The last three years has seen single-digit wins for Van-Far girls basketball but also young rosters.
Youth can’t be an excuse anymore for the Lady Indians, head coach Heather Minter said, …
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The last three years has seen single-digit wins for Van-Far girls basketball but also young rosters.
Youth can’t be an excuse anymore for the Lady Indians, head coach Heather Minter said, as several of the total 14 are upperclassmen this season.
Minter said this attitude has been reflected in practice. She hopes this leads to an increase from seven wins to at least 15 as she said Van-Far has the talent to make that possible.
“We’ve been challenging them a lot in practice,” Minter said. “A lot of it is being more strict in practice with them and holding them more accountable – telling them to hold their teammates accountable.”
Minter said Van-Far has to make an adjustment before the season, however, because of an injury to point guard Mylee Keller. After sustaining the injury during softball season, Minter said she expects Keller to be out until at least after Christmas. Leading scorer Elliott Utterback will be handling the ball a lot early.
“With Mylee out, it’s going to hurt us a little bit but it could be a good thing because the ball is in (Elliott’s) hands more,” Minter said.
Among the other key juniors are Khloe Wallace, who Minter hopes can have a great year after she had a healthy cross country season because she is one of Van-Far’s best shooters, and Khloe Zumwalt, who is the team’s post player that averaged 10 points and eight rebounds per game. Minter said Kenya Jones is an athletic junior who she hopes can learn can attack the rim better, Trinity Skwirtz is the lone senior who keeps the other girls on task, and sophomore Carly Hunn brings excitement and defensive skill.
Minter said she hopes to give Aviana Early some varsity minutes, and freshman Kylee Gibson is raw but wants to see her minutes increase.
Minter said other goals she hopes are met are to be competitive in every tournament, or playing in at least three games or earning a trophy, and finishing in the top four of Van-Far’s conference. She believes the future is bright.
“We haven’t really been decent since Mara Jensen, Haley Baskett and Devyn Keller all went through here,” Minter said. “I think this year and the next two years, we have the tools to be a decent team and fun to watch.”
