Lake girls face high expectations

MILLBURY – With winning comes high expectations.
That’s what’s facing second-year head coach Denny Meyer and the Lake girls basketball team entering the
season again as favorites to win the Suburban Lakes League.
Meyer and the Flyers, the unanimous pick ahead of Genoa in the coaches poll, were a perfect 20-0 in the
regular season last year. They won the SLL – the program’s first SLL and first girls basketball league
title since 1979 – in convincing fashion, beating the Comets twice. They lost 45-41 to Liberty-Benton in
the district finals to finish 22-1.
But with a 19-1 junior varsity team and losing a small chunk of players, Meyer doesn’t expect any
drop-off.
"We have high expectations and we’re always going to set our goals high," said Meyer, who was
named Ohio’s Division III coach of the year last season. "We lost four pretty good players, but
also have a lot of good players coming back. We feel if we go out and do what we should, we will be at
the top of the league again."
Lake returns five letter winners from its championship team, including all three guards, who Meyer will
rely upon heavily.
"We’re really counting on our guards to do a lot," said Meyer. "But we did last year, too,
even when we had experienced post players, so they know what we need from them."
Those three guards are senior Kimberly Meyer, junior Kaysie Brittenham and junior Jessica Abbey. Kim
Meyer (second-team All-SLL), the head coach’s daughter, was second on the team in assists last season
and set a school record with Brittenham (first-team All-SLL and all-district) hitting 35 3-point shots.
Brittenham led the team in scoring, averaging 11.8 points per game, while Abbey was third on the team in
scoring averaging 8.3 per contest.
"We all know Kaysie is a scorer and that’s what she does," said Meyer. "Now we’ve been
talking to Kimberly and Jessica about doing the same thing because they both can score too. If they
don’t shoot well, they quit shooting, though, and we’re telling them they need to just keep
shooting."

The trio will be looked at to take attention away from an inexperienced post where the Flyers lost
Heather Cox, Lauren Lind and Rebekah Will to graduation. Lind averaged 8.0 points per game in the paint
and 4.5 rebounds. Cox averaged 5.9 points and 3.2 boards.
"We have some posts that played well on varsity and some that played junior varsity," said
Meyer. "We’ve seen a lot of good things from them and they’re getting better."
Lake’s main post players will be junior Drew Plummer, senior Kayla Reilly, and junior Carly Huston.
"Kayla is a senior and she’s really stepped it up and we made her a captain," said Meyer.
"She and Drew are our big ones because they were part of the varsity team, but they sat back last
year at times thinking they weren’t expected to do better. Now they are and we’ll see how they do when
it’s expected."
Replacing Will, a version of a utility player in basketball, is a big concern for Meyer. Will was second
on the team with a 9.4 points per game average, leading the Flyers in rebounds (97), assists (73) and
steals (62).
"(Will) is almost impossible to replace," said Meyer. "She knew where everyone was at, she
knew what was going on out there and she’d stick her nose in there and do anything that needed to be
done."
Will also was key in defending the other team’s top players, a role that Meyer expects to fall to
Kimberly Meyer, Abbey, and junior Emily Whitmore.
"All three are very good on-the-ball defenders," said Meyer.
Junior varsity players coming up expected to help off the bench are Hillary West (junior), Lindsay
Hoffman (sophomore), Hunter Johnson (sophomore) and Hannah Cox (sophomore), Also playing varsity is
senior Cortni Collins.
"We need people to step in," said Meyer. "Last year, we had a lot of injuries and we had
people to fill in. This year, we don’t know yet if we have that same depth."
But with the success, the players know what they’re capable of.
"We have high hopes this year," said Brittenham. "We want to be 20-0 again, but we know
that everyone is targeting us this year."
"We know how to handle the success," said Kimberly Meyer. "It helps having girls back
because we all know what to expect and what we need to do in big games and we need to carry that over to
this season."
LAKE GIRLS SCHEDULE
Friday- at Delta
Tuesday – NORTHWOOD
Dec. 4 – at Elmwood#
Dec. 10 – at Oak Harbor
Dec. 15 – at Otsego#
Dec. 18 – WOODMORE#
Dec. 28 – at Whitmer
Dec. 30 – FOSTORIA ST. WENDELIN
Jan. 7 – at Gibsonburg#
Jan. 12 – EASTWOOD#
Jan. 15 – GENOA#
Jan. 21 – ELMWOOD#
Jan. 26 – SWANTON
Jan. 29 – OTSEGO#
Feb. 4 – at Woodmore#
Feb. 9 – GIBSONBURG#
Feb. 12 – at Eastwood#
Feb. 13 – at Rossford
Feb. 15 – CLYDE
Feb. 18 – at Genoa#
#-Suburban Lakes League game