SYRACUSE – Lining the walls of the girls basketball coaches office at Wawasee High School are photos of each of the 17 previous teams head coach Kem Zolman has led. Each photo is captioned with the team’s record and accomplishments. Some teams have been more successful than others, both in terms of wins and tournament titles. Almost as if the recession affected the Lady Warriors, the program has seen some down years recently. Zolman sees 2014-15 as a year where the work begins to pay off. But with a solitary senior, Elizabeth Jackson, on the roster, Zolman knows the one word that will describe his squad. “Hopefully, in another year we can get rid of that word ‘young,’” he grinned. “We are young, but we have a lot of varsity experience, and I think that’s going to begin paying off this year. “We’ve got everybody back, that’s the nice thing. We’re young but experienced. (Jackson) brings three years of wealth of experience at the varsity level. “It’s always special to have seniors in your program, and sometimes you have to put kids in positions before they’re ready. That’s an awful strain on kids, as well as parents, to have that pressure on the varsity level, and Elizabeth has experienced that throughout her whole career. Our (the coaching staff) prayer is that she reaps the benefits and be able to see some good things happen.” The varsity roster features six juniors – leading scorer Kylee Rostochak, Allissa Flores, Erin Wiktorowski, Kaley Wood, Katlyn Kennedy and Nicole Streby. Each are varsity letter winners, and have seen significant court time over the last two years. Sophomores Seaquinn Bright, Aubrey Schmeltz and Hannah Haines, along with freshmen Kabrea Rostochak (Kylee’s sister), Aubrey Kuhn and Hannah-Marie Lamle round out the varsity roster. While the Warriors have won but 18 games over the last three years, and bring an 11-game losing streak into this season, this year’s team knows better days are a possibility. “I think their expectations are a little higher than what we did during our scrimmage. As an athlete, you experience the fact that you can’t just step on the floor and it happen for you,” Zolman said. “It’s a long season; two games longer than last season. They need to continue to work hard and be patient.” As most coaches will, Zolman said the keys to Wawasee’s success lie in defense and rebounding. “We’re not the tallest trees in the forest, so we’re going to have to block out well, much better than we did last year,” he said. “So much of defense comes from maturity. There’s four areas of defense you have to be able to do; guard the ball, help off the ball, recover back off the ball, and rebound. And the younger you are, the less of those four you do. If you can get one of those four as a freshman, you’ve done something. Each year you pick it up a little more. “We’re going to struggle if we can’t get it in our heads we need to rebound. Those things all lead to championships, assuming you can hit the basket. The bottom line is if you can’t get baskets, it doesn’t matter how good you are defensively. Eventually you’re going to have to score, and that comes with repetition. “Right now, before our season starts, they want to be successful so bad that our shooting is horrendous. But we haven’t played our first game yet, so we’re hoping that’s something that comes around as well.” So while everyone’s aware of the recent past, the Warriors have no intent of wallowing in the misery. “After some lean years there comes a time when you start to see the shelves being restocked,” smiled Zolman. “I love this team’s attitude of wanting to (play) well. That’s exciting for us.”
