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2022-23 GIRLS' BASKETBALL PREVIEWS: Cougars look to defend county, sectional titles with revamped squad
The defending Putnam County Tournament and IHSAA Class 2A Sectional No. 44 champions North Putnam were going to have a lot to sort through going into the 2022-23 season.
Graduating the entire sectional and regional finalist starting lineup, as well as losing a sixth man off the bench was already enough before also losing head coach Lukas Haworth just as the school year began.
Into the breach steps Craig Franklin, as assistant on the boys’ basketball team the past few seasons, to guide a much younger North Putnam squad through the upcoming girls’ basketball campaign.
A year after finishing 18-9, with a 5-5 mark in the Western Indiana Conference, the Cougars will have create a new starting lineup with a squad that has a senior, three juniors, three sophomores and nine freshmen.
“It’s definitely been a learning experience for them, but I think they have met the challenge head on and have been working extremely hard,” Franklin said about the girls adapting to the changes thrown at them ahead of the new season. “We have so many new things going on: A new practice structure, new drills, new offense, new defense, new terminology, etc.
“It would be easy to have complaints or to push back on all the things we are doing, but these girls have met the challenge head on and have really been pushing to do their best each day. With most of our girls playing fall sports, we didn’t get a chance to put anything in until this week, so it’s been a lot of new ideas and concepts and, to their credit, they have been eager to learn.
“There’s been a ton of mistakes, but the girls have continued to be positive about it and have really accepted the coaching,” Franklin added.
Experience is in short supply to start the year with Kyndal Brewer (2.6 ppg, 3.7 rpg) the sole senior on the squad along with returning juniors Samie Hoops (5.1 ppg, 3.4 rpg), Lexi Daigle (1.5 ppg, 1.9 rpg) and Addi Osburn and sophomore Jacy Huffman representing the varsity experience in the squad.
With so much to replace from a year ago, Franklin said having a strong leader in Brewer as a senior was helping tremendously in the early going.
“Kyndal has been a phenomenal vocal leader for us already,” Franklin said. “I knew she was a competitor and a confident athlete, so the added bonus to her being a vocal leader as well is a huge bonus for us.
“I’ll teach something and then make my way to the other end to make sure everyone is getting it and you can hear Kyndal vocalizing something I just taught. Having a leader like that on the floor for us will be an important as we figure our way through the transition.”
Underclassmen make up the bulk of the squad with sophomores Mackenzie Mason and Rose Haste and freshmen Melanie Davies, Jenna Day, Riley Huffman, Hailee Daigle, Brooke Hensley, Avery Ramsey, Kassidy Hackleman, Peyton Doss and Haelynn Everman bringing a fresh, if inexperienced, dynamic to the squad.
“We have an extremely talented group of freshman girls,” Franklin said. “As a whole group, I have been impressed with their basketball fundamentals.
“You can see that coach Terri Daigle and coach Amy Davies have put in a tremendous amount of work with this group. Early assessments are that we could possibly have three freshmen pushing for a role on the varsity team if they continue to progress.
“Melanie, Hailee and Jenna are all going to be tremendous basketball players,” Franklin added. “Each has their own strong skill but also have some holes they need to fill in their game before really getting significant varsity time.”
While there was plenty to be excited about, Franklin added it was going to take time to see a young squad with a young coach settle into place.
“We definitely need more time,” Franklin noted. “While some of the things they did last year are similar to what we would like to do this year, it really is a pretty different way of doing things.
“I feel like we were really getting things in order and everyone was getting on the same page. We went five-on-five live in practice and a lot of things went right out the window, which was to be expected after only a week of practice, but it also told me that this would be a process and that we just need to continue getting reps. We have essentially a brand new varsity squad, with most seeing major varsity minutes for the first time, working in a brand new system.
“We will have some pretty high peaks at times and some pretty low valleys,” Franklin added. “The important thing for me is to make sure they stay positive and doing the next right thing.
“Even our girls that saw varsity minutes last year are being asked to do a lot of things they didn’t do at all last year. We’ll keep pushing them to just get a little bit better each day and positive things will come.”
With five games to get ready to defend the first of last year’s titles, Franklin was looking for the players to get the hang of things in the early going before defending the county title.
“As a lifelong North Putnam guy that has coached boys’ basketball here for a long time, the Putnam County Tournament and playing county schools is a big deal to me,” Franklin said. “We definitely want to have some of the early season bugs worked out and be able to put a good product on the floor for the county tournament.
“I’m new to the girls’ side, and don’t know a lot about the other county schools yet, so early on I will need to lean on my coaching staff of coach Curtis Lawrence, coach Kelly Windmiller and coach Haley Weaver, all of whom were on last year’s staff.”
A reshaped Sectional No. 44 will tale place at McAnally Center this year as Greencastle joins the same field that made up the volleyball sectional just a few short weeks ago.
Regardless of the lack of familiar names for the rest of the teams to know, North Putnam remains the defending champions and Franklin said the squad had to be ready for the best each of the other six teams had to offer when they meet this season and in the postseason.
“That’s something I’ve talked to the girls about a few times now during practice,” Franklin said. “Even though we have basically an entirely different squad, the girls are the defending county and sectional champions.
“We will have a target on our back and people will be really looking forward to our game as one they want to get, so it’ll be important to understand we are going to get everyone’s best. From what I have seen out of us so far, we have the athletes that can compete at a high level.
“Our shooting will come around sooner rather than later though we don’t have a lot of size,” Franklin added. “For us to be playing our best basketball by the end of the season, we will need to learn to be the scrappier team and how we can use our speed and athleticism to counter our lack of size.”