Taylor’s girls basketball team is going to look a lot like teams from last decade when the Titans won 20 games or more five times in a seven-season span from 2003-04 to 2009-10. But it’ll take a lot of time and growing pains to get there.
Long-serving coach Dennis Bentzler said this Titan squad has the athleticism to press and run. However a young team with several freshmen won’t be able to impose its will instantly.
“For the first time in my 20 years, we don’t have a senior,” Bentzler said. “We’re going to be extremely young. We’re going to bring six, seven of those freshmen to the varsity level. It’s a good group and we’re going to mix them right in with the older kids and we’re going to go back to the 2002-03 group. We’re kind of excited about that.”
Bentzler explained that the 2002-03 team was also young but eventually sparked a successful run.
“This group, they know how to play, it’s just the fact that maturity-wise, physically, we’re going to be outmanned a little bit, but we’re going to continue to press and run and go back to what we do best,” Bentzler said.
He said that in recent seasons, with different strengths on his team, he’d had to go to a style that was more about a controlled, halfcourt tempo. This team will play more to his preferred style.
“We’re going to go back to pressing and playing what we used to say: 84 feet for 32 minutes,” Bentzler said. “We’ve got Siera Daniel and Lauran Reece who will kind of anchor us and, like I said, those young kids can play.”
Reese, a physical 5-7 junior guard/forward leads the returning players in scoring after averaging 5.6 points per game last season, along with 2.6 rebounds. Daniel, an athletic 6-1 junior center who can defend inside and out, averaged 2.5 points and 4 rebounds a game last season.
Moving up from the JV are 5-7 sophomore guard/forward Kaitlynn Good and 5-7 junior forward/center Haley Campbell, both of whom saw a little varsity time last season, and 5-3 junior guard Nia Taper.
The freshman class includes 5-6 guard/forward Brie Boehler, 5-5 guard Cami Hansen, 5-2 guard Hannah Mullinax, 5-6 guard Savannah Delgado, 5-0 point guard Rayven Johnson, 5-9 guard/forward/center Lydia Owens and 5-8 forward/center Shannon Neal.
Former mainstay Raven Black is enrolled at Western this school year.
A starting five hasn’t been established though Reese and Daniel are sure to start, and Boehler and Hansen are strong candidates. Boehler is expected to make an immediate impact with her physical play while Hansen has the defense, ballhandling and shooting attributes Bentzler looks for from a guard.
“Everybody’s going to get a shot every game,” Bentzler said. “We’ll play a lot of people.
“We’ll see how Siera and Lauran mingle in with the freshmen. We’ll find out where the points are coming from. We’ll see how the younger kids play together.”
Bentzler said the young team has a lot of talent and a bright future.
“I think we’ve got a chance to be a very competitive team by the end of the year, and then [in later seasons] look out. Everybody’s pretty excited around here,” he said.
Sports
Titans start anew
Bentzler’s roster features no seniors for first time in 20 years.
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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. -
Cole to jump at Miami University
Eastern athlete Grant Cole has only been a long jumper for two seasons, but being turned on to the event late in his career has landed him a scholarship to Miami University.
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Comets roar to sectional title
As the old adage goes, it’s harder stay on top than it is to reach the top.
Eastern’s girls track and field team entered the 2012 postseason hoping to put in a strong enough effort to claim the program’s first sectional title.
Having done so, the Comets entered Tuesday’s postseason opener — the Madison-Grant Sectional — with a much larger bull’s-eye on their backs than in previous years.
Eastern proved up to the challenge, scoring a landslide victory to repeat as sectional champions with 125 points. -
Dexter leaving Eastern
Eastern girls basketball coach Jeremy Dexter has stepped down from the Comet program after accepting the AD job at Churubusco last week. Churubusco is in Whitley County about 15 minutes west of Fort Wayne.
Dexter led the Comets to a Class 2A state runner-up finish this past season. -
Hunter edges Shrout in Thunder Car thriller
Two drivers who are no strangers to Victory Lane returned there Sunday night at the Kokomo Speedway. Meanwhile, a third driver scored just the second feature win of his career at the local oval to highlight the racing action.
Chris Hunter, the winningest Thunder Car driver in the history of the local oval, ground out a gritty win over defending track champion Jason Shrout to highlight the chilly night. -
Girls track sectional is tonight
Eastern’s girls track and field team is ready to chase some more championship hardware.
Two weeks ago, the Comets won their fourth straight Howard County meet. Last week, they won their fourth straight Mid-Indiana Conference meet. Now, the postseason is here, with the Madison-Grant Sectional tonight.
“We’re looking forward to taking the next step,” Eastern coach Michael Goodspeed said. -
Athlete of the week
Oyler led the way as Class 2A No. 5-ranked Eastern beat Cass (4-3) and Hamilton Heights (5-4 in 12 innings) to move to 6-0 in the Mid-Indiana Conference with one league game remaining.
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Page family bonds over martial arts
A mother and father to six children, Jason and Denise Page began to run into your typical challenges associated with such a large family back in 2008, once the oldest children reached an age where they started to have desires to be involved in sports and other extracurricular activities.
As the commitments started to pile up, it didn’t seem like there were enough hours in the day to accomplish all the pitstops and still have time left over to fellowship as a family.
Karate to the rescue. -
Kats' Sebree to play for JC power Cochise
LaBradford Sebree is accustomed to winning.
Sebree was a three-year starter for Kokomo’s boys basketball team. He helped the Wildkats compile a 65-11 record (the seventh-best mark in Indiana over that stretch) with a Class 4A state runner-up finish in 2011.
The 6-foot-2 swingman hopes to keep on winning at the next level. He will play at Cochise College, a Division I junior college in Douglas, Ariz. Douglas is located in the southeast corner of the state. - More Sports Headlines
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Eastern boys track claims first sectional title since 1998
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