Serving Lucas, Ottawa, Sandusky and Wood Counties
Waite head coach Manny May enters his 28th season on the sideline, looking to overcome some preseason injuries and improve upon last year.
“We have to work on our jump shot a little more, and that will come along as the season progresses,” May said. “As we get more shots up, we'll start shooting from the outside a little bit more. We have to work on that. We’re very strong inside as long as we stay away from the injury bug.”
As of press time, May said all four of his seniors — Myonna Lacy, Daijah Alexander, McKayla Jenkins, and Kaleeah Anderson — are currently battling various injuries.
Alexander is one of three returning starters along with Genesis Aguilar and Jayla Taylor. Overall, the Indians return six letterwinners.
“I'm excited because even having practice over break, we got a majority of them in practice and not out of town,” May said. “They come to practice every day to learn, to get better. That makes it very exciting.
“We got some seniors, but we also got a lot of young ones. That makes it better because they're there to work hard and learn some things and get better at basketball. They're listening to my coaching staff. I think that's a strong suit of ours. My coaching staff, both young and old, come together to work out a young team to get them better and precise at what they need to do. That makes me excited.”
Some of May’s primary goals for the team is fewer turnovers, boxing out, and playing better defense. If they can get healthier, he also believes a strength of his team to be its post play.
“Our post play, minus the injury that we just took a setback with, was looking interesting because we can get the ball down to the post, and they can score layups and really do some things from that area,” May said.
One issue hurting the team early on is that last year’s eighth grade program stopped playing due to a lack of participation. Once this season gets going, May feels some of those younger kids will start to be more comfortable.
“We didn't have enough kids, so they didn’t get that valuable tutelage,” May said. “They're learning on the fly right now with some things in terms of how to play and be in the right positions.”
The team does return three starters, including Lacy, Anderson, and junior wing Jenessa Epperson.
