SYRACUSE – Wawasee High School girls basketball coach Kem Zolman has a lot of reasons to be optimistic about the 2015-16 Lady Warriors. They lost just one varsity player to graduation, have senior leadership with plenty of varsity experience, and blend in some younger players looking to make a mark on the program. Leading the Lady Warriors is senior Kylee Rostochak. The two-time all-conference player averaged 14.6 points a game during last season’s 7-17 campaign. Also returning are seniors Allissa Flores and Erin Wiktorowski. Junior Seaquinn Bright was the team’s leading rebounder last season, averaging nearly five boards a contest. Classmates Aubrey Schmeltz and Hannah Haines return; the duo averaged about seven points and seven rebounds a game last year. Sophomores Aubrey Kuhn, Hannah-Marie Lamle and Kabrea Rostochak all saw varsity action last season. “This year I think we have a really good balance. We’ve got youth; we’ve got experience. We have a three-year starter who’s a two-year all-conference player, but everybody has experience,” Zolman said. “We’ve got enough youth that they don’t know it all yet, and enough education to know how all this runs. So all those things that we’ve said for years, ‘we’re young, we’re young,’ that’s all over now.” Zolman said his team invested a lot of time playing in the offseason, and thinks his team is already ahead of last year’s squad in some ways. “For example, I had them come in one morning during fall break, and I forgot to unlock the doors, so they couldn’t get in. Twenty minutes before practice is supposed to start I’m wondering ‘where is everybody?’” Zolman said. “They’re out in the parking lot dancing and laughing, and when I finally unlocked the door they were thrilled to be here. That’s been the mentality throughout our whole summer. “We had a good bunch of people coming in every work day that we had, and we had good shootout experiences. Whether that equates to wins or losses I don’t know. That’s to be determined. But it was more like what I was used to in the past; kids wanting to be here. We’ve got good numbers; we have a freshman team again, and a better junior varsity and a good 8-10 players ready to go for varsity. “So we’re excited about all that, and I’m excited for the kids. As a coach I pray that the kids would see the benefits of their labors.” While every Indiana high school team looks to peak about the time sectional play begins, Zolman said he’d like the Lady Warriors to enjoy the benefits of their offseason work sooner than later. “Early success is always an important ingredient for a team, because you can put in the hours and come in during the summer, but you’re still not confident,” he said. “You think things will be better. The girls saw it during our scrimmage the other night. They even said they thought they’d get on the floor and everything would just fall together. And that didn’t happen. And it was awful. “But I told them in the 18 years I’ve been a coach, I’ve never been happy with a scrimmage. Ever. But a successful scrimmage is when you get out and no one gets hurt. But for this group, it was a learning lesson that we can’t just show up and things will be normal. We’re really going to have to get out there and work for it. So that was a great experience for us in the scrimmage.” Wawasee opens its season Thursday when it hosts Mishawaka Marian at 7 p.m.
