Carpenter Looks To Build Offensive Confidence
November 1, 2016 at 4:39 p.m.
Carpenter Looks To Build Offensive Confidence
By Mark [email protected]
The timing allowed Carpenter to get a bit of a head start on the 2016-17 season.
“Sometimes you walk in to a new job and you don’t have the summer. I was fortunate enough to be hired in the spring, so we had a nice summer together, and that really helped us start to jell; learn each other’s strengths and weaknesses for not only me and the players and myself, but we needed to jell as a coaching staff as well,” he said.
The former Goshen assistant put the time to good use, getting to know the players personally, and allowing everyone a chance to get to know each other, especially over the summer. Carpenter said there was an element he expected, and another he was pleased to learn.
“This group of girls on the varsity is extremely tough; they’re hard-nosed girls, they’re disciplined girls who get along well together; that was easy for us. I’d expect nothing less from a group that had been coached by Coach Zolman,” he said.
“What I didn’t know, and I learned pretty quickly, is that I’ve got a group of girls that’s pretty skilled. Sometimes you don’t see that from an outsiders’ perspective. I had scouted Wawasee for years, but you don’t know all of a player’s skills until you see them on a daily basis. I was thrilled with how skilled a lot of these girls are.”
The Lady Warriors are coming off an 8-15 season in which they struggled to score, but played well enough defensively to win more contests. Wawasee averaged a touch under 41 points a game, and gave up just over 44 per matchup.
Carpenter said he set out this summer to change the shooting mindset of the Lady Warriors.
“What we did this summer is we opened up things offensively, and ran some basic things to get them to be extremely aggressive,” said Carpenter. “It was almost ‘no shot is a bad shot right now as we start to learn.’
“And they picked up on that pretty quick; we were able to push the ball offensively, play at a quicker pace than what they were used to, get up and down the floor and just try and create scoring opportunities using the skills they have. I knew I was going to have to open it up for them, especially in the offseason, just to get them used to looking to score.”
Now that the summer is over and the season is about to begin, certain expectations are in place for the Lady Warriors.
“We’ve got a lot of work to do, just like everybody else right now, but the summer was important for us so I can learn my players’ strengths. I sat down with them after we had official tryouts, and we talked about what I expect to see when the season starts.
“The expectation is ‘you need to get this many shots off a game.’ And you’d rather have that than to have to reign in all the time. I know they’re going to be fairly disciplined, and I know they’re going to second guess whether they should shoot or not. I’m erring on the side of being overly aggressive offensively right now to get that tentativenesss out of them.”
Wawasee returns six letter winners, Senior Aubrey Schmeltz averaged seven points and six rebounds from her post position as a junior. Seaquinn Bright sat out most of last year, but lettered as a sophomore. Kayla White, Hannah Haines and Madison Beaman are all returning seniors, while Hannah-Marie Lamle, Aubrey Kuhn and Kabrea Rostochak are returning juniors with letters from last season. Sophomore Casey Schroeder saw significant playing time last season, enough to letter as a freshman. Team captains have yet to be named.
“What we’re doing from a leadership standpoint is I had them apply to be captains. We’ve set up some team culture ideas; they are character, commitment and communication. I told the girls we’re not naming captains until we’re ready, and until captains stand out; until it’s obvious. I don’t just want to attach the name ‘captain’ to somebody. I want it to be somebody or multiple people that are respected by their peers, and really do walk the walk and talk the talk.”
Carpenter said others could step up from the junior varsity as well.
“I’ve also got a nice core of freshmen and sophomores that could battle for some varsity playing time,” he said. “I want them to be comfortable when they’re ready for varsity, and to be able to get major minutes.
“I think a mistake all of us coaches make is to put a freshman or sophomore on varsity and not get them the minutes they need to develop. I don’t want to move somebody up and sit ‘em. I want them to get as many game minutes as we can so we can continue to develop.”
The Lady Warriors open their season at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at Mishawaka Marian.
The timing allowed Carpenter to get a bit of a head start on the 2016-17 season.
“Sometimes you walk in to a new job and you don’t have the summer. I was fortunate enough to be hired in the spring, so we had a nice summer together, and that really helped us start to jell; learn each other’s strengths and weaknesses for not only me and the players and myself, but we needed to jell as a coaching staff as well,” he said.
The former Goshen assistant put the time to good use, getting to know the players personally, and allowing everyone a chance to get to know each other, especially over the summer. Carpenter said there was an element he expected, and another he was pleased to learn.
“This group of girls on the varsity is extremely tough; they’re hard-nosed girls, they’re disciplined girls who get along well together; that was easy for us. I’d expect nothing less from a group that had been coached by Coach Zolman,” he said.
“What I didn’t know, and I learned pretty quickly, is that I’ve got a group of girls that’s pretty skilled. Sometimes you don’t see that from an outsiders’ perspective. I had scouted Wawasee for years, but you don’t know all of a player’s skills until you see them on a daily basis. I was thrilled with how skilled a lot of these girls are.”
The Lady Warriors are coming off an 8-15 season in which they struggled to score, but played well enough defensively to win more contests. Wawasee averaged a touch under 41 points a game, and gave up just over 44 per matchup.
Carpenter said he set out this summer to change the shooting mindset of the Lady Warriors.
“What we did this summer is we opened up things offensively, and ran some basic things to get them to be extremely aggressive,” said Carpenter. “It was almost ‘no shot is a bad shot right now as we start to learn.’
“And they picked up on that pretty quick; we were able to push the ball offensively, play at a quicker pace than what they were used to, get up and down the floor and just try and create scoring opportunities using the skills they have. I knew I was going to have to open it up for them, especially in the offseason, just to get them used to looking to score.”
Now that the summer is over and the season is about to begin, certain expectations are in place for the Lady Warriors.
“We’ve got a lot of work to do, just like everybody else right now, but the summer was important for us so I can learn my players’ strengths. I sat down with them after we had official tryouts, and we talked about what I expect to see when the season starts.
“The expectation is ‘you need to get this many shots off a game.’ And you’d rather have that than to have to reign in all the time. I know they’re going to be fairly disciplined, and I know they’re going to second guess whether they should shoot or not. I’m erring on the side of being overly aggressive offensively right now to get that tentativenesss out of them.”
Wawasee returns six letter winners, Senior Aubrey Schmeltz averaged seven points and six rebounds from her post position as a junior. Seaquinn Bright sat out most of last year, but lettered as a sophomore. Kayla White, Hannah Haines and Madison Beaman are all returning seniors, while Hannah-Marie Lamle, Aubrey Kuhn and Kabrea Rostochak are returning juniors with letters from last season. Sophomore Casey Schroeder saw significant playing time last season, enough to letter as a freshman. Team captains have yet to be named.
“What we’re doing from a leadership standpoint is I had them apply to be captains. We’ve set up some team culture ideas; they are character, commitment and communication. I told the girls we’re not naming captains until we’re ready, and until captains stand out; until it’s obvious. I don’t just want to attach the name ‘captain’ to somebody. I want it to be somebody or multiple people that are respected by their peers, and really do walk the walk and talk the talk.”
Carpenter said others could step up from the junior varsity as well.
“I’ve also got a nice core of freshmen and sophomores that could battle for some varsity playing time,” he said. “I want them to be comfortable when they’re ready for varsity, and to be able to get major minutes.
“I think a mistake all of us coaches make is to put a freshman or sophomore on varsity and not get them the minutes they need to develop. I don’t want to move somebody up and sit ‘em. I want them to get as many game minutes as we can so we can continue to develop.”
The Lady Warriors open their season at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at Mishawaka Marian.
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