Fort Recovery girls have high hopes

The Indians still carry the loss that ended their 2009-10 season with them.
Despite having lost captain and all-around leader Nicole Pottkotter to injury in the previous contest, Fort Recovery High School’s girls basketball team nearly took out Archbold (20-2). They ended up falling by a single point to the Blue Streaks, who also knocked them out of the volleyball, basketball and softball tournaments.
“That’s still a game we have bad memories of, because I thought that’s one we should have won,” said FRHS coach Doug Bihn, whose team opens its season Saturday at Memorial (St. Marys). “We were up one with 36 seconds left in the game and we ended up losing it.”
While that loss still hurts, the team needed to turn to other options with Pottkotter out. And those players came through.
“We’ve got some kids back who played some big-time minutes,” added Bihn of the game, “so hopefully that pays off this year.”
The 15-6 squad that lost Pottkotter (8.2 points per game, 6.4 rebounds, 55 assists, 53 steals, 15 blocks), Chelsea Leuthold (13.2 ppg, 5.2 rpg, 44 steals) and three other seniors, also returns two starters and six total players who saw action in at least 20 games last season.
The leaders among them are senior sisters Holly and Kendra Brunswick, who are two of four quadruplets, and Nicole Dilworth.
Kendra is the top returning scorer after putting in 9.9 points per game last year, and is also the returning leader in steals (37) and rebounds (3.0). Her team-leading 37 3-pointers a year ago were just seven short of the school record set by Holly Stein in 2006.
Holly, who came off the bench last season, led the team as she shot 49 percent from the field in 2009-10. She added a 78-percent mark from the foul line and scoring 8.9 points per contest.
“Kendra is a good leader,” said Bihn. “Two years ago she was a really good offensive player for us and not a very good defensive player. And she’s changed her game a lot. Now she’s one of our best defenders too. …
“Holly is by far the best athlete we’ve got in the program,” he added of the state qualifier in the high jump. “She’s pretty gifted. She shot 30,000 shots this summer, so she’s been in the gym a lot.”
Dilworth is the other returning starter and finished second behind Pottkotter with 42 assists last season.
She will run the point for the Indians in their fast-paced offense this year.
“Nicole Dilworth is going to be our floor leader,” said Bihn. “I don’t expect her to score a lot, but she’s going to be our point guard and get the ball where it needs to be and direct traffic.”
Other returning players include seniors Olivia Thien (4.4 ppg), Kelly Nietfeld (4.4 ppg, 2.7 rpg) and Abby Huelskamp (1.8 ppg). Varsity newcomers include Olivia Schwieterman, Ericka Lennartz and Kylie Kahlig.
“She’s a junior and we’re asking a lot out of her,” said Bihn of Kahlig, who helped lead the FRHS junior varsity squad to a 17-2 mark last season. “She’s got the tools. … She’s athletic, the strongest kid in the program.”
One of the biggest challenges for the Indians will be making up for its lack of size.
Fort Recovery wasn’t particularly tall last season, but got nearly 12 rebounds per game from then-seniors Pottkotter and Leuthold. The top returning rebounder is Kendra Brunswick at three per game.
“It’s not going to be any one person,” said Bihn of filling the rebounding void. “It’s going to be a group effort. I think Kendra and Kelly (Nietfeld) are going to help a bunch in that category. … As a team, we have to step up and take care of that.”
Bihn noted that his team will play much the same style as it has in recent years, looking to push the ball up and down the floor. They’ll play pressure defense in hopes of staying out of half-court situations.
He said he sees defending champion Marion Local, Minster and St. John’s — the three teams in the Indians finished behind last season — as the top competition in the Midwest Athletic Conference.
“We’d like to win the MAC like always,” Bihn said. “That’s always a goal of ours. This team would like to make a deep run in the tournament. …
“Our schedule is not very forgiving, and the league is just tremendous like always. Hopefully we can compete for a league title and we’ll go from there.”[[In-content Ad]]