Colby girls see infusion of young talent
Colby girls welcome new faces to team
It’s a new year for the Colby Hornets girls basketball team, and second year head coach Terry Schmitt is back to guide the Hornets.
Schmitt’s return is about all that’s the same from last year as the 2021-22 edition of the Hornets features a slew of new faces on varsity and in starting positions, after six seniors graduated this spring.
“The roster is very young and very inexperienced,” Schmitt said candidly. “We’re returning three players, and one starter, from last year’s team. Hayden Willner was starting at the end of last season, and Brett and Kya put a lot of varsity minutes in. There’s our leaders.”
Fine-tuning the line-up, finding consistency and creating offensive firepower are the biggest items on Schmitt’s checklist if Colby is to build off last year’s 12-9 season record.
Colby said goodbye to their top three scorers in Emma Peavey, Lexi Underwood and Trista Meyer. But Schmitt has a solid triple threat to work with this year, with seniors Brett Schmitt and Kya Viegut the leaders on the court. Junior Hayden Willner received valuable varsity minutes, starting several games and averaged nearly eight points a game.
Thus far, Viegut has emerged as the most dangerous scoring threat, and is averaging 15 points a game through the Hornets’ first four contests. Brett Schmitt is also averaging almost double figures, but coach Schmitt expects to see different players step up every night.
“Trisha Vanderhoof played some JV last year and was on the bench of varsity and subbed a few minutes. Kylie Orth moved up to varsity during playoffs and she’s going to be playing varsity. We’ve got some freshman that are going to be on varsity this year.”
While the names on the roster are different, Schmitt will continue to employ the same brand of basketball as last year, which means up-tempo on offense and defense, and looking to create offense out of defense by causing turnovers and translating those turnovers into points in transition.
“We’re basically going to be the same as last year. We’re looking to push the ball up the floor both ways, we’re going to be pressuring at all times. I don’t see us being much different offensively.
“We may be going more post play this year. Both Savana Thomsen and Harrison Schmitt have played the post before and do a very good job even as freshman down there.”
One thing that definitely helps the Hornets, and something they could not do last year, was playing in summer league. Colby went up against good competition, battling Marathon, Loyal and teams from the Lakeland, and that experience will be vital to the product the Hornets put on the court each game.
“I think they got the most out of it was just the competition against upper level teams. I thought the girls played very well, and matter-of-fact, there was a lot of very young girls playing varsity. They held their own, and they competed and will do fine as the year goes on, but it was great to get that experience.”
It wasn’t only the girls who learned a lot last year, or in summer league, but also Schmitt himself. This year, he has a better handle on what his players are capable of, and he also knows more about his incoming freshman and sophomores, having worked with them since they were in fifth grade.
“The girls coming up, like the freshmen, I’ve been coaching since the fifth grade,” Schmitt said. “So they know what I want and they see what we’re doing. So it’s been easier for them to fall into this.”
Schmitt also isn’t afraid to tinker with the line-up, or move players between varsity and junior varsity.
“As I preached to the girls last year, I don’t care what grade you’re in, I don’t care who you are, the best players will be on this court. That’s what varsity is about and they all know that.”
Schmitt knows his team is young and inexperienced on varsity, but with the talent that he has on the team, he feels they should be able to compete for a winning record and finish near the top half of the Eastern Cloverbelt.
“I got basketball players, I got athletes, it’s just about figuring what the strengths are. I think I have a better idea this year than I did last year. We should do OK, but I expect us to struggle at times, but I am hoping to compete with every team and finish at the top half of the conference.”
The Hornets are currently 1-4 to start the season, but Schmitt knows it’s not how the season starts that really matters, but how it ends. He’s confident that as the season progresses the Hornets will get stronger and stronger, and hopefully make some noise once the playoffs begin.
“My hope is every game they get better and every practice they get better,” Scmitt says. “Hopefully by the time we get to playoffs we have found a groove and we find out who fits where. Our goal is that when we hit playoffs we know who we are, and what we can do and see what kind of mess we can make.”
