Focus on finish

Having a senior-laden roster is a double-edged sword.

One year, the team is loaded with experience. The next, there’s a giant void to be filled.

Jay County High School’s girls basketball team is in the second half of that progression after graduating six players from its 2018-19 squad.

With just two seniors back and multiple underclassmen slated for starting roles, veteran coach Kirk Comer is focused as much as ever on his team’s improvement over the course of the season.

“Basically, it’s like starting over. We’re going to be young,” whose lone seniors are Hallie Fields and Macey Weitzel. “We’re going to have a lot of girls who don’t have a lot of experience playing on the varsity. I think it’s a team that will be fun to watch. But hopefully, because of the lack of experience, we’ll be a lot better at the end of the year than we are at the beginning.”

The six seniors who departed accounted for 81.9 percent (42.9 points per game) of the Patriots’ scoring last season. That group led JCHS to a 16-7 regular-season record and a sweep of the Allen County Athletic Conference regular-season and tournament titles.

Shelby Caldwell led the way with 18.3 points and 6.7 rebounds per game, followed by Kendra Muhlenkamp (8.9 ppg, 4.6 assists per game), Hannah Phillips (8 points per game and Hanna Dillon (8 ppg) along with Kendal Garringer and Clare Dirksen.

Comer will be counting on freshman Renna Schwieterman to take over a large chunk of that production.

She served as the leader for the East Jay Middle School squad that went 13-2 a year ago and racked up 23 points in the finale against South Adams.

“She’s just very athletic,” said Comer. “She’s a five-nine, five-10 wing. She can play the point. She can play the post. She can probably play all five positions. … She understands the game.”

Top returning scorers Madison Dirksen (5.7 ppg), a sophomore, and Fields (5.6 ppg) will also be looked upon for increased point production.

Junior Aubrie Schwieterman, Renna’s sister, and sophomore Isabel Rogers project as the other starters, with Pacie Denney, Grace Saxman and Weitzel expected to be the first three players off the bench.

With the need for new faces to carry the scoring load, Comer also plans to employ a new base defensive look. Typically a coach who likes to put pressure on and throw a variety of defenses at opponents, he said this year he’s going to a “pack line” system — pressure on the ball with the other four defenders dropped back to be in a better position to offer help.

“We’re going to try to guard inside out,” said Comer. “We did pretty well with it this summer. Hopefully, we can continue that throughout the season.”

Jay County will look to repeat as the ACAC champion after winning all of its regular-season conference games last year by double digits. Its only close game against a league foe came in the tournament in a 65-58 overtime win over Bluffton in the semifinal.

The Patriots will play five of their first six games, including the season opener against Alexandria and the conference opener against Woodlan, on the road. Then eight of its next 10 games, including the Dec. 7 title against state-line rival Fort Recovery, will be at home before the conference tournament will run Jan. 14 through 18.

With the changes in roster construction and defensive philosophy, the overall focus for JCHS has not changed.

“Our goal is the same every year,” said Comer. “We want to be playing our best basketball going into the tournament.”

His team had won 14 of 15 games last season heading into the New Castle sectional, where it topped Delta in the opening round before falling to the host Trojans in the semifinal. The tournament is back at the largest high school fieldhouse in the world this year with New Castle hosting Delta, Hamilton Heights, Muncie Burris, Winchester, Yorktown and the Patriots.

“We want to win the conference,” said Comer. “We want to win the conference tournament. … And we want to win the sectional.

“I think our sectional this year is very even.”