Wausa girls were young last year, but experienced this year

WAUSA — Third year Wausa girls basketball coach Brandon Kirby promises the potential for bigger and better following a 6-16 mark in 2019-20.

“We had to play a young group of girls last year,” Kirby said. “There were moments where we had four freshmen on the court. This was a valuable learning year for our young group.”

The postseason was a quick one – a 46-29 loss to Creighton in the SubDistrict play-in contest – where those younger players got an important taste of the postseason and what it feels like to lose in it.

That should only drive them this season.

“With that young group getting some much-needed experience last year, we look for those girls to step up,” Kirby said. “We believe this is a strength, but we also believe we have a good set of captains.”

Brooke Kumm is coming off of a year-and-a-half knee injury. She has not played in a basketball game since mid-sophomore year, but she is ready.

“We can tell that Brooke is hungry to play ball and overall, she is a great kid,” Kirby said.

Morgan Klienschmit is another senior who will step up in a leadership role and is large strength for the Lady Vikes.

She has been selected to the Lewis and Clark conference basketball teams each of the last two years.

“We believe that our captains and our experience will be a strength we can take into the post-season,” Kirby said.

The Lady Vikings also have seniors Charlie Price and Clara Schindler and junior Emily Woockman will add the experience needed to negotiate a tough schedule, while the youth includes sophomores Abby Kaiser, Blair Wakeley, Kilee Thorell, Ashlynn Timmerman, Alexa Cunningham and Anika Alonzo.

Kumm said the gear remains in a positive direction for the team’s engine which is many players who come off of a successful volleyball season.

“We feel like we want to reset and get rid of some of the old habits and getting back to the basic fundamentals and build from there,” Kumm said. “It has really carried over from volleyball where we wanted to work with and for each other. Talking and communicating was how we worked through our past issues and that is a big thing that will define us.

“We have some tall girls and some quicker girls, so we have a different variety. There are some of us that are working out to be good, strong posts. We have some people stepping up who aren’t just seniors.”

The team embraces accountability according to Kumm.

“We are going to grow together, not separately,” she said. “This year will be different than all the rest and go at each game with everything we got because we don’t know if the next one will be our last or we might have a bunch more down the road.

“It will be interesting for sure. We all try to stay fit, stay safe, keep our distance, put a mask on, but at the same time it’s not always under your control. So, it does worry me about missing out after being out because of my knee. But you can’t live in fear. If it’s going to happen, it’s going to happen, and you move on.”

Kirby is concerned with how the COVID-19 pandemic will affect the team as the season wears on but saw how many of them excelled in overcoming all the safety expectations during volleyball.

“Our girls did a great job of handling things during volleyball,” he said. “But I would take from our experience. The question I have for myself, did the experience from last year pay off? Are our young girls ready to step up to the next level and make plays? That all being said, I have confidence that our girls will give it a shot.”

The Lady Vikings will focus on a manto-man defense and the team’s focus tends to lean to that side of the ball.

“We also look to pressure the ball and run some press,” Kirby said. “From the offensive side of the ball, we look to spread points around with our girls. We like to run the flex system. However, we want the majority of our points to come off of the fast-break. We want to get out and run with the ball and put pressure when we are on defense.”

The competition will be loaded as D2 champions Wynot will be a bee in the Lady Vikings’ bonnets.

“The coaches over in Wynot have a good thing going over there and do a great job of prepping their team,” Kirby said. “Other teams on our schedule that give us fits every year are Hartington, Elkhorn Valley and Summerland, to name a few.”

An assistant coach with the football team, Kirby knows the challenges potentially in store for the squad during the pandemic.

“Coaching football this year, I told myself to take each day at a time and if we get all the games in great,” he said. “However, if we get half then I will be thankful for what I am given. I know that nothing in life is a for sure thing. If I had to put a number on it, I would say we get about 75 percent of our games in.”

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