WOODWARD — Graduation losses and an injury will change the look of the Woodward-Granger girls basketball team this season, with head coach Gary Dresback admitting that those changes will have an impact on how the team will approach their games.
“We want to crank it up as much as we can,” Dresback said. “We do not have much height at all — hardly any serious size — so we do not want to end up in a slow-it-down half-court game where the other team can just dump it inside.
“We will try and press and will use a half-court trap at times, too,” he added. “The goal will be to speed up the pace the best we can. Now, that means we are probably going to turn the ball over some and throw it off the wall at times, but that is how we can be successful.”
Junior Mary Hansen is the top returning scorer and rebounder for the Hawks, who finished 12-11 overall and 9-7 in WCC play. Hansen averaged nearly 8.5 points and 4.5 rebounds per game as a sophomore.
“We will need Mary’s numbers to go up and I am confident they will,” Dresback said. “She is athletic and is probably more suited to the style of play we want to use this year, so this might just be the thing for her.”
Juniors Riley Jamison, Miranda Aunspach and Kendra Huisman bring some experience to the lineup, as does junior Riley Kirton. Other juniors out for W-G include Sara Smiley, Lisa Pitman and Maggi Mallon, with sophomores Alyssa Bice and Kaitlyn Peters also playing this fall. Freshmen Alissa Smeltzer, Kayley Dresback, Cierra DeHoet, Megan Burkhart, Anna Tague and Josie Nieland round out a lineup that features only one senior — Emily Kuehl.
“Some good speed left us, but we are still, at worst, reasonably athletic and I think we will shoot the ball better than we have,” Dresback said. “Speeding things up does not mean losing our minds and playing out of control. We want to create more possessions and turn those into points and I think we can.”
Dresback will not have long to wait to see how his team looks in competition as the season opens Friday with a non-conference trip to CMB. The Hawks will then have over a week off before they join the W-G boys for WCC doubleheaders at West Central Valley Dec. 1 and at Des Moines Christian Dec. 4. W-G is at home just twice before the Christmas break, with WCC dates against Van Meter Dec. 11 and Ogden Dec. 15.
“I think people might look at us and see what we lost and wonder if we can have a winning season,” Dresback said. “We don’t see it that way and are eager to show people what we can do.”
