The Kent-Meridian High girls basketball team is getting back to basics this winter.
Armed with a new coach and a new attitude, the Royals are aiming to make its mark on a rugged South Puget Sound League North Division schedule.
“We’re really practicing hard and getting back to basics and fundamentals,” said first-year coach Brett Drewery, who is taking over for Tim Riles. “They’re moving at a good pace, especially with a new coach and a new system in place.”
Though Drewery inherited a team that struggled last season, winning just one game on its 16-game SPSL North schedule, talent for a quick reversal remains. Leading the pack for the Royals will be 5-foot-5 do-it-all guard Briana Shannon, who was second in the SPSL North in scoring a year ago with a 15.9 points per game average.
“I think (Briana) is one of the best players in our league,” Drewery said. “She can be as good as she has to be. She’s quite a player.”
A player who would like nothing more than to lead her team to the postseason.
“Playoffs, that’s definitely our goal,” Shannon said. “All I’m interested in is winning.”
For the Royals, Shannon is a good place to start. However, this won’t be a one-player show, Drewery stressed, as returners Candice Holder (3.4 ppg.) and Desire Guitian (2.8 ppg.) also will be counted on to help with the team’s scoring punch. In addition, freshman Chloe Watson, a 5-foot-8 volleyball standout with tremendous leaping ability, is expected to supply an inside defensive presence that the Royals lacked last season.
“She’s an athlete and can run the floor,” Drewery said. “We won’t ask her to score much, but she’s going to be a great defensive player.”
Add it up and there’s reason to believe the Royals will make a move up the SPSL North standings this winter. In a loaded league that includes three of the state’s top four finishers from last year (Kentwood, Federal Way and Auburn Riverside), a North Division crown likely is out of reach. A playoff berth, however, is not.
The top five teams from the division advance to the postseason, a place the Royals have not been since 2003. Drewery expects this year’s bunch to challenge for one of those berths.
“The goal for this team is to make it to the playoffs,” the coach said. “Or at least be there with a chance at the end. To be there at the end, that’s all we’re fighting for. I think we have a chance.”
A perfect fit?
The challenge ahead for first-year Kentwood High girls basketball coach Dean Montzingo is daunting. Even pressure packed.
After all, in Keith Hennig, Montzingo is replacing the most successful girls basketball coach in Kentwood High history. Hennig led the Conquerors to the program’s first-ever state title last winter, a season that included the team’s fourth-straight South Puget Sound League North Division crown.
In five years at the helm of the Conquerors, Hennig compiled an astronomical record of 117-24.
Pressure?
“Of course I feel pressure,” Montzingo admitted. “Keith Hennig built a great program and won state. It’s my job to help continue that. But I also know it’s a new year, a new team with a new coach.”
Indeed. But if anybody on the planet has the proper credentials to fill Hennig’s shoes, Kentwood likely has found the right fit with Montzingo. Possibly even the perfect fit. Because it wasn’t too long ago that Montzingo provided remarkably similar numbers to Hennig at the helm of the school’s boys basketball program.
Montzingo stepped down from the boys program in 2006. He led the Conquerors to four-straight SPSL North titles and a state championship in 2004.
His record?
At 136-35, almost identical to what Hennig did with the girls program.
That said, Montzingo will be guiding a team this winter that graduated its top two scorers in Lindsey Moore and Jessie Genger.
How does Kentwood fill those holes?
“To replace the scoring and some of the players they lost last year is going to take a great team effort,” Montzingo said.
Of course, Kentwood has plenty of talent from which to draw, including the return of starting guard Kylie Huerta (11.3 ppg.) and forward Courtney Johnson (7.3 ppg.). In addition, senior guard Sanda Milovic (6.7 ppg.) and junior guard Liz Mills (6.1 ppg.) also are back in the fold.
“I know when I was the boys coach and we won state, you kind of feel the next year that everybody is out to beat the state champions,” Montzingo said. “I expect everybody’s best shot.”
The transition of coaches has gone well so far, Johnson said.
“It’s different because its not Hennig, but (Montzingo) is well known around the community and around the school considering he coached the boys to a state title,” Johnson noted. “We all trust him and believe in his style.”
Reversal of fortune
Things didn’t quite break last year as Kentridge High girls basketball coach Mark Champoux would have liked.
Playing in what is widely regarded as the toughest division in the state, the Chargers posted a 2-14 league record. Champoux is banking on different results this winter, and it all starts with a simple mindset.
“This year is about changing the attitude and mindset of these girls,” Champoux said. “We were definitely a team that didn’t reach its potential last year.”
The pieces, however, are in place for a reversal this winter for the Chargers. Not only does Kentridge return plenty of veteran leadership, including six seniors, but it also brings back its three captains in senior post Megan Merrill, senior guard Alissa Martin and junior guard Stephanie Keowla.
Those veterans combined with the young talent of sophomores Haley Crusch and Sydney Dupuis along with freshman point guard Maddie Maley give Champoux reason to believe a turnaround is on the horizon.
“We do have a tough league,” the coach said. “If things go well for us, I would hope we’d be competing for a playoff spot. The energy is better and the attitudes are already better.”
On the rise
In a guard-oriented league, the Kentlake High girls basketball team literally stands out.
With a front line of 6-foot-1 Morganne Comstock and 6-foot-3 Riley Butler to go along with 5-foot-9 guard Cody Sisco, the Falcons possess a decided height advantage over virtually every team in the South Puget Sound League North Division.
That size advantage, however, didn’t translate as well as hoped last season, when the Falcons finished 8-8 in league play and barely made the postseason.
“We really struggled to use our size last year,” said coach Scott Simmons said. “This year, our guards are good enough to take advantage of the size we have up front. What’s going to help is that we have three guards who will be in their second year (on varsity).”
Those guards include senior Katie Bubsey along with juniors Jessica Barnes and Erin Hunt. The experience that trio gained last year should pay big dividends this season, especially for Comstock and Butler, who blossomed into one of the North’s top 1-2 punches last year. Comstock averaged 16 points and 9 rebounds per game a year ago en route to earning first-team all-league status. Butler, who recently signed with Seattle Pacific University, was an honorable mention selection after averaging 6 points and 8 rebounds per game last season.
Add it up and there’s reason to believe the Falcons will move up the ranks this winter.
“When state rolls around, if we’re not in it, I’d say we’re better than 5 or 6 teams that are there,” Simmons said.
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