The Mail-Journal, Volume 22, Number 49, Milford, Kosciusko County, 4 December 1985 — Page 22

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LADY WARRIORS — Pictured are members of the 1985-86 Wawasee girls’ varsity basketball team. In front, from left to right, are Manager Heidi Young, Traci Ostendorf, Ann Vitaniemi, Kelly Brooks, Wendy Lung, Heidi Brower, Lai Reed and Manager Cindy Nelson.

Lady Warriors looking for best five

ByDAVESTRAUB Sports Editor This most recent edition of the Lady Warriors will find last year’s act tough to follow. Though they have registered two early wins over Fairfield and Penn, Coach Dale Brannock knows he has to polish his fine

On the Cover Reserve Center Kelly Brooks banks in an easy two points in Wawasee’s opener against Fairfield. She and the rest of the 1985-86 Lady Warriors basketball team hope to recapture last year’s excitement with Wawasee finishing as state runner-up. (Photo by Dave Straub.)

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product a little bit more before reaching perfection. Perfection is a difficult thing to achieve. Pleasing Brannock may seem more difficult. “I’m never pleased,” he often says, but when you have a< five-year coaching record of 93-18, you can be as picky as you want. And that quality carries over to his teams. It certainly did last year when Wawasee won 23 of 25 games as well as taking sectional, regional and semi-state honors — not to mention a state runners-up trophy. The Lady Warriors also have to defend a Northern Lakes Conference championship. This year, the talent is there. The potential is there. But there has to be a learning process since there is some inexperience in the back court. “Right now, I think I could put five pretty good people on the

In back Are Assistant Coach Jim Hite, Becca Stiver, Michelle Harter, Head Coach Dale Brannock, Lori Galloway, Shelley Brumbaugh, Belinda Whitridge and Assistant Coach Barb Brouwer-Smith.

floor,” said Brannock. “But we’re probably not as smart as last year, so we’ll start slow.” Much of that intelligence departed when the Lady Warriors lost Anita Swope, Sandy Payne, Christy Speicher, Karla Stichter and Sheila Kleinrichert. Experience is never easy to replace. However, there are some quality players who can take up some of the slack. Top returnees include Senior Forward/Guard Michelle Harter, who averaged 10.2 points per game; Center Lori Galloway, who scored 8.1 points an outing and Guard Becca Stiver, who was one of the first players off the bench last year and contributed good floor leading skills. “I’m set with three people,” said Brannock. “But after that, I can’t tell you who our other two starters are going to be at this point.” Others who have seen plenty of action to this point are Junior Forward Ann Vitaniemi, Junior Center Kelly Brooks, Senior Guard Belinda Whitridge, Senior Forward Shelley Brumbaugh, Senior Guard Traci Ostendorf and Sophomore Guard Lai Reed. Other reserves are Junior Forward Heidi Brower, Senior Center Pam Foyle and Sophomore Guard Wendy Lung. There will be plenty of competition for these open spots.

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Already, Brannock has played just about everyone in the first two contests to get a good look at his material. His plan is to give quality time to as many players possible. This will help Wawasee down the stretch. “We’ll know by Christmas what type of team we will be,” Brannock reasoned. “We’ve got a pretty good nucleus of players but there are a lot of question marks. We’re big in size and we’ll try different things.” The coach warned that these “different” things will be tried at a deliberate pace. “I prefer to run five to six different offenses and five to six different defenses,” he said. “We’D rely on two of each right now. Teaching them all of that stuff will be too much for them to get established.” As for now, Brannock is still searching for the best mixture of

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talent and what style of play will best suit it. “We got a lot of points off the break last year,” he said. “We were very quick and we ran it well, but we’ll have to see what works best for us this year. ”

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