|
The Waite Indians nearly did it last year.
Led by 6-3 Natasha Howard, Waite was tied with Canton McKinley at 47-all with 15 seconds left in the Division I state championship game, but fell 49-47 to the Lady Pups in heartbreaking fashion.
It looks like Howard is picking up at nationally-ranked Florida State right where she left off at Waite. She is the team's second leading scorer averaging 13.9 points per game through the first seven games of the season.
But, it’s a whole new season at Waite.
As the defending state runners-up and City League champions, Waite should expect everyone’s best shot as schools will be gunning for them the entire season.
After accomplishing so much last season, what are the team’s goals for this season?
“We want to get better,” said May. “Being as young as we are, even though we have five seniors, I think it’s to get better each time out. Then we want to go forward. Go to the City League title game, district, regional, and state, the goals are in that order.”
It won’t be any easier this season. With the likes of Start and Notre Dame Academy competing against them in the City League, the Indians will have their work cut out for them.
 |
Returning guard Brooke Hunt looks to the
basket during Waite's 49-47 state championship
loss to Canton McKinley at Value City Arena.
(Press file photo by Scott Grau) |
But May knows what it takes. Through his many years at the helm, he has learned just what it takes to build a winning program. This year, he will have to get there without 6-foot-2 forward Shanice McNeal — considered to be Howard’s replacement, McNeal did not show up on the roster at the start of the season.
“We will be successful (this year) if we work hard on and off the floor, if we eliminate turnovers and if we box out,” May said.
Clay coach Roger Achter believes Start and Notre Dame will likely be the top two teams in the CL this season.
“Start has to be the favorite, with what they have coming back,” he said, “and Notre dame has to be right there with them. They have everybody back. It’s going to be a dogfight between those two. We will definitely be in the bottom tier of the league, which we’re not used to. One of our goals by the end of the year is to be in that middle tier.”
At Lake, girls’ coach Denny Meyer is without many old faces this season and will have to find a way to replace them with new faces, but he still believes his team is more than capable of continuing its dominance on the court and reaching his ultimate goal of again going undefeated and repeating as Suburban Lakes League champions in its final season.
“No matter who we have on the team, we still have to go out thinking we can win every game. That’s always our goal. Is it going to be tough? We know it’s going to be very, very tough but we think we have the girls that will be prepared to fight through everything and be willing to do that. Our goal is to win every game, every year.”
On the boys side of the agenda, two-time defending SLL champion Eastwood graduated a ton of talent, but Coach Todd Henline’s squad doesn’t plan to relinquish its title without a fight.
The fourth-year coach said as many as seven players from last year’s junior varsity team, which had a winning record, will have to step up and learn to compete at the varsity level.
Eastwood lost two-time league player of the year Clay Rolf to graduation along with dependable starters Clayton Ruch, Jon Juergens and Cody Seifert.
The 6-8 Rolf led the team in scoring (15.5 pts.) and led the SLL in rebounding (11.5 reb.), while the 6-5 Ruch averaged 12.5 points and 6.5 rebounds. Juergens, a 6-5 wing, averaged eight points a game.
“We’re losing a lot of varsity experience,” Henline said.
Henline added that the Eagles look forward to pursuing a third straight title in what should be a balanced SLL.
“The league is going to be pretty competitive night in and night out,” he said. “If you win the league championship this year, you’re going to earn it. There’s a lot of parity in the league this year.”
Genoa's football team has been in the state playoffs for four years running, so the Comets should be used to not being able to get their entire team together later than other area Division III programs.
“Our first day of practice with our full squad was on Nov. 23,” Coach Jeff Overmyer said. “It was practice No. 15, so we had 14 days of practice without our football players. It puts us at a big disadvantage to start the season. We took a big hit to graduation, so we're quite inexperienced at the varsity level.”
Because the football team's season didn't end until Nov. 19, Genoa moved its Dec. 3 opener against Oak Harbor to Jan. 4. The Comets will get to open the 2010-11 season on Dec. 10 at home against Eastwood, which may tell a lot about how the season is going to go right there.
“One of our strengths with this group is our quickness,” Overmyer said. “We have nice quickness with our guards, and some athleticism and some depth. We will be able to play a lot of players in the backcourt. Hopefully, we can use our depth in the backcourt to wear our opponents down.”
(Writers Mark Griffin and Nate Lowe contributed to this article. This week’s edition includes prep basketball previews by Eaken, Smith, Griffin, Lowe, and Jeffrey D. Norwalk).
 |
Sports 
Subscribe to this comment's feed