Plenty Of New Faces For Lady Warriors
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
By Anthony [email protected]
With the graduation of two-time Times-Union Area Player of the Year KiLee Knafel, who’s now playing at IUSB, Wawasee coach Kem Zolman must replace 51 percent of last year’s scoring, 40 percent of the team’s steals and 28 percent of the squad’s rebounds.
However, for Zolman, who’s entering his 16th season as head coach at Wawasee, the turnover is all part of the job.
“(Replacing players) is always the exciting thing about coaching high school basketball, but obviously there’s a void,” he said. “At the same time, the next group steps in and you see who’s going to fill that void. That’s the exciting thing about continuing to coach – just to find out who that’s going to be or who they will be. It will have to be by committee. It’s not going to be just one person to step up to fill that particular scoring void.”
Finding one person to replace Knafel’s 24.3 points per game last year, along with 6.3 rebounds, 4.1 steals and 2.0 assists won’t happen, so it will take a collaborative effort.
One girl that will be looked to for scoring is sophomore Kylee Rostochak, who was second on the team in scoring a year ago with 8.2 per game, while also leading the team with 3.4 assists.
Fellow sophomore Erin Wiktorowski also saw a lot of court time as a freshman, chipping in 5.4 points and 3.2 assists per game.
“Probably with (Rostochak) having most of the minutes, along with (junior) Elizabeth (Jackson), those two are going to be stepping up and filling that void, along with Erin,” Zolman said. “We also have some younger kids coming along too. We’re hoping (sophomore) Katlyn (Kennedy) can pick up some scoring for us inside a little bit.”
Saying his team has ‘some’ younger kids is an understatement.
The varsity preseason roster of nine girls consists of two juniors, four sophomores and three freshmen.
“My second year looked like this group,” Zolman said. “We had a couple juniors. Most of our kids were freshmen playing up (on varsity). That might rival this one.”
What that 1999-2000 team did have was the coach’s daughter, Shanna Zolman, who went on to score a Indiana high school girls basketball record 3,085 points before playing at the University of Tennessee and in the WNBA.
With the graduation of Knafel, who’s 1,651 career points is second in Wawasee girls history to Shanna Zolman, the Lady Warriors don’t only have a statistical void to fill, but also a leadership one.
With zero seniors on the roster, Zolman would like the leadership role to belong to himself and his coaching staff, rather than placing it on any one player.
“You elect to put that on seniors, because they’re a lot more comfortable,” he said. “Leadership, that’s a lot of responsibility when you’re not as comfortable with what you’re supposed to be doing on the floor. So that’s why it's unfair to put that on (underclassmen). Collectively, it will be on coaches, along with several of them, that will do this whole leadership thing.”
At point guard, three-year starter Jackson enters this season after a 2012-13 campaign that saw her average 3.2 points, 3.3 rebounds and 1.5 assists per game, but like the rest of the team, she’s likely to see a big jump in those stats.
And while a jump in stats is expected for each girl on the roster, Zolman’s not worrying about who the offensive leaders will be quite yet.
“Really, right now, defense is something we haven’t really sold out on,” he said. “Right now, we’re just really concerned with that. Everyone likes to play on the offensive end, so I’m sure that will be taken care of. It may look like we struggle at that early, but I’m sure once they learn to play with each other they’ll figure it out.”
The girls won’t be the only ones feeling things out early, as all the new faces will also have the coaches adapting.
“A lot of them, we haven’t coached,” Zolman said. “We’re having to learn what they can do and who they are. To find out how far they can go, we’ll just see.”
Junior Courtney Linnemeier and sophomore Allissa Flores return with some experience, but freshmen Hannah Haines, Sequinn Bright and Aubrey Schmeltz will be sprinkled in as well.
Despite having just played in middle school a year ago, the three freshmen will be counted on to contribute at the varsity level.
“There’s three of them on the varsity, so they’re going to have to play a pretty huge role,” Zolman said.
“As long as they understand they’re progressing with every game,” he added. “That's the important thing. Right now, they’re just soaking it all in. Things have to be slowed down a little bit, because they’re soaking it all in and learning the repetitiveness.”
Wawasee may have only lost the three players from last year, which also included Cassie Martinez and Alexis Blunk, but they took a whole lot more than production with them.
“What you can never replace when a senior leaves is the experience of them being with you for four years,” Zolman said. “Sometimes you wish you could get some more out of them, but the bottom line is they’ve been with you and know exactly what’s going to happen and the level of play that’s out there. That’s just hard to replace when you bring a freshman in that has no idea.”
The young Lady Warriors will get their first taste of action Friday at home against Westview, a team Wawasee’s opened its season up with a win against the past eight seasons.[[In-content Ad]]
With the graduation of two-time Times-Union Area Player of the Year KiLee Knafel, who’s now playing at IUSB, Wawasee coach Kem Zolman must replace 51 percent of last year’s scoring, 40 percent of the team’s steals and 28 percent of the squad’s rebounds.
However, for Zolman, who’s entering his 16th season as head coach at Wawasee, the turnover is all part of the job.
“(Replacing players) is always the exciting thing about coaching high school basketball, but obviously there’s a void,” he said. “At the same time, the next group steps in and you see who’s going to fill that void. That’s the exciting thing about continuing to coach – just to find out who that’s going to be or who they will be. It will have to be by committee. It’s not going to be just one person to step up to fill that particular scoring void.”
Finding one person to replace Knafel’s 24.3 points per game last year, along with 6.3 rebounds, 4.1 steals and 2.0 assists won’t happen, so it will take a collaborative effort.
One girl that will be looked to for scoring is sophomore Kylee Rostochak, who was second on the team in scoring a year ago with 8.2 per game, while also leading the team with 3.4 assists.
Fellow sophomore Erin Wiktorowski also saw a lot of court time as a freshman, chipping in 5.4 points and 3.2 assists per game.
“Probably with (Rostochak) having most of the minutes, along with (junior) Elizabeth (Jackson), those two are going to be stepping up and filling that void, along with Erin,” Zolman said. “We also have some younger kids coming along too. We’re hoping (sophomore) Katlyn (Kennedy) can pick up some scoring for us inside a little bit.”
Saying his team has ‘some’ younger kids is an understatement.
The varsity preseason roster of nine girls consists of two juniors, four sophomores and three freshmen.
“My second year looked like this group,” Zolman said. “We had a couple juniors. Most of our kids were freshmen playing up (on varsity). That might rival this one.”
What that 1999-2000 team did have was the coach’s daughter, Shanna Zolman, who went on to score a Indiana high school girls basketball record 3,085 points before playing at the University of Tennessee and in the WNBA.
With the graduation of Knafel, who’s 1,651 career points is second in Wawasee girls history to Shanna Zolman, the Lady Warriors don’t only have a statistical void to fill, but also a leadership one.
With zero seniors on the roster, Zolman would like the leadership role to belong to himself and his coaching staff, rather than placing it on any one player.
“You elect to put that on seniors, because they’re a lot more comfortable,” he said. “Leadership, that’s a lot of responsibility when you’re not as comfortable with what you’re supposed to be doing on the floor. So that’s why it's unfair to put that on (underclassmen). Collectively, it will be on coaches, along with several of them, that will do this whole leadership thing.”
At point guard, three-year starter Jackson enters this season after a 2012-13 campaign that saw her average 3.2 points, 3.3 rebounds and 1.5 assists per game, but like the rest of the team, she’s likely to see a big jump in those stats.
And while a jump in stats is expected for each girl on the roster, Zolman’s not worrying about who the offensive leaders will be quite yet.
“Really, right now, defense is something we haven’t really sold out on,” he said. “Right now, we’re just really concerned with that. Everyone likes to play on the offensive end, so I’m sure that will be taken care of. It may look like we struggle at that early, but I’m sure once they learn to play with each other they’ll figure it out.”
The girls won’t be the only ones feeling things out early, as all the new faces will also have the coaches adapting.
“A lot of them, we haven’t coached,” Zolman said. “We’re having to learn what they can do and who they are. To find out how far they can go, we’ll just see.”
Junior Courtney Linnemeier and sophomore Allissa Flores return with some experience, but freshmen Hannah Haines, Sequinn Bright and Aubrey Schmeltz will be sprinkled in as well.
Despite having just played in middle school a year ago, the three freshmen will be counted on to contribute at the varsity level.
“There’s three of them on the varsity, so they’re going to have to play a pretty huge role,” Zolman said.
“As long as they understand they’re progressing with every game,” he added. “That's the important thing. Right now, they’re just soaking it all in. Things have to be slowed down a little bit, because they’re soaking it all in and learning the repetitiveness.”
Wawasee may have only lost the three players from last year, which also included Cassie Martinez and Alexis Blunk, but they took a whole lot more than production with them.
“What you can never replace when a senior leaves is the experience of them being with you for four years,” Zolman said. “Sometimes you wish you could get some more out of them, but the bottom line is they’ve been with you and know exactly what’s going to happen and the level of play that’s out there. That’s just hard to replace when you bring a freshman in that has no idea.”
The young Lady Warriors will get their first taste of action Friday at home against Westview, a team Wawasee’s opened its season up with a win against the past eight seasons.[[In-content Ad]]
Have a news tip? Email [email protected] or Call/Text 360-922-3092