many, if not all, junior varsity players will also dress for varsity games.

Coach Meyer

The Press contacted a parent of one former starter who attends Lake but chose not to play this year, but that parent did not want to comment.

Both the Lake boys and girls basketball teams will by playing home games this year at the Owens Community College’s Student Health and Activities Center (SHAC).

The Lake girls’ junior varsity and varsity basketball teams began their 2010-11 campaign in the SHAC with a season-opening home contest against Rossford on Nov. 27. The Flyers’ boys basketball program tips off the season with a home game against Rossford on Saturday, Dec. 4. The first game of the tripleheader will feature the freshmen boys’ basketball team and start at 4:30 p.m. The boys’ junior varsity and varsity games will follow the freshmen contest. The College’s Student Health and Activities Center (SHAC) is located on the Toledo-area Campus in Perrysburg Township.

“Owens Community College is honored to assist the Lake High School boys and girls basketball teams and welcome them to the Student Health and Activities Center,” said Michael Rickard, Owens Director of Athletics. “The Student Health and Activities Center, or better known as the SHAC, has been a tough place for visiting college teams to play basketball since the facility opened in 2000. I expect the Flyers to have a very similar home court advantage as the Express basketball teams. On behalf of the Owens Athletics Department, I wish the Flyers all the best during their upcoming seasons.”

Additional boys freshmen, junior varsity and varsity home games taking place at the SHAC are Dec. 18 (freshman) against Toledo Christian Schools at 4:30 p.m. and (junior varsity and varsity) against Lakota H.S. at 6 p.m., Dec. 21 against Northwood H.S. at 4:30 p.m., Dec. 28 against Bettsville H.S. at 4:30 p.m., Jan. 7 against Woodmore H.S. at 4:30 p.m., Jan. 18 against Eastwood H.S. at 4:30 p.m., Jan. 21 against Genoa H.S. at 4:30 p.m., Jan. 27 against Elmwood H.S. at 4:30 p.m., Feb. 4 against Otsego H.S. at 4:30 p.m. and Feb. 15 against Gibsonburg H.S. at 4:30 p.m.

Lake girls junior varsity and varsity home games at Owens will also include Dec. 3 against Elmwood H.S. at 6 p.m., Dec. 7 against Anthony Wayne H.S. at 6 p.m., Dec. 14 against Otsego H.S. at 6 p.m., Dec. 22 against Clay H.S. at 6 p.m., Dec. 27 against Whitmer H.S. at 6 p.m., Jan. 6 against Gibsonburg H.S. at 6 p.m., Jan. 14 against Genoa H.S. at 6 p.m., Feb. 3 against Woodmore H.S. at 6 p.m. and Feb. 11 against Eastwood H.S. at 6 p.m.

In June, Owens and Lake Local Schools entered into a new partnership that provides the school district with a temporary home for Lake High School staff and students as a result of their educational facilities being damaged or destroyed by tornados that devastated the Northwest Ohio region. Since August, over 430 Lake High School students in grades 9-12 have received their classroom instruction at the College’s Center for Development and Training building, which is located on Tracy Road in Northwood.

Lake High School students are receiving their regular comprehensive academic curriculum at the College’s Center for Development and Training building to include such course offering as art, business, computer technology, family and consumer science, music, physical education and health, and science, among other opportunities.

Owens’ 53,500 square-foot Center for Development and Training building, which housed some Workforce and Community Services and Skilled Trades Technologies educational courses, among other areas, features 10 classrooms, three computer laboratories, 34 offices, two reception areas and 12 experiential learning laboratories, all with state-of-the-art technology and academic resources to meet the needs of the Lake High School’s staff and students. In an effort to accommodate Lake High School’s educational needs, Owens relocated academic courses housed within the Center for Development and Training building to other campus locations.

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