By Chris Bennett
Correspondent
The Elkhorn Area High School girls basketball team is getting smaller this season. Hopefully their win total doesn’t follow the same trend.
Last season coach Jim Henriott and the Elks relied on a twin towers concept and, predominantly, a half-court game anchored by Emily Schahzinski and Grace Ames.
Schahzinski earned First-Team All Southern Lakes Conference honors. Ames earned second-team all-SLC honors.
Henriott also lost senior reserve Allie Kolacke, and senior team managers Rebecca Russell and Emily Grobelny also moved on.
The Elks finished 11-12 overall and 9-5 in the grueling SLC last season. Badger won the conference title (11-3).
What’s important to note is the way the Elks gelled towards the end of the year. The Elks were 2-7 Jan. 1 and went 9-5 over the remainder of the season.
This season, Henriott said the Elks hope to run and push the ball up the court. But even in that situation there is a problem. The Elks feature only one player over 5-foot-10-inches tall – Bianca Trombley.
“We’re not very big,” Henriott said. We’re going to have to try and push the tempo a little more. To be able to do that, we need to rebound the basketball.”
Given that they’re a team of guards and shooters, perhaps the Elks will be the beneficiary of longer rebounds. Guard play will be strength of the Elks in the coming season.
After a recent scrimmage against Mukwonago, Henriott said the Elks lack of height is obvious, but not their lack of speed. Look for the Elks to run more of a motion offense based on the guard play of Allyson Reeves, Lauren Johnson, Jessica Hauser and Erin Schahzinski.
“Bigger teams will give us fits,” Henriott said. “We’re just not very big. We’ll definitely play more zone (defense) and help more in the post area.”
Henriott said he also expects significant minutes from Anne Blackbourne, Hannah Grobelny, Audrey Entwistle, Taylor Lockhart and Gabby Trewyn.
As for the Southern Lakes Conference, Henriott said he expects Wilmot to be the favorite, and said Lake Geneva Badger will be tough due to strong guard play. Henriott also singled out Waterford and Union Grove as teams to watch.
“I think it’ll be like it was a year ago,” Henriott said, “where on any given night, anyone can beat anybody.”
Elkhorn opened its season Nov. 20 in a non-conference game at Oregon. Details will be available in next week’s edition of The Independent.
The Elks play Milton Nov. 27 in a non-conference game at home and open their SLC season Nov. 30 at home against Waterford.
