Tribe returns experienced group

FORT RECOVERY — The Indians are no different than most teams.
They have to replace players lost to graduation.
What the Fort Recovery High School girls basketball team is using to its advantage, however, is a host of players, both young and old, who saw time in nearly every game last season.
“It’s nice to have experience that is young,” said second-year FRHS girls coach Brian Patch, who coached the Tribe boys for more than a decade before making the switch at the beginning of last season. “But at the same time, when you lose senior leadership, that is a lot to replace as well.”
Patch is referring to Tori Lennartz and Cassidy Rammel, who were four- and three-year starters for the Indians. Lennartz, a first-team all-Midwest Athletic Conference selection, led the Tribe (17-7) with 11.5 points per game last season. She now plays for Saginaw Valley State University.
“I don’t think any one person can replace her from her scoring,” Patch said. Lennartz was also second on the team in rebounds (5.2), and led the team in 3-point shooting (49 percent). “She did a lot for us on the floor (including) her presence of being able to calm us down when things got going tough.”
Rammel, who moved away from the post to become more of an outside shooter as a senior, averaged 3.6 points per game. She now plays volleyball for University of Saint Francis.
“We put her in a role she was more comfortable with — being an outside shooter — and she was really good at that role,” said Patch, whose team hosts St. Marys in its season opener Saturday.
Tasked with replacing them will be a core of five players who combined to miss just two of the team’s 24 games last season.
Second-team all-conference players Kendra Siefring, a senior, and junior Jocelyn Kaiser return as the team’s highest scoring players. Siefring, who will play college volleyball at Ohio Dominican University, averaged 9.2 points per game from her role down low, and Kaiser had 7.9 points from the wing. Additionally, Siefring grabbed a team-high 5.3 rebounds per game, and Kaiser led the squad with 69 assists (2.8 per game).
“Kendra has gotten better over this past year,” Patch said. “She has really developed and started coming into her own. Her leadership is going to definitely be an asset for us.
“She is a leader. Kids look up to her and respect her. She works especially hard in practice. That is great when your leader works as hard as anyone out there.”
Patch said Kaiser is a gym rat and she will do anything she can to help make the team better.
“Those are two great leaders to have and two great players to start filling that void,” he said.
Patch tabbed sophomore Carley Stone as the starting point guard after she scored 3.4 points per game and totaled 25 assists as a freshman. The youngster only missed two games, splitting time between swimming and basketball. This year she opted to stay out of the pool and focus solely on hoops.
Grace Thien, Stone’s classmate and an all-MAC honorable mention player in 2014-15, scored 5.5 points per game and was one of four Tribe players to average more than 20 minutes per game. Patch said she will be on the wing with Kaiser.
Whitney Will, a junior, joins Siefring in the post. She had 5.6 and 3.4 rebounds per game as a sophomore.
With those starting five, as well as reserve players Mikayla Post (senior), Audra Metzger (junior), Claire Metzger (sophomore), Chloe Metzger (sophomore) and Kiah Wendel (freshman), Patch is hoping to improve on the 5-4 conference record from last season.
“The thing is you have to control your own destiny,” he said. “You can’t rely on anybody else to do your work for you, so we have to go out every Thursday night and win those games.
“Obviously every game is going to be challenge in its on way. The main thing is just worrying about us, not worrying so much about what the other teams do, but worrying about what we do.”
 Patch and the Indians open the season at 6 p.m. Saturday against Wapakoneta, and then host defending MAC and Division IV district champion Marion Local on Dec. 3.
The Tribe moves up to Division III this season, and Patch thinks the always tough MAC schedule will help his squad in the postseason. The district also includes Coldwater and St. Henry, which were sixth and eighth respectively in the conference behind the fourth-place Indians.
Fort Recovery plays the Versailles Tigers, who won the Division III state championship last season, Jan. 14 in Versailles.
“We can use the conference to get us prepared for a tournament run,” Patch said. “We just have to be able to come out, guard people, we have to take care of the basketball, get a high percentage shot and be able to score.”