YRHS Raiders senior girls’ basketball coach Jessica Schmidt hopes that youthful exuberance will be enough to lead her team to success in the 2014/15 SHSAA basketball season.
“We’re going to be a fairly young team this year,” offered Schmidt following the Raiders’ 41-23 exhibition game win over the Sacred Heart Saints on Tuesday, December 16. “But I think that the girls will still play well.”
Young is a bit of an understatement. Of the 13 players on the Lady Raiders basketball team only one, team captain Edie Schramm, will be graduating at the end of the season.
However Schmidt expects Schramm to have a very positive impact on the young Raiders squad.
Schmidt also expects the work ethic and determination of Schramm’s co-captains, Hunter Frankfurt and Leah Fleger, to rub off on the rest of the girls. “Hunter Frankfurt just has the most positive attitude and that’s something she brings to practice and games every day,” offered Schmidt. “Then we have Leah Fleger who leads quietly but she puts so much time in in the gym in getting better.
“I think her one goal was to make 10,000 shots in the offseason and she accomplished that. She’s one of the ones that have put in the time and you can really see her improvement and that should translate to the court this season.”
So while Schmidt expects Fleger to be one of the Raiders’ long range threats, she also knows that Fleger can’t win games alone. “This year we’re really trying to get the ball in to our posts. Tess (Berezowski) is developing, we have Olivia Tomcala, who took a year off last year but is back this year,” offered the Lady Raiders head coach. “I think she’ll be a force by the end of the year and Mckenzie Stachura who had an injury last year but is back and we’re happy to have her back in the post.
“So if we can get the ball in to our posts and capitalize underneath the hoop and get rebounds, then I think we should be good to go.”
But who will be in charge of getting the ball in to the posts? Or rather, getting the ball down court? “Kaitlin Mak is kind of taking the point job this year. She’s quick, especially on defence and she can handle the point guards on the other team,” offered Schmidt on one half of the Mak Attack twins, the other being sister Breanne. “Offensively she is going to be our go to point guard and as long as she can take care of the ball and make smart decisions she’ll see a lot of minutes on the court.”
As for the rest of the team, Schmidt feels all the girls will be able to contribute this season, despite three of them, grade 10 Alex Flaman and grade nine girls Amber Tilcox and Grey Leask, being eligible to play for the junior girls’ basketball team.