MILLBURY — After winning a Northern Buckeye Conference championship in 2022, Lake girls basketball slipped to 10-14 last year, including an 8-6 league record.
This season, ninth-year coach Joe Nowak (115-72) has six letter winners returning, including honorable mention All-NBC and District 7 choice Sydney Stanley and HM All-NBC pick Elena Longoria.
“One of our strengths is the potential depth that we will have at the guard level,” Nowak said. “We should be a pretty deep team on the perimeter with a slew of players who can not only compete, but contribute.
“We have six returning letter winners, but overall, we are fairly inexperienced. Some of the players we have returning may have gotten some playing time last season, but will need to take on some pretty drastically increased roles this year,” Nowak continued.
“It’ll be an interesting process to see how well we cope with the increased responsibilities. So far this season this has been a group that has been fun to be around and work with.
“They communicate well, they root for each other, and they hustle all over the place. We have made a commitment as a program to improve our overall chemistry and camaraderie and this group has shown signs of buying into that which has led to a fun atmosphere so far.”
Stanley, a senior guard, and Longoria, a senior wing, will be joined as Lake’s key players by senior guard Kyleigh Christ, senior post Maddi Miller, senior wing Lauren Tobias, freshman guard Brooke Wiley and freshman wing Savannah Little.
Last year, Stanley averaged 13 points, 3.4 rebounds and 1.3 assists, Longoria averaged four points and 2.1 rebounds and Christ put up 2.1 points, four rebounds, and 1.4 assists.
Nowak says Stanley and Wiley will handle backcourt and ball-handling duties with support coming from Christ and sophomores Penelope Garcia and Kaydence Eckenrode.
Nowak adds that Tobias, Longoria and Little will round out the perimeter lineup with Miller and Little being the “primary inside threats with a couple others providing some support inside depending on our lineups.”
If you’ve seen Lake girls basketball under Nowak’s tenure, it usually means up-tempo basketball with exceptionally aggressive full court defensive pressure. Nowak says there could be some change this year.
“We will likely have spurts this year when we resemble two different styles,” Nowak said. “We have lineups that we can really try to get up and own the floor, which we have really tried to do in the last few seasons.
“But we will also have lineups that may be better suited to slow the game down and control the ball. Really, it will depend on who is clicking and what we need throughout the game.
“Defensively we will play primarily man defense, but will look to sprinkle in some variety to keep teams guessing.”
Nowak says Christ, Tobias, and Eckenrode have made “major commitments during the offseason to make improvements in their game.”
“I think those improvements will show when we get them mixed with some other returning players from last year’s roster,’ Nowak said.
“Brooke Wiley and Savannah Little are two freshmen who will see major minutes for us. Their athleticism and talent set them up with a solid foundation, but the trick will be getting them to adjust to the physicality and speed at the varsity level.”
Nowak expects the Flyers to be competing for a league title.
“We were picked second in our league coaches’ poll, but there are a lot of teams that finished all within just a few points of each other in that vote,” Nowak said.
“We will need to be sure to keep improving throughout the year and compete every game day and also every day in practice. I think if we can do that we can compete with the best teams we will face and keep ourselves in contention.
“The league is always a tight race between several teams. It’s always been a league when on any given night someone is going to have the fight of their life trying to survive and win the game,” Nowak continued.
“This year is no different as there are a lot of teams that I think match up well with each other and have some really talented rosters.”
Besides earning his 100th career win as Lake’s coach two years ago, Nowak has coached two NBC championship teams (2019, 2022) and took the Flyers to the regional tournament in 2020, the sixth Sweet 16 appearance in school history.
Nowak, who also coached boys basketball at Seneca East for two years before coming to Lake, has coached two 1,000-point scorers at Lake — Hayley St. John (Owens Community College and Notre Dame College) and Delani Robinson (Madonna University).
