| Eastwood’s girls return five letter winners. They are (from left) Kristin Martin, Kerri Gangwer, Ashley Fairbanks, Jimmi Gangwer and Ashley Seifert. (Photo: J.D. Pooley/Sentinel-Tribune) |
LUCKEY – Eastwood’s girls believe quality senior leadership, an effective half-court offense and an
improving defense will enable them to be successful this season.
The Eagles return five letter winners, all seniors, from last season when they finished 10-12 overall and
7-7 in the Suburban Lakes League.
The letter winners are Ashley Seifert (5-foot-3), Kerri Gangwer (5-9), Kristin Martin (5-7), Jimmi
Gangwer (5-9) and Ashley Fairbanks (5-10).
"I really like our senior leadership," said Eastwood coach Shaun Briggs, who is in his first
season after serving as the Eagles’ junior varsity coach the last two seasons.
"It’s nice to have those seniors because all of them had a decent amount of playing time last
year," Briggs said.
Eastwood was fifth in the league coaches poll. Defending champion Lake was first, while Genoa was second,
and Otsego and Woodmore tied for third.
The Eagles are 13-30 overall and 10-18 in the SLL the last two seasons.
"The goal for us is to get back on the winning track, that’s the big push for us," Briggs said.
"We were fifth in the poll, but we want to put up a better showing than that. We feel we can finish
anywhere from second to fifth, depending on how we play and how everything comes together for us."
The Eagles are planning on a playing a half-court game as much as possible.
"We don’t have a lot of speed," Briggs said.
Eastwood averaged just 37.3 points per game last season.
"We have to execute offensively," Briggs said. "A lot of the issues we had came because we
weren’t making open shots and executing our game plan."
But a half-court game should suit the team just fine, Briggs said, because it has three good post players
– Fairbanks, Jimmi Gangwer and 6-foot sophomore Courtney Rolf.
Also returning are Kerri Gangwer as the shooting guard and Seifert, who was the backup point guard.
"Our posts have done a nice job of rebounding and producing offense," Briggs said. "Our
posts have been physical and pounded the boards, and our guards have done a nice job of getting them the
ball."
"We’re going to have to slow it down and run our offense. We’ll have to be very, very patient
offensively and wear teams down on defense, make them work hard and run through our picks because we’re
physical with our picks."
Eastwood allowed 47.6 ppg last season.
"Defensively, because of our speed, we’re having a little bit of problems," Briggs said.
"We have the desire to stop teams, but our half-court defense is probably one of our weaknesses
right now. It’s getting better every day and we’ll continue to work on it. Hopefully, by the end of the
year, it’ll be something pretty special."
Also vying for playing time are juniors Jordan Frobose (5-8), Stephanie Bockbrader (5-10) and Amy Wolf
(5-7).
"We’re experimenting with different players at different positions, seeing what each of them can do
and where they fit in," Briggs said.
EASTWOOD GIRLS SCHEDULE
Nov. 28 – at Lakota, 1 p.m. JV start
Dec. 1 – VAN BUREN
Dec. 3 –
at Genoa#
Dec. 8 – LIBERTY-BENTON
Dec. 10 – WOODMORE#
Dec. 15 – at Elmwood#
Dec. 18 – GIBSONBURG#
Dec. 29 – at Swanton
Jan. 2 – TIFFIN COLUMBIAN, 1 p.m. JV start
Jan. 7 -at Oak Harbor
Jan. 12 – at Lake#
Jan. 15 – at Otsego#
Jan. 21 – GENOA#
Jan. 23 – WHITMER
Jan. 26 – at Woodmore#
Jan. 29 – ELMWOOD#
Feb. 4 – at Gibsonburg#
Feb. 8 – at St. Ursula
Feb. 12 – LAKE#
Feb. 18 – OTSEGO#
#-Suburban Lakes League game
