YRHS Raiders senior girls鈥� basketball coach Jessica Schmidt hopes that youthful exuberance will be enough to lead her team to success in the 2014/15 SHSAA basketball season.
鈥淲e鈥檙e going to be a fairly young team this year,鈥� offered Schmidt following the Raiders鈥� 41-23 exhibition game win over the Sacred Heart Saints on Tuesday, December 16. 鈥淏ut I think that the girls will still play well.鈥�
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鈥檚 co-captains, Hunter Frankfurt and Leah Fleger, to rub off on the rest of the girls. 鈥淗unter Frankfurt just has the most positive attitude and that鈥檚 something she brings to practice and games every day,鈥� offered Schmidt. 鈥淭hen we have Leah Fleger who leads quietly but she puts so much time in in the gym in getting better.
鈥淚 think her one goal was to make 10,000 shots in the offseason and she accomplished that. She鈥檚 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.鈥�
So while Schmidt expects Fleger to be one of the Raiders鈥� long range threats, she also knows that Fleger can鈥檛 win games alone. 鈥淭his year we鈥檙e 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,鈥� offered the Lady Raiders head coach. 鈥淚 think she鈥檒l be a force by the end of the year and Mckenzie Stachura who had an injury last year but is back and we鈥檙e happy to have her back in the post.
鈥淪o 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.鈥�
But who will be in charge of getting the ball in to the posts? Or rather, getting the ball down court? 鈥淜aitlin Mak is kind of taking the point job this year. She鈥檚 quick, especially on defence and she can handle the point guards on the other team,鈥� offered Schmidt on one half of the Mak Attack twins, the other being sister Breanne. 鈥淥ffensively 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鈥檒l see a lot of minutes on the court.鈥�
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鈥� basketball team.
