A different mindset

It has been a rough decade.
Since posting double-digit wins during the 2000-01 season, the Starfires have lost 15 or more games in seven out of the last nine seasons. They have won just two sectional games in that span.
And they are coming off of a 2-18 campaign, in which they lost their last 10 games.
In order to change those results, first-year coach Brandon Bailey says, the South Adams High School girls basketball team will need to change its mentality.
“Our focus right now with the high school girls is not so much skill development, learning the offense, learning the defense,” Bailey said Monday. “Our focus is attitude. … We have to have the mindset that we're going in there to win. That’s the biggest thing that we’re trying to change with the girls.”
The first test of that mindset comes Thursday when the Starfires host Daleville at 6 p.m.
Bailey noted that the opener could be a key to how the early part of the season plays out.
“I think that game is significant because we turn around and play Blackford Saturday night,” said Bailey. The Bruins were 14-8 last season and beat SAHS by 34. “I think if we play well against Daleville, we’ll turn around and play differently than if we don’t play well against Daleville.
“It’s going to take winning a few games early on for them to really (get some confidence).
SAHS will take the court with a ton of new faces as the team returns just three players with varsity experience and only six who were part of the high school program a year ago.
The most experienced of the group is senior Katrina Hawkins. She scored 10 points in the Starfires’ win over Wes-Del last season.
Joining her are seniors Lindsey Graber and Taylor Farlow, juniors Lyndsey Chandler and Bailee Green, sophomore Kristen Muselman and freshmen Alyssa Bluhm, Dzejna Ahmetovic and Allison Amstutz. Ahmetovic, the team’s tallest player at 5 feet, 11 inches, and Farlow (5 feet, 10 inches) are the only players on the squad taller than 5 feet, 6 inches.
Bailey said he expects Hawkins, Chandler and Farlow to be his scoring leaders, with Muselman, a 5-foot-3-inch guard, also having a chance to make an impact.
“She is going to be one of the most important players,” he said. “Kristen is very fast and very athletic, aggressive, very instinctual. She is one of those who, if she doesn’t take a back seat, she could lead us in scoring.
“She’s just a ball player.”
Bailey has 15 years of coaching experience, including two years as the junior varsity boys coach at Tipton. He has also coached boys travel teams, and has been a coach and instructor at Spiece Fieldhouse in Fort Wayne.
He said he’s a “Knight follower” when it comes to his offense, using a motion system. He said he plans to use several different looks defensively.
“Defensively I’ve always been a very big stickler to man,” he added. “This year we’re going to play a mixture of everything. … We are very fast. We can use that to our advantage at the defensive end of the floor.”
Bailey said he would like to see his team make steps in the right direction.
The Starfires need to “beat the people we can beat”, and turn the two-to-three possession games from the last several seasons into wins. And, after losing 12 games by 15 or more points last season, he wants to see them close the gap and not allow games to get out of hand.
“We’re not going to measure success by wins and losses,” Bailey said.
“Our goal is to frustrate people and make noise and show them we’re here to play. … We want to make them play four quarters.”[[In-content Ad]]