Sean C. Morgan
Of The New Era
The high school girls basketball team will return almost everyone for a month of basketball beginning this week.
The team, which opened its season at home against Philomath Tuesday, loses two seniors, Nicki Aerni and Hannah Swanson.
“So we’re looking for some kids to step up and fill these spots,” Coach Jason Gorham said. “I think Michelle Aerni will come up and fill in for us on the wing. She’s a pretty good shooter and will help us with some scoring on the wing.”
Others returning include Tabby Trahan, Breanne Messmer, Sara Brocard, Makenzie Marchbanks and Erika Snow. All are incoming seniors, and all of them played significant varsity minutes during regular season. Trahan, Messmer and Brocard were starters.
“Tabby’s going to move over to point from the wing,” Gorham said. “She’s really focused on working on her ball handling. She’s really good at managing the game from point already.”
At the wings, Aerni and Snow will fill in, and the Huskies will look for a couple of players to come and fill other spots there.
Post will be filled by Marchbanks, Messmer, Brocard and senior Ashley Bertucci.
“We’ve got a lot of older kids coming out this year,” Gorham said. “We’re going to bring up a couple from JV. That’s what summer is for is to see who’s going to put in the time, step up their game vying for the varsity minutes.”
The Huskies have some strong players coming up, Gorham said. The junior varsity finished just under .500.
Those players have experience and have played with success, Gorham said.
Overall, the team has gotten better every year as far as turnovers go, Gorham said.
Turnovers have been a perennial problem for the Huskies.
Regular season, the Huskies’ numbers were more in line with the other teams they played, Gorham said. “We struggled with scoring. The kids just haven’t played as much basketball in our community as they have in other communities, so that’s why we play in the summer,” to give Sweet Home players a chance to develop the instincts that come with constant play.
The Huskies are decent shooters, Gorham said. They have just had a hard time getting good scoring positions during games.
“We really won’t change a whole lot,” Gorham said. “We’ll keep trying to push the ball when we can, get some shots off and put pressure on defensively.”
The Huskies will run a combination of man-to-man and zone defenses to keep the game chaning and opponents guessing constantly, Gorham said.
The Huskies will see their new league rival Philomath during the summer season, but they won’t see most of the new league.
“For us it’s a step where we can be more competitive in the league we’re moving to,” Gorham said. “Philomath is a really strong team, but Newport and Taft have been down in recent years and Central has been at our level. We’ve had competitive games with them the last couple of years.”
He thinks the new league will lower some of the intimidation levels other teams bring to the court, Gorham said. “We’ve been in a great conference with really great teams. There’s been some intimidation.”
In the new league, the Huskies have beaten Newport, played competitively with Central and can play with Taft, Gorham said.
Gorham is excited about having a group of athletes who have played together for years, he said. The team has had a couple of players from different classes regularly, but he has never had a class that played together six years, through their senior year.
“I think that’s going to be a big change and a nice change for us,” Gorham said. “I think it’ll be good.”