Jay girls open Thursday

The Patriots won 20 games last season.
They were perfect in conference games.
They were runners-up in sectional, falling to the second-best team in the state, Homestead.
When the Jay County High School girls basketball team opens its season at Monroe Central on Thursday, four key pieces to that team will be on the court.
And a familiar face returns to the sideline with a simple goal: Get better every day.
“I don’t really have a goal as far as how many wins we want to get,” said JCHS coach Kirk Comer, who returns to Jay County for his second stint after Chris Krieg left for the Patriot boys’ job.
Comer coached the Patriots from 2004 to 2009 before leaving for the same position at Winchester, where he won regional titles in each of his two seasons.
He then led the Union City boys for a season, was an assistant coach for the Winchester boys for two seasons before leading the Monroe Central girls to a sectional title a year ago.
“Obviously we want to win the (Allen County Athletic) conference and want to win sectional,” he said. “As long as we’re playing the best basketball at the end of the year then it will be a successful season.”
To have such a season, the Patriots will count on four upperclassmen that were a critical part of the 20-7 record from a year ago.
Seniors Abby Wendel and Ava Kunkler were second and fifth respectively in terms of scoring, and in the top three for rebounds. Wendel’s 9.3 points per game were behind only Catherine Dunn (9.6), who graduated and now plays for Brescia University in Kentucky.
Kunkler averaged 4.5 points per game, which was fourth, but her 6.3 rebounds led the team. Wendel was third with slightly more than four boards per game.
The pair will once again be in the starting lineup at the shooting guard and center positions, and classmate Lyla Muhlenkamp (2 PPG) will reprise her role as the first option off the bench.
“They are great leaders,” Comer said of the senior trio. “They work extremely hard. They are going to be successful in life.
“They’re great kids and I’m excited to spend a year with them.”
Taylor Homan’s 6.6 points per game last season was fourth on the team, and the junior is penciled in as the starting small forward.
“Taylor is a really good shooter,” Comer said. “She has been battling some hip soreness. She is battling through it. Hopefully we can get her back to 100 percent because we need her athletic ability in there.”
Homan had a hot hand in the tournament last season, exploding for a career-high 20 points in a sectional semifinal win over Fort Wayne South Side.
“She is going to be a good offensive player (and) a good defensive player,” Comer said.
Emily Muhlenkamp, a junior, and sophomore Hanna Ault will round out the starting lineup and point guard and power forward respectively. Ault averaged 2.5 points as a freshman, playing in all but one game for the Patriots. Muhlenkamp only scored six points on six shots last year, but Comer said he is expecting more out of her this season.
“She will be the one running our offense and getting the ball where it needs to go,” he said. “She is a very good offensive player as well so we expect her to have a great year.
“We have to get her to shoot the ball more. She is a great shooter but she doesn’t look for a shot. We need to start getting her to look for a shot more.”
Offensively, Comer said he will continue Krieg’s mindset of getting the best shot possible, but his version will go about it differently.
“We are going to try to get teams to turn the ball over where we can get some layups,” he said, adding that on defense the Patriots will press and trap more often than they did in the past. “We want to play in the open court rather than half court.”
The offense will also be a little more up-tempo, so a number of different players will see time on the court. The reserves include juniors Britlyn Dues, Kyndal Miller and Audrey Shreve, sophomore Briana Muhlenkamp and freshman Shelby Caldwell.
“They are all going to be girls we count on,” Comer said. “We are going to need people to come off the bench to give girls rest, and when they come in they have to be able to stay at the same level and not drop off.”
The Patriots play six of their first seven games on the road, then are at home for eight of their next nine contests.
The road swing includes the season opener at Monroe Central, Comer’s former team. Two days later Jay County travels to play Heritage before hosting Union City on Nov. 17. Then it has road games at Bellmont, Winchester, Woodlan and Delta to close out November.
The Patriots play at home the first three games of December against South Side, New Castle and new sectional opponent Muncie Central before going back on the road at Adams Central on Dec. 11. Five consecutive home games — Blackford, South Adams, Fort Recovery, Concordia and Bluffton — lead into the ACAC tournament, which begins Jan. 12.
Jay County closes its home schedule with back-to-back weekday games against Pendelton Heights and Muncie Burris, before ending the regular season on the road at Southern Wells and Richmond.