SYRACUSE - In a span of 48 hours, Wawasee athletics has lost a girls basketball coach and potentially two boys basketball players.

First things first. Varsity girls basketball coach Randy Aalbregtse announced Wednesday he will temporarily step down from teaching classes and coaching his team the rest of this year. He's taking a nine-week medical leave of absence, effective Friday. Aalbregtse and Wawasee athletic director Mary Hurley declined to mention specifics for the record. Aalbregtse gathered his players and talked to them Wednesday afternoon.

"This is the best for everybody involved - the kids and everybody at school - at this time, because of my situation," Aalbregtse said.

Aalbregtse missed two games for personal reasons earlier this season. Mark Sumpter stepped in then, and he will coach the team the rest of the way now. In those two games, the Warriors lost to Class 3A No. 1 NorthWood 57-33 on Dec. 16, then beat Northridge 44-41 in overtime on Dec. 20.

"The first game was NorthWood. I really had no time to prepare to be head coach," Sumpter said. "Then at Northridge, at least I had a few days to know it was coming on. Just knowing that I'm the one in charge, that I have to prepare everything now has helped me from being just the defensive coach to running the whole shaboom."

Sumpter said Aalbregtse told him the words he needed to hear. "Randy said, 'I have confidence in you, I know you can handle the kids, and I know you can handle coaching the games,'" Sumpter said.

If anyone is qualified to take over, its Sumpter. He has been with the Wawasee girls basketball program the past eight seasons, including three under Aalbregtse. Three years ago he was Aalbregtse's freshman coach, while the last two seasons, he was the varsity assistant.

"I was very up front, very honest," Sumpter said of his initial talk with the players. "I explained to them things will change because I'm different than what Coach Aalbregtse is. I am not Coach Aalbregtse. I'm going to be who I am.

"We can't make a whole lot of changes. The changes will be the attitude of the coach. My style will be a little different. The system will stay the same."

Only after the nine weeks end will Aalbregtse begin to determine whether he will return to his duties.

Now on to the two boys basketball players. Second-year varsity head coach Jerry Davis confirmed Wednesday afternoon that two players told him Monday they plan to leave the team.

But not so fast. Davis has a special rule, and he stressed nothing is official yet.

"Well, we don't have anything official and won't until Thursday (today)," Davis said. "We have, in my experience, had kids in the past who have gotten disappointed in one thing or another in their playing time or the way things are going for them. We have a team policy if that becomes a situation where someone chooses to leave the team, we have a 72-hour period where we allow them to rethink their position. There's a meeting after that. We discuss with the parents and the player where we're going to go from there.

"We're in the middle of that time period. It would be unfair to release their names."

Sources close to Wawasee's basketball program said the two are 5-foot-9 guard Jay Haugh and 6-4 forward Justin Shilling, seniors who have started on occasion. Haugh is leading the team with 10.6 points per game and 88 percent free-throw shooting (30 of 34). Shilling is averaging 3.4 points and 1.1 rebounds per game.

When contacted Wednesday evening, each said he was one of the two unnamed players. (Seventy-two hours or no 72 hours, each said he was still quitting.)

And no, they haven't been practicing during their 72-hour inner soul search.

"If they were practicing, they would be with the team, wouldn't they?" Davis said.

Davis acknowledged the 1-7 start with this group of Wawasee players is a shocking disappointment.

"I think everybody has high expectations of our team -Êparents, players, coaches, everybody," he said. "We're in a situation now where we're taking on adversity positively. Our kids are working very hard and becoming very focused. I think that's as important in life as anything you learn.

"We haven't won some games. We've played well in spurts; we've played poorly in some spurts. We've played tough people, and we've made most pretty close. We haven't made plays at crucial times."

When Jimmy Johnson took over the Miami Dolphins football team, he predicted his Dolphins would be the team to beat in the third year. Likewise, Davis said he had a three-year plan. The problem is, he must cram the three-year plan into two years. High school coaches typically don't work under long-term contracts.

"I mean, it basically takes three years for kids to come in to learn the system, to change an attitude or change a direction," he said. "We're trying to get it done in two years. You stand back and look at it based on where are we in three years, we're making headway. That's the most important thing.

"I'm proud of our kids. Our kids are working hard, and we're coming together as a unit. We're staying focused. We're the only ones who have to worry about that."

Sports correspondent Ora Freeman contributed to this article. [[In-content Ad]]