July 23, 2014 at 2:10 p.m.
Fort sports a deep roster
FRHS girls basketball
Fort sports a deep roster
Doug Bihn has 11 players on his varsity roster. And he fully intends on using them all.
With a squad lacking in overall height, Bihn said his Fort Recovery High School girls basketball team will look to wear opponents down with an up tempo game.
"Right now, honestly, we've got 11 girls dressing and all 11 I'm pretty confident can play for us," said Bihn, whose team opens its season at home Saturday against Memorial (St. Marys) at 6 p.m. "We're going to be pretty deep.
"We're going to push the ball. We want to pretty much press every possession. We're deep enough that we can do that so we might as well take advantage of it. ... We lack a little bit of size, but we make up for it in speed."
Coming back from last season's 16-6 sectional championship squad to lead the high-octane attack are seniors Nicole Pottkotter and Chelsea Leuthold.
Pottkotter was the Indians' leader in steals (41), 3-pointers (24) and free-throw percentage (76) last season. She also leaders all returning players in points (7.8 per game), assists (34) and blocks (nine).
Leuthold matched Pottkotter with 7.8 points per game last season, which was second only to then-senior Joanna Snyder's 12.8. She is the returning leader in rebounding (4.2) and field-goal percentage (45).
"They're both great leaders," said Bihn of Pottkotter and Leuthold, who will each be in their third year as starters. "They've been through this thing enough times that they know what to do. ... The kids look up to them. They're both pretty good shooters, pretty good defenders. They're going to see a lot of minutes for us."
Two other returning players, juniors Kendra Brunswick and Nicole Dilworth, saw action in every varsity game last season. Brunswick hit 19 3-pointers and averaged 6.2 points per game, and Dilworth finished with 33 assists and 26 steals.
Seniors Emily May (13 steals), Alyssa Brackman (18 assists) and Kelsey Brockman also saw varsity minutes last season.
The Indians also lost six seniors from the 2008-09 squad. Snyder had team highs of 5.2 rebounds per game and 68 assists last year as she earned Co-Midwest Athletic Conference Player of the Year honors.
"We lost a lot with the senior group that we graduated, but we've got a pretty good group coming back," said Bihn, whose roster also includes juniors Holly Brunsiwck, Abby Huelskamp and Olivia Thien, and sophomore Kelly Nietfeld. "They have a lot of experience."
Fort Recovery has been a successful group over the last decade, winning at least 13 games in nine of the last 10 seasons. Bihn has racked up 30 wins in his two seasons, and the Tribe has won 73 percent of its games in the last six years under he and Jeff Roessner.
The Indians nearly won their first district title since 2001 - that team, coached by Bihn's sister Lynn Hughes, made it to the regional championship - but saw a 14-point first-quarter lead slip away. They still led by as many as nine in the fourth quarter before falling 48-46 to the co-MAC champion St. John's Blue Jays on a Victoria Recker lay-up with six seconds left.
Bihn said every team's goal is a run to the state finals, but before that the Tribe is setting the MAC title as its target. FRHS fell just short of that goal last season, finishing one game behind New Bremen and St. John's at 7-2 in the league.
"We wanted to win the MAC a year ago and didn't quite get it done," said Bihn. "So we're going to start there and see where things take us.
"Rebounding is going to be one of the things we really have to emphasize this year because of our lack of size.
"We have to make sure we have kids going to the glass every time."
While mentioning rebounding and taking care of the basketball as keys, the Indians' signature will be their defense. They will try to force the opposition into mistakes and use their deep roster to gain an advantage late in games.
"We're going to have to go a lot more full court ... a lot more run-and-jump, pressing," said Bihn. "The tempo is going to be a lot quicker than it was a year ago.
"We've got quite a few (players) who just need to understand what their role is and they can help us tremendously. ... If they can give us four points a night it'll be a tremendous help if they can do the things on the defensive end that they're supposed to be doing for us.
"They're a fun group to coach. They really are. I expect big things out of this group."[[In-content Ad]]
With a squad lacking in overall height, Bihn said his Fort Recovery High School girls basketball team will look to wear opponents down with an up tempo game.
"Right now, honestly, we've got 11 girls dressing and all 11 I'm pretty confident can play for us," said Bihn, whose team opens its season at home Saturday against Memorial (St. Marys) at 6 p.m. "We're going to be pretty deep.
"We're going to push the ball. We want to pretty much press every possession. We're deep enough that we can do that so we might as well take advantage of it. ... We lack a little bit of size, but we make up for it in speed."
Coming back from last season's 16-6 sectional championship squad to lead the high-octane attack are seniors Nicole Pottkotter and Chelsea Leuthold.
Pottkotter was the Indians' leader in steals (41), 3-pointers (24) and free-throw percentage (76) last season. She also leaders all returning players in points (7.8 per game), assists (34) and blocks (nine).
Leuthold matched Pottkotter with 7.8 points per game last season, which was second only to then-senior Joanna Snyder's 12.8. She is the returning leader in rebounding (4.2) and field-goal percentage (45).
"They're both great leaders," said Bihn of Pottkotter and Leuthold, who will each be in their third year as starters. "They've been through this thing enough times that they know what to do. ... The kids look up to them. They're both pretty good shooters, pretty good defenders. They're going to see a lot of minutes for us."
Two other returning players, juniors Kendra Brunswick and Nicole Dilworth, saw action in every varsity game last season. Brunswick hit 19 3-pointers and averaged 6.2 points per game, and Dilworth finished with 33 assists and 26 steals.
Seniors Emily May (13 steals), Alyssa Brackman (18 assists) and Kelsey Brockman also saw varsity minutes last season.
The Indians also lost six seniors from the 2008-09 squad. Snyder had team highs of 5.2 rebounds per game and 68 assists last year as she earned Co-Midwest Athletic Conference Player of the Year honors.
"We lost a lot with the senior group that we graduated, but we've got a pretty good group coming back," said Bihn, whose roster also includes juniors Holly Brunsiwck, Abby Huelskamp and Olivia Thien, and sophomore Kelly Nietfeld. "They have a lot of experience."
Fort Recovery has been a successful group over the last decade, winning at least 13 games in nine of the last 10 seasons. Bihn has racked up 30 wins in his two seasons, and the Tribe has won 73 percent of its games in the last six years under he and Jeff Roessner.
The Indians nearly won their first district title since 2001 - that team, coached by Bihn's sister Lynn Hughes, made it to the regional championship - but saw a 14-point first-quarter lead slip away. They still led by as many as nine in the fourth quarter before falling 48-46 to the co-MAC champion St. John's Blue Jays on a Victoria Recker lay-up with six seconds left.
Bihn said every team's goal is a run to the state finals, but before that the Tribe is setting the MAC title as its target. FRHS fell just short of that goal last season, finishing one game behind New Bremen and St. John's at 7-2 in the league.
"We wanted to win the MAC a year ago and didn't quite get it done," said Bihn. "So we're going to start there and see where things take us.
"Rebounding is going to be one of the things we really have to emphasize this year because of our lack of size.
"We have to make sure we have kids going to the glass every time."
While mentioning rebounding and taking care of the basketball as keys, the Indians' signature will be their defense. They will try to force the opposition into mistakes and use their deep roster to gain an advantage late in games.
"We're going to have to go a lot more full court ... a lot more run-and-jump, pressing," said Bihn. "The tempo is going to be a lot quicker than it was a year ago.
"We've got quite a few (players) who just need to understand what their role is and they can help us tremendously. ... If they can give us four points a night it'll be a tremendous help if they can do the things on the defensive end that they're supposed to be doing for us.
"They're a fun group to coach. They really are. I expect big things out of this group."[[In-content Ad]]
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