By TYLER HENRY
Little Apple Post contributor
On the heels of an 8-14 campaign complete with a first-round upset of Ell-Saline at sub-state, the Wabaunsee girl’s basketball team will look to restock and take the next step in 2022-23.
The Lady Chargers will be under the direction of head coach Trevor Keller, who enters his fourth year at the helm in Alma.
Over the offseason, Wabaunsee graduated just two seniors, and will return most of a core now led by upperclassmen, culminating in a veteran-heavy lineup that should look something like this come tip-off.
G- Taryn Maike (Jr)
G- Karli Meseke (Jr)
G- Anni Wright (Sr)
G/F- Lexi Barnes (Sr)
F- Kaci Meseke (Jr)
The Chargers will also look for big minutes off the bench from Alexus Ford, Ava Huske, Harley Ridder, and Reese Michaelis.
Ahead of the season’s tip-off, we had an opportunity to sit down with Coach Keller and get his thoughts on this year’s Lady Chargers.
Q: What were your overall thoughts on the 2021-22 campaign?
A: We talk every year about wanting to play our best basketball in late February and early March. We play in a tough league and our record probably didn’t indicate the level that we played at or how good we were as a team but we were able to knock off a higher-seeded team at sub-state in Ell-Saline and that was a big win for us. I was really proud of the growth that we made throughout the season.
Q: How excited is everyone to get back on the floor and back to playing real games after a long offseason?
A: Everybody’s really excited. We’ve had a great first few weeks of practice and the effort that we get day in and day out is great, that’s all you can really ask for as a coach. We want to get 1% better each day and up to this point, I think we’ve accomplished that.
Q: Coming into the year what would you say is the biggest strength of this team?
A: Our returning core is big, we have a lot of girls that have played a lot of minutes for us over the last couple of years. We’re a little bit deeper this year than we have been in the past. We only have 12 girls out but we could play 9-10 deep and we’re excited about that.
Q: What are the biggest question marks about this team as we head into the first few weeks?
A: Any time you come into a new season as a coach you have a vision of everybody’s role but over the first couple of weeks it's important that you learn from each other and define those roles as players settle in. We also have to take care of the basketball and limit our turnovers to give ourselves a chance to score.
Q: What are the goals and expectations of this team for this 2022-23 campaign?
A: Every year the ultimate goal for every team is to make state so that’s out there but we talk about how we achieve that and for us, it’s about getting 1% better every day. We want to be playing our best basketball in late February and early March to give ourselves an opportunity to achieve that goal.
Wabaunsee will open their season on Friday, December 2nd when the Lady Chargers host Northern Heights.
For continuing coverage of Lady Charger basketball all season long, stay tuned to the Little Apple Post.