Young Lakeland Christian Team Aims For Internal Development
Young Lakeland Christian Team Aims For Internal Development
Posted
Alaister McFarren-
Young Lakeland Christian Team Aims For Internal DevelopmentWINONA LAKE – Featuring a single senior and a sizable group of freshmen, the Lakeland Christian Academy girls basketball team will not seek to compare themselves their opponents – their primary focus is internal development.
“We’re not paying an extreme amount of attention at the players or teams around us,” said LCA head coach Allison Kauffman. “We’re focusing on us and being the best team we can be.”
This season, the Cougars are replacing six graduated seniors with seven incoming freshmen.
“We are really young this year,” Kauffman said. “We have four returners from last year’s team, so in a sense it’s a rebuilding year. That being said, I’m very optimistic about the group of girls we have.”
Despite the influx of first-year players, LCA does return their two leading scorers from last year’s 13-10 team: lone senior Tori Calizo and her sister, sophomore Jessi Calizo. Kauffman expects them to continue their success from last year, both as offensive threats and with energy in their defense and rebounding.
“Tori will be taking on a big leadership role this year, which she already exhibited last year as a junior,” said Kauffman. “She walks her talk; she gives her best effort in both practices and games. She leads by example, and she’s already earned the respect of the team.”
Amongst the freshmen, Finley Hobbs is expected to play a big role offensively.
“She’s developed a great outside shot, but she can also take people off the dribble,” Kauffman stated.
Freshmen Liv and Alexis Miller are both expected to add depth defensively, while Cara McCrum will look to increase both her offensive and defensive impact.
Per Kauffman, “I’m really excited to see what they can do. We’ll be focusing a lot on the little things that will lead to success – boxing out, rebounding, being strong with the ball and keeping turnovers to a minimum. We lost Anna Reimink to graduation, so we’re going to have to work hard to replace the effort and aggression on defense that she brought.”
A strength for this team, Kauffman says, should be their versatility, with much of their team being capable of playing both in the post and on the perimeter.
“I see us having quite a few more shooting threats than we have in past years,” she said.
“I think we’re going to need to do a lot of confidence building,” Kauffman continued, “especially with so many young players. We need to get the girls to believe in themselves. There will be a bit of a time of transition as the girls get used to the pace of the game, but they’re fast learners and hard workers, so I think we’re going to see some success early on.”
Kauffman encouraged LCA parents and fans to continue their support, as it will greatly help the young team gain confidence in their game.
