Triton Hoops Team Has Experience, Expectations
November 6, 2017 at 5:05 p.m.
Triton Hoops Team Has Experience, Expectations
By Mark [email protected]
It’s what happens when you have a team losing just one player from the previous year, and there’s a winning tradition in place.
“We have a lot of varsity experience returning this year with Nicole Sechrist, Hannah Wanemacher, Charlotte Morris, and Whytnie Miller,” said 10th-year coach Adam Heckaman. “We’ll be looking to these four to be our leaders on the floor in games and also to set the one in practice.
“They had the opportunity last year to play against some great teams and are taking the steps forward to leading us to be able to compete against those teams.”
Wanemacher led the Lady Trojans last year with 13.3 points a game, and Sechrist was second with 6.7 points per contest.
Heckaman said the emphasis recently wasn’t so much on scoring as preventing the opposition from doing so. This year should be a little different.
“Scoring was difficult at times last year and at any given time during a season it could be again,” he said. “We focus a lot on defense because that is something we feel we have much more control over.
“However, on the offensive end this year we feel we have a few more scoring options this season. Hannah has been our leading scorer the last two seasons and we anticipate that to be the same. This year, though, we have some girls who have improved their ability to score both from the inside and the outside, which should help us with our all-around scoring.”
Another benefit of returning so many letter winners is there’s plenty of people to step up and lead a team.
“I have a feeling with the leadership our seniors are displaying they will be voted as our captains,” Heckaman said. “As far as leading, they are a great trio and they all are doing a great job at leading in different areas.
“Charlotte has really stepped up in helping lead and coach our younger post players. Nicole has transitioned to the point guard position this season and has been doing a great job of adapting to being our floor general, and as we have for the past couple of seasons we will continue to look to Hannah for her leadership on the floor when things are getting tough. Nicole and Hannah have been through a lot of different scenarios for the past two or three years and have gained some great experience. We will lean on them a lot for that leadership against our difficult schedule.
“Whytnie Miller is only a sophomore but played a lot of minutes for us last season and started most of the second half of the season. We expect her to be more comfortable with the pace of the game this season, and we’ll look for more out of her offensively and defensively.”
And there’s help coming up the ranks in the Trojan Trench.
“We have a trio of juniors who logged a lot of minutes on the JV last year and took advantage of the minutes they got on varsity,” Heckaman said. “We’ll be looking for Abigail Powell to give us some good minutes in the post, and we hope to see her use her athleticism a lot on the boards and the defensive end.
“Chelsea Johnson is another junior post player who has been working hard to develop her post scoring, and we hope to see her use her size this season to give us more scoring in the post.
“Delanie Groves will be a key guard for us this season. She worked very hard at improving her shot this past summer and it has showed so far in practice. We will rely on her to give us minutes on the perimeter and to be able to step up and make the open shot.
“Our roster will be rounded out by two-way players sophomore Alyxa Viers, freshman Jaela Faulkner and freshman Lexia Hostrawser. We have seen some great things out of each of them in practice so far and are excited about what they will bring to the varsity games.”
Triton has always sought out top competition, and while the record over the last couple of seasons may have suffered some, it’s a short-term pain for a longer-term gain in the eyes of the Lady Trojans.
“We talk about the strength of our schedule often,” said Heckaman. “We really feel that while it is difficult at times not to see the wins, we do learn a lot and we learn a lot quickly by playing many of the teams we play.
“The last two years the girls have understood that and have seen the growth in their game and in our team as the season goes. We feel it is more important for us to grow stronger as the season goes so we are playing our best basketball by conference, Bi-County and sectional tournament time.”
The start of Triton’s season was postponed so as to not conflict with the football team’s appearance in the sectional title game. The Lady Trojans open their season at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday against Argos, then will play at John Glenn on Wednesday.
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It’s what happens when you have a team losing just one player from the previous year, and there’s a winning tradition in place.
“We have a lot of varsity experience returning this year with Nicole Sechrist, Hannah Wanemacher, Charlotte Morris, and Whytnie Miller,” said 10th-year coach Adam Heckaman. “We’ll be looking to these four to be our leaders on the floor in games and also to set the one in practice.
“They had the opportunity last year to play against some great teams and are taking the steps forward to leading us to be able to compete against those teams.”
Wanemacher led the Lady Trojans last year with 13.3 points a game, and Sechrist was second with 6.7 points per contest.
Heckaman said the emphasis recently wasn’t so much on scoring as preventing the opposition from doing so. This year should be a little different.
“Scoring was difficult at times last year and at any given time during a season it could be again,” he said. “We focus a lot on defense because that is something we feel we have much more control over.
“However, on the offensive end this year we feel we have a few more scoring options this season. Hannah has been our leading scorer the last two seasons and we anticipate that to be the same. This year, though, we have some girls who have improved their ability to score both from the inside and the outside, which should help us with our all-around scoring.”
Another benefit of returning so many letter winners is there’s plenty of people to step up and lead a team.
“I have a feeling with the leadership our seniors are displaying they will be voted as our captains,” Heckaman said. “As far as leading, they are a great trio and they all are doing a great job at leading in different areas.
“Charlotte has really stepped up in helping lead and coach our younger post players. Nicole has transitioned to the point guard position this season and has been doing a great job of adapting to being our floor general, and as we have for the past couple of seasons we will continue to look to Hannah for her leadership on the floor when things are getting tough. Nicole and Hannah have been through a lot of different scenarios for the past two or three years and have gained some great experience. We will lean on them a lot for that leadership against our difficult schedule.
“Whytnie Miller is only a sophomore but played a lot of minutes for us last season and started most of the second half of the season. We expect her to be more comfortable with the pace of the game this season, and we’ll look for more out of her offensively and defensively.”
And there’s help coming up the ranks in the Trojan Trench.
“We have a trio of juniors who logged a lot of minutes on the JV last year and took advantage of the minutes they got on varsity,” Heckaman said. “We’ll be looking for Abigail Powell to give us some good minutes in the post, and we hope to see her use her athleticism a lot on the boards and the defensive end.
“Chelsea Johnson is another junior post player who has been working hard to develop her post scoring, and we hope to see her use her size this season to give us more scoring in the post.
“Delanie Groves will be a key guard for us this season. She worked very hard at improving her shot this past summer and it has showed so far in practice. We will rely on her to give us minutes on the perimeter and to be able to step up and make the open shot.
“Our roster will be rounded out by two-way players sophomore Alyxa Viers, freshman Jaela Faulkner and freshman Lexia Hostrawser. We have seen some great things out of each of them in practice so far and are excited about what they will bring to the varsity games.”
Triton has always sought out top competition, and while the record over the last couple of seasons may have suffered some, it’s a short-term pain for a longer-term gain in the eyes of the Lady Trojans.
“We talk about the strength of our schedule often,” said Heckaman. “We really feel that while it is difficult at times not to see the wins, we do learn a lot and we learn a lot quickly by playing many of the teams we play.
“The last two years the girls have understood that and have seen the growth in their game and in our team as the season goes. We feel it is more important for us to grow stronger as the season goes so we are playing our best basketball by conference, Bi-County and sectional tournament time.”
The start of Triton’s season was postponed so as to not conflict with the football team’s appearance in the sectional title game. The Lady Trojans open their season at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday against Argos, then will play at John Glenn on Wednesday.
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