JC seeks tourney success

For the second straight season, the Patriots will have a different coach, a different offense, a different defense. They are still hoping for similar regular-season results, but with a more satisfying ending.
Jay County High School’s girls basketball team has won at least 12 games in each of its last eight seasons, a pattern new coach Chris Krieg said he hopes to continue this year. “And one of my goals is to put ourselves in position to compete for a sectional championship,” he added. “My goal is to get into the sectional championship game.”
Despite winning a combined 52 games over the last three seasons, that tournament success has eluded the Patriots. They have been knocked out in the first round in each of the last two seasons and won their last sectional title in 2006.
Their quest to reach their goals begins Tuesday, when they visit four-time defending sectional champion Fort Wayne South Side for their season-opener.
With the coaching change and the loss of their lone senior from last season, Pazia Speed, the Patriots will have a decidedly different feel this year.
Speed, who now plays at Huntington University, was the catalyst for everything JCHS did last season. She led the team in scoring (14.8 points per game), assists (96), steals (57) and 3-pointers (30) while adding 4.2 rebounds per game.
Jay County’s personnel this year will lead to have a more balanced attack.
“I’ve got three girls who can shoot the ball pretty well,” said Krieg. “I’ve got three girls who are pretty good inside. We have a great point guard that can handle the basketball. …
“Those three you’ve got to have to be successful, and we have them.”
The group includes seniors Cara Garringer and Katie Butcher, Erin Hunt and Danielle Link, and juniors Kassi Hemmelgarn, Mariah Hornaday, Maria Murphy, Mollie May, LeAnn Horn and Tiffany Huelskamp.
Garringer was lost for the 2009-10 season when she tore the Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) in her right knee during the second half of the season opener, and  Butcher played about half of the season before suffering a similar injury during practice.
“Butcher is a lot farther along than Garringer,” said Krieg, noting that Garringer was cleared to practice fully on Oct. 27. “Our goal is to have Cara 100 percent come Jan. 1.
“Those two will play, obviously, a major part in us being successful.”
With Garringer and Butcher out last year, other players were forced to play key roles. Hemmelgarn benefited greatly from the extended minutes, making impressive strides throughout the season and finishing second to Speed in assists (47) and steals (17).
Krieg says Hemmelgarn, who will be his starting point guard, has continued that improvement throughout the offseason.
“I don’t think I have a better skilled basketball player than Kassi Hemmelgarn,” he said. “She’s quick, can handle the ball, shoots the ball really well … She’s improved her game a lot from last year at this point to where she’s at now. … She’s worked hard on her game.”
Hornaday, who also saw big minutes as a sophomore last season, is the retuning leader in points (8.6 per game) and rebounds (6.9). Link (31 blocks) and Murphy join her as the team’s inside threats.
Garringer, a guard, hit 39 percent of her 3-pointers and averaged 5.6 points per game during her sophomore season. She was expected to help carry the scoring load last year before suffering her injury.
Hunt is another 3-point threat after hitting 25 a year ago, and Butcher brings toughness as she had 15 steals and 37 rebounds in her 12 games in 2009-10.
All three of those guards can also handle the point when Hemmelgarn is off the floor, and Krieg said the group as a whole will make life difficult on teams who try to apply full-court pressure. And he also thinks his team will have the opportunity to harass opposing teams on the defensive end.
“You’re going to see a lot of man-to-man half-court … and full-court chasing and trapping,” said Krieg. “We are extremely quick.”
On the offensive side, he plans on using a system similar to what he ran as the JCHS junior varsity boys coach under Craig Teagle for the last nine seasons. It’ll be a motion offense with a lot of screening and cutting, but it will also focus on taking advantage of the height of Hornaday and Link inside.
Krieg said thus far the transition to his new system — he takes over for Luke Cummings, who followed Kirk Comer and led the program for one year before leaving to become an assistant men’s coach at the University of St. Francis — has gone well.
“So far, so good. It’s very helpful, because most of the girls knew me. I’m not an outsider coming in,” said Krieg, who is in his 16th year teaching at JCHS and was also the junior varsity girls coach under Lea Selvey from 1997 through 2000. “It’s been a good transition for me.
“The girls have been just (great). They’ve worked hard. …
“It’s been a pleasure and an honor be around them.”[[In-content Ad]]