Kokomo —
Northwestern’s girls basketball team ended last season well-positioned to bounce back from a rare losing campaign. A lot of veterans were expected back to a squad that finished 9-11, breaking a string of six straight winning seasons.
Then a wrench was thrown into that scenario as five-year coach Todd Miller decided to step down after five seasons in the program.
Like any good cat though, the Purple Tigers landed on their feet.
Northwestern welcomes former Tri-Central and Western coach Kathie Layden to take over for Miller. Layden guided TC to state titles in 2003, 2004 and 2005. After getting a look at the Tiger program, Layden realized she’d landed on her feet as well.
“I’ve been extremely excited about getting started with these girls,” she said. “I thought we had a good summer and I feel like that’s carried over into the start of our season.
“The girls are working really hard and I know we’re throwing a lot of new things at them. Fundamentally, you can tell they’re well coached. As a coach to come into a new program and have girls that are so fundamentally sound, it’s exciting.”
Back to the program are 5-11 senior post Hannah Treadway (who averaged 7.8 points per game and 6.4 rebounds last season), 5-9 senior post Erin Kesler (3.4 ppg, 3.4 rpg), 5-4 senior point guard Kaitlynd Lear (3.5 ppg, 2.3 rpg, 1.2 assists), 5-7 junior guard Olivia McClure (1.3 ppg, 1.2 rpg), 5-8 junior forward Arika Richey, 5-6 junior guard Kelsey Richards, 5-6 sophomore guard Sydney Zeck, 5-8 sophomore guard Sydney Wells, and 5-6 sophomore guard Marie Hunkeler.
In addition, the team gets back 5-7 senior point guard Addison Dubbels, a former starter who missed all of last season due to injury. Dubbels averaged 5.3 points, 2.9 rebounds, 3 assists and 3.4 steals as a sophomore. A new face is 6-0 freshman post Brooke Treadway, who made an instant impact in summer play.
Treadway, Lear, Kesler and McClure each played in every game last season.
Treadway and Kesler are likely to start in the post, but elsewhere Layden wants to see a lot of combinations on the perimeter before settling on a starting five.
Layden is happy about having a squad with eight upperclassmen to guide the team on the floor.
“We’ve got great leadership and to be honest I feel like we have a pretty good balance between different types of players. We’ve got some strength in the post, we’ve got some shooters. Fundamentally our ballhandling is decent. I feel like honestly, we’re excited and ready to start playing some games.”
Layden has the athleticism on the squad to put an emphasis on disruptive defense.
“I’m a big pressure-the-ball and get-out-and-deny-in-the-passing-lanes-type coach so we want to play a lot of man to man and pressure,” she said. “With that being said though, obviously we’re going to try to adjust game by game to see what we need to do. We’ve got quickness, so we want to try to push the ball up the floor and make the other team run with us.”
Sports
Girls hoops preview: Layden inherits veteran roster at Northwestern
Purple Tigers feature eight upperclassmen as season gets under way
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Barnes sets Taylor's career hits record
Taylor baseball standout Logan Barnes made his final game at George Phares Field one to remember.
Barnes pitched four solid innings to lead Taylor past Monroe Central 9-3 Tuesday. In addition, he went 2 for 3 at the plate, pushing his career hits total to a school-record 142. -
Kats drop heartbreaker
When the postseason arrives, emotions surge like a roller-coaster. One minute, it’s a long uphill, then a wild series of events offer a barrage of frights and thrills. And then, for one team, the ride ends and there aren’t any more tickets for another go around.
After two days of chills and thrills, Kokomo’s softball team ran out of tickets Tuesday night in the Class 4A Harrison Sectional. The Kats dropped a 4-3 decision to Harrison in eight innings, giving up a run in the top of the extra frame, and having a runner tagged out at home in the bottom of the frame.
“It was a great game,” Harrison coach Dick Mitchell said. “It’s always nerve-wracking to coach in one of them, but both teams played their hearts out. Nobody deserved to lose that game, but unfortunately somebody does.” -
Comets turn heads at track regional
Heading into Tuesday’s IHSAA girls track and field regional at Fort Wayne Northrop High School’s Spuller Stadium, event workers alike weren’t sure of Eastern High School’s location.
After the dust settled, they may feel compelled to get a map out and find out where Greentown is located.
Led by seniors Sarah Wagner, Brittany Neeley and Bethany Neeley, the Comets qualified for the state finals in six separate events to finish fourth as a team with 55.5 points, behind host and champion Northrop (78), Bellmont (68) and Carroll (Allen) 66. -
GASKINS: Hibbert’s block was thing of beauty
For the better part of the NBA season, ESPN devoted all kinds of time on SportsCenter episodes to replays of two dunks. Anyone who watches any ESPN at all surely knows the two to which I’m referring: 6-foot-11 DeAndre Jordan of the Los Angeles Clippers posterizing 6-3 Brandon Knight of the Detroit Pistons, and 6-8 LeBron James of the Miami Heat hammering home a dunk over 6-2 Jason Terry of the Boston Celtics.
Day after day, ESPN commentators lavished endless praise, which quickly grew tiresome. The dunks were strong, but Jordan and James were much taller and heavier than Knight and Terry and the dunkers also caught perfect alley-oop passes with the defenders in poor positions to defend. Still, ESPN commentators loved these plays.
I kept wondering if a great defensive play would receive the same kind of love. -
Coons, Walker, Glassburn reach Victory Lane
When the dust settled Sunday evening at the Kokomo Speedway, a pair of drivers who have visited Victory Lane in the past at the local oval found themselves there once again while a talented up-and-comer hit the hallowed ground for the first time.
Jerry Coons Jr. had his way in the sprint car feature and Craig Walker seemed to get faster as the laps wound down to win the Street Stock main event, however Kokomo High School sophomore Kory Glassburn had to scratch and fight before scoring the first feature win of his career in the Thunder Car A-main. -
Field is set for Indianapolis 500
After being bumped from the starting field while sitting on the qualifying line on pole day, Josef Newgarden turned the fastest time on bump day, assuring himself a spot in the Indianapolis 500.
The field of 33 cars will have one final opportunity to practice on Friday before next Sunday’s 97th running of the 500.
One year ago the Sarah Fisher Racing Team withdrew Newgarden’s entry on the first day of qualifying and had to qualify on bump day. This year the team decided not to make another qualifying run and got bumped. -
Athlete of the week
Cole led the small-school Comets to the Kokomo Sectional title, their first title since 1998.
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Kats regain tennis throne
At 10:51 a.m. Saturday morning, the bulk of Kokomo’s girls tennis team sprinted from the viewing hill to the east entrance of the tennis courts to mob No. 1 singles player Morgan Mohr as she came off the court following her 1-6, 6-1, 6-1 victory over Eastern’s Courtney Clark.
The No. 3 singles match was still raging, but the team match was already won. The Wildkats had reconquered the throne from two-time defending champion Eastern and were once again champions of the Kokomo Sectional. -
Eastern boys track claims first sectional title since 1998
The boys track and field coach at Eastern High School from 1987 until last season, Paul Nicholson’s parting message to his team was simple: “Don’t deny the gift.”
That motto left such a lasting impression on the Comets’ returning athletes that they had it screen printed on their 2013 season T-shirts.
With Nicholson in attendance to celebrate with them, new coach Austin Roark and the Comets outlasted host Kokomo to win their first sectional title since 1998 Thursday night, topping the Wildkats by 3.5 points, 124.5-121.
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Eastern, Kokomo favored in boys track sectional
Some of the names and faces have changed, but the plot remains much the same.
The Kokomo boys track and field sectional, much like last year, will likely be a two-horse race between the host and three-time defending champion Wildkats and Eastern, a team looking to break through and win its first sectional title since 1998. - More Sports Headlines
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