Lady Tigers compete in Wisner-Pilger Summer League

OSMOND — This summer, the Osmond Lady Tigers participated in the first annual Wisner-Pilger Summer League. Joining the Lady Tigers were the Lady Bluejays from Guardian Angels Central Catholic (West Point), Winside, Winnebago, and the host, Wisner-Pilger.

The league ran each Wednesday evening in June and each week, teams played two games a night. The first four weeks were considered “regular season” and the final week was “tournament play.”

After the first four weeks, Osmond’s record stood at 2-6 with most of the losses coming from very close contests. However, as many sports fans can attest to, anything can happen once it gets to the tournament time.

Osmond entered the tournament round as the No. 4 seed and had a third game vs. Winside in front of them.

After starting rather slowly, the Lady Tigers responded quite well, holding Winside to just four secondhalf points and Osmond came away with a comfortable victory.

Immediately after that game was over, Osmond was to take on the league’s No. 1 seed, Wisner-Pilger. The previous meetings in league vs. the Lady Gators gave Osmond many challenges with their length, 1-3-1 defense, and size inside.

However, that was not going to get in Osmond’s way the third goaround, as the Lady Tigers upset the Lady Gators by 10 points, setting up a championship game later that evening versus Guardian Angels Central Catholic.

While the Lady Tigers had a lot of momentum and positive vibes from their first two games, the daunting task of three games in a night caught up to them as they fell to the Lady Bluejays in the championship game.

Coach David Schmit commented, “Each night of league, we were able to learn a lot about ourselves in terms of what we do well, what we need to improve, and what roles certain people may or may not have once the season arrives in November. One of our challenges that we faced during summer league was taking on a 1-3-1 defense.

“It was during our tournament play game vs. Wisner-Pilger that the figurative light bulb turned on and we tore apart their 1-3-1, forcing them out of their comfort zone.

“Overall, I’m very excited about what we gained from these league games. There’s always something to be learned whether it’s through your successes or failures and I feel we did a good job of recognizing our learning moments and growing from those as a team.

“I want to take a chance to thank Dwight Kahny and Kenny Boos for always having vehicles ready for us to take, to Amy Moes and Andrea Gardner for helping with our team outing after our last week of league, and to our team for all their hard work in the weight room and on the basketball floor this summer.

“I hope everyone is able to come up to a game or games this season. We’re going to be a fun team to watch!”

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