New coach joins HS girls' hoops ranks

One new coach joins the group of county high school girls’ basketball coaches this season as the five returnees try to build on winning or near-winning seasons.

Justin Mayer is the new coach of the Perry-Lecompton Kaws as he succeeds Mark Armstrong, who coached the team for four seasons. Mayer teaches at Eudora High School and has spent the last six years as an assistant coach for the Eudora girls’ squad.

Following a 2006-07 season in which no team won 10 games, all but Perry-Lecompton had double-digit wins in 2007-08. Jefferson County North, Oskaloosa and McLouth fought down to the wire in the Delaware Valley League race with Oskaloosa coming out on top. JCN finished with the best overall record at 18-6 while Oskaloosa was right there at 17-6 and McLouth was 13-8. Jefferson West matched that 13-8 record and Valley Falls finished 11-11 last season. Perry-Lecompton finished with a 4-17 record.

All six teams started play last week, as Oskaloosa started off with a win over Nemaha Valley while JCN did the same with a win over Maur Hill Mt. Academy. McLouth fell to St. Mary’s Academy, Jefferson West lost to Silver Lake, Valley Falls lost to ACCHS following a Dec. 4 loss to Immaculata, and Perry-Lecompton lost to Bishop Ward.

The teams continue play this week with Oskaloosa, JCN, McLouth and Valley Falls competing at the Delaware Valley League Preseason Tournament, which will be held in Oskaloosa this year. West and the Kaws were set to face off Tuesday before West returns to action Friday to play host to Sabetha.

Following is a capsule review of each team entering the season in order of last season’s record.


JCN
Coach: Steve Noll, fourth year
Last season: 18-6

The turnaround Steve Noll had been waiting for happened last season as North’s underclassmen-laden team got the farthest of any county team before falling to ACCHS in the 3A substate title game.

The best news out of that loss was that North’s only loss to graduation was one senior. Noll also has some strength in numbers this season as he ties West for the most players out with 23. That group includes a core of four seniors plus some talented juniors that were key to last season’s run. The seniors are guard/forward Amelia Noll, forward Devin Gigstad, guard Lisa Weishaar and forward Haley Hoffman, and junior guard Sara Navinskey and junior forward Mallory GrandPre are two other returning leaders for the Chargers.

Junior guard Beth Anne Brickell is slated to return from a knee injury after Christmas while sophomore forward Katie Noll also returns after seeing ample varsity playing time last season. Noll said he has a couple new weapons in stow in the form of freshmen Kate Brickell and Jordan Kramer, who he says he plans to work into the varsity rotation over the season.

“The girls have been working hard,” Noll said. He said some nagging injuries are taking their toll early on but he hopes to have everyone in full health by the return from Christmas break. “They had good volleyball and cross-country seasons so it’s good to be able to build on that a little bit. We don’t have a lot of size, but I think all the girls play a little bigger than what they are.”

Noll said several teams could be in the running for the DVL title after a season in which North fell short to county rival Oskaloosa by a slim margin.

“I think the league is gonna be tough,” Noll said. “We return a lot but so do Oskaloosa and McLouth. I think Valley Falls might surprise a lot of people. Then you’ve got teams like KC Christian and Horton that are always up there. It should be a fun race.”

After coming so close to a state bid last season, Noll said he hopes the team can take the next step this time around.

“The girls have been with me since they were in seventh and eighth grade, and they’ve been competitive every year (at the middle school level),” he said. “I guess it’s all kinda fallen into place. We’ve got some pretty high goals this season. I think we’re ready to go, we’ve just gotta go out there and play our game.”


Oskaloosa
Coach: LeeAnn Tufte, fourth year
Last season: 17-6

Tufte’s Bears also took a step forward last season and return quite a bit of the scoring punch from that team.

The Bears won the DVL title and went into substate as one of the frontrunners but stumbled versus ACCHS in the semifinals to finish a great season on a sour note.

It’s not often that a coach with 15 players out for a sport, seniors to freshmen, can point to depth as a strong point but Tufte said she feels that’s the case with this year’s team. Senior standout guard Nicole Rockhold and sophomore guard Hailey Kelly are the two top returnees for the Bears, whose roster includes two other seniors – forwards Jordan Cross and Rachell Hicks.

The Bears lost the inside presence of seniors Emily Heston and Myla Heston to graduation, and junior Kyra Coffman will miss the season with a knee injury, but Tufte has some players with some returning experience, plus a couple freshmen ready to do their part. Junior Mallory Schmidt, junior Audrey Trowbridge and sophomore Kristin Brey all got solid playing time last season and Tufte plans to work freshman forward Haley Pfau and freshman forward Rachel Schmanke into the mix. Sophomore guard Abby Thurston and sophomore forward Katie Barnes also saw some varsity time in the team’s opening win over Nemaha Valley Friday.

“I was very, very pleased with last season,” Tufte said. “We’ve picked up some freshmen and our numbers are pretty thin, but I really think you could field two varsities with our top 11. This early part of the season we’ll be figuring out rotation questions and see how everybody fits. We might be having to play some starters on varsity in junior varsity this year.”

Staying healthy will be a key, but Tufte said she also focused more on shooting going into games this year. A poor offensive effort was a main reason behind the season-ending loss to ACCHS last season so, looking at another tough schedule this season, Tufte said she wanted to see improvement in that area.

“Our shooting percentage and ability to shoot from outside was key last year, and that last loss really showed us how important that is,” Tufte said. “I’ve been really pleased with how that has come along. The other big thing is defense. We’ve got to play strong defense. If we can use that to transition into offense that will take a lot of the scoring stress off Nicole and Hailey.

“I think the DVL race is gonna be close. JCN and McLouth have most of their players back, and teams like KCC and Horton are always strong.”

Tufte said she thinks her squad is ready to get into games and leave scrimmaging behind.

“I think we’ll be able to put people in this year and, really, not skip a beat,” Tufte said. “I’m excited about this season. I know the girls are anxious to get going and see how they match up.”


McLouth
Coach: Todd Cossman, second year
Last season: 13-8

Cossman had few to no complaints about his first year as head coach at McLouth as his team was in the thick of the DVL hunt throughout the season before also losing to ACCHS in substate play.

Numbers are still low for the Bulldogs as Cossman has 14 players out, but only one senior. The main returnees are junior standout guard Missy Rome, junior post presence Kylie Shufflebarger and junior post player Cassidy Bristol. Cossman also pointed out returnees sophomore guard Logan Terry and sophomore Jessie Troupe, and said freshmen Terri Stewart and Morgan Drinnon will also see varsity playing time. The lone senior on the team is forward Haley Holwick.

“The girls have been playing well in practice,” Cossman said. “We’re keeping it pretty much the same this season. We want to build some continuity, and move forward in what we started last season – take that next step.”

The Bulldogs got started on the wrong foot with the season opening loss to a solid St. Mary’s Academy team Friday but Cossman is hoping his team is in the hunt once more for a DVL title.

“The league looks pretty solid. Oskaloosa is right up there, JCN is up there. I think Immaculata and Horton could be good,” Cossman said.

Cossman lost two solid seniors in Abby Annis and Sam Farris from last year’s team. He said he expects some learning is still left to be done but he likes his chances with his squad.

“Missy can play with just about any guard in the state,” Cossman said, “and we’ve got two really good inside players in Kylie and Cassidy. We’ve got some questions to answer and we may have some growing pains early on, but I’m pretty happy so far. Hopefully we can get going full swing by Christmas break.”


Jefferson West
Coach: Dan Hypse, third year
Last season: 13-8

Returning players are also a strength at West as Hypse returns quite a bit of experience from a team that lost to Hayden in 4A substate play to finish last season.

Hypse has a little strength in his numbers as a squad of 23 includes nine freshmen and 14 junior varsity and varsity players. Seniors and juniors form the core of the team, as Hypse has four seniors on the squad. Daughter guard/forward Hayley Hypse is joined by fellow seniors forward Audrey Mullins, forward Katie Bigham and guard/forward Michelle Bowen, who transferred to West last season from Oskaloosa. Hypse and Mullins have extensive varsity experience while Bigham had a standout season as a freshman but has seen her last two basketball seasons derailed by injuries. Joining those four will be junior guard Taylor Jaimes, junior forward Morgan Scott, junior guard and forward BriAnna Ploude, junior post player Jessica Martin, sophomore post player Jessica Wells and sophomore guard Monica Sanders.

“Hayley, Audrey and Katie have all played at the varsity level for a while now,” Hypse said. “We know what style we want to play – aggressive man-to-man defense. We want to get after people and create turnovers and turn those into baskets on the other end.”

West finished among the top three in the Big Seven League last year and said, after the frontrunner Holton, the league is a good race.

“Hopefully we can move up after finishing third last year,” Hypse said. “Holton is the top team, but we’re gonna have to play well every night or get beaten.”

West lost a narrow contest to Silver Lake to start the season 0-1, but Hypse said he hopes his team will be tested and improved by the time the games really count in February.

“I feel like we play a good schedule,” Hypse said. “I’d like us to be farther along offensively going into games. We’ve been really stressing defense in practice. Hopefully by the time we get to Christmas break the offense is starting to click.”


Valley Falls
Coach: Todd Gish, fourth year
Last season: 11-11

Gish’s team improved to a .500 record last season but had troubles with consistency before getting bounced from the 2A substate semifinals by Valley Heights.

The biggest loss for the Dragons from that team is graduated post player Rebekah Bunde, but Gish is hoping a group of other players can step up to fill the inside void left by Bunde’s departure. Gish has 22 players out for basketball, which includes four seniors. All four have seen significant playing time the last couple seasons, led by guards and forwards Tess Robinson and Chelsy Lassiter. Senior Chelsey Correll will be looked to for more production in the post this season and senior guard Shelbie Glissman returns to try and give Valley Falls an offensive boost. Other key returnees include sophomore guards Abbey Kearney, who had a standout freshman season, and Morgan Streeter, who also saw plenty of playing time as a freshman. Gish said junior guard Brenna Lane, junior forward Bethany Myers, junior guard and forward Bailey Sherretts, junior Courtnie Watson and sophomore Kaitlyn Speer would also likely see varsity time.

“Abbey was big for us last year, so we’ll lean on her quite a bit,” Gish said. “Really we’ve got about eight more girls that are fairly interchangeable. I’m hoping Chelsey (Correll) can step up a little on the offensive end, and Chelsy (Lassiter) had games in spurts last year where she was in double figures, too, so hopefully she can be a little more consistent with that.”

The changes add up to a drive for more aggression defensively from Gish.

“We played a little more soft zone defense last year so I’d like to work more man-to-man in. We’re challenged in size but we’ll have to make up for that,” Gish said.

Gish pointed out last year’s DVL top three – JCN, Oskaloosa and McLouth – as the main three to watch again this season.

“Oskaloosa will be tough, and JCN has everybody back, and McLouth maybe has the best player in the league in Rome,” Gish said. “Some things will have to go our way, but part of the challenge is changing the mindset here. The girls aren’t used to seeing a lot of success.”

The season is off to a rough start as the Dragons have dropped single-digit-deficit games to Immaculata and ACCHS to start 0-2. Gish said he’s hoping the good feelings he has had about the team entering play pan out.

“Practices have been going pretty well early on,” Gish said. “I think overall they’re quite a bit better at this point than they were last year at this point. We’ll know a lot more after a few games.”


Perry-Lecompton
Coach: Justin Mayer, first year
Last season: 4-17

The Kaws have struggled in recent years but Mayer is hoping he can get the outlook turned around for the Kaw girls.

Mayer’s wife, the former Chrissy McClure, is a mid-1990s graduate of Perry-Lecompton so, when he heard of the job’s availability, he looked at it as a challenge.

“I had wanted to be a head coach and, since my wife is a graduate of Perry-Lecompton and her family is still close, I figured this was a good place to start,” Mayer said. He has spent the last six years as an assistant at Eudora, and also teaches there.

Mayer has only 15 girls out for basketball but only two are seniors. He said he is looking to junior guard Emma Gantz, junior post player Katie Volle, senior post player Megan Elder, junior guard Katie Hirsch, senior guard Sydney Allen, sophomore guard Taylor Akagi to lead the way on varsity. He pointed out junior post player Jessica Christman, sophomore guard/forward Kerry Neil and junior guard Abby Bays as other players who will see varsity time.

“It’s kind of an unsolved mystery, why more girls aren’t coming out for the team,” Mayer said. “We had situations where some girls who hadn’t been out went out for the team and others who had, didn’t. We’re taking the time to figure out what works best with this group.”

Mayer said this is very much a transition year as he settles into his first head coaching job, which is also a building project in turning around the Kaw girls.

“We’re gonna have to outwork teams on the defensive end. That’ll be our staple,” Mayer said. “We’re getting to know each other and that’s gonna take some time.”

Mayer said Lansing, Tonganoxie and Basehor-Linwood should be the top teams in the perennially tough Kaw Valley League. He said he hopes this year is a chance for him to lay the foundation for years to come.

“We’re suiting up everybody,” Mayer said of varsity games. “We’re working on getting to know my philosophy and relaxing and making good decisions on the offensive end. You’ve got to be able to handle defensive pressure. Hopefully we can get better as the year goes on. I think the girls have the tools, it’s just a matter of putting them together.”