Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
SYRACUSE - Experience, it's been said, is the best teacher. Seventh-year Wawasee girls basketball coach Kem Zolman will likely find out this season how true that is.
After struggling through last year with a 7-14 mark, which included a 1-6 record in the Northern Lakes Conference, Wawasee graduated just one senior in Mistie Hershberger.
The Warriors have just one senior again this year and are still young compared to the teams on their schedule, but Zolman is hoping the experience his team got last year shows this season.
It certainly showed at the end of last season as the Warriors advanced to the sectional championship.
"We're very excited," said Zolman. "We've been waiting on the season since we got beat in the sectional. They know what to expect now. I know they're very excited. We're very, very young, but we're experienced."
Wawasee opened the season with a 50-38 loss at Westview and then lost 50-35 at Lakeland.
Leading the list of returners for the Warriors this year is senior Rachel Canen, who averaged 13 points per contest last year.
"Rachel put in a lot of time and effort in the offseason," said Zolman. "We're counting on her to do some good things for us."
Also returning for Wawasee is junior front court player Tiffany Fick, who averaged 12 points and seven rebounds a year ago. Also back is sophomore post player Jessie Wolf, who averaged six points and five rebounds as a freshman in the starting lineup.
Also on Wawasee's varsity roster are freshman Kayln Lantz, sophomores Megan Walker, Shawn Knafel and Elizabeth Olson, and juniors Alexis Wilson, Amelia Scmucker and Casey Short.
Both Wilson and Schmucker have been injured for much of their high school careers but Zolman is hopeful that they can get healthy and contribute.
When Zolman first took the head coaching position at Wawasee, he rostered a number of freshmen and sophomores on the varsity team.
They went through their growing pains their first year and got better and won more games each year after that.
Granted, that group had Shanna Zolman, now a junior guard for the top-ranked Tennessee Lady Volunteers, but Coach Zolman believes this team can do the same.
"We did this with Shanna, but we were able to hide some things with All-American," said Zolman. "We didn't do that last year. But these girls are all more mature now than they were last year and their enthusiasm is very high. They're very coachable."
The Warriors are in action again Saturday when they open up their home schedule by hosting Fairfield, followed by contests with East Noble, West Noble, Culver Academy and South Bend Washington.
Wawasee will then open Northern Lakes Conference play Dec. 10 by hosting Goshen, which has already posted a 2-0 record with new head coach Lenny Krebs.
Zolman said it's hard to predict a winner of the NLC, but noted that Plymouth, NorthWood and Memorial are all up there and that Goshen would be much improved.
If things go Zolman's way, his team will be much improved as well.
"We want to play our best basketball come sectional time," said Zolman. "This is a young group, but they have good focus. I don't think they're going to give up. When they get in a battle, we'll see what kind of character they have."
