The last of this year's Basketball previews comes with a couple days to go til the games start. Head coach Brent Hintz was kind of enough to answer many of this year's questions. The Sheyenne girls will look to take another step while picking up the vacated responsibilities of one of the school's top players to date.
Before looking towards the upcoming season, I'm curious which memories stand out as the highlights of last year?
"Winning our state-qualifying game on the Saturday of the EDC tournament is a memory from last season that certainly stands out. One of the goals every season is getting to the state tournament, and it’s always exciting when that goal is accomplished."
"I think the memory that stands out the most from last season was our win in the quarterfinals of the state tournament. Getting into the final four of the state tournament was one of our goals last season, and for our young program to achieve that goal, and seeing the excitement it brought to the players and our fans was a great experience."
How do you plan on building upon what you taught your returning players last season?
"We are still a young program, and we have been fortunate to achieve some great things, and have success, especially the past couple of years. We have some players who were with us on those journeys who will be returning this season, and we expect them to use that experience to help this year's team have success and achieve our goals, that we will set for ourselves."
Did you take your team to any camps this past Summer?
"We always have a skills camp every summer in which our players get in the gym 3-4 days a week, for 6-7 weeks. This allows them the opportunity to continue their basketball skill development, and improve as basketball players. We also participate in a summer league and several team camps. This past summer we again traveled to several places to play against really good competition, including Sioux Falls, Alexandria, and Bismarck."
How did your team benefit from those training times?
"The competition is always beneficial when participating in the team camps. Another great benefit is having the opportunity for the players to spend time together, traveling to different places, and building that chemistry that is so important in helping teams connect and be successful."
Have you already had players in the gym working on their game this Fall?
"We have had some open gyms already this fall, and we have had a lot of players working hard to continue developing their skills, competing against each other, and getting ready for the upcoming basketball season. This includes continuing their strength and agility training."
Who will need to step up to replace Maggie Manson and the other players that graduated or otherwise moved on?
"We will have a few experienced players returning from last year's team, and we will also have several young players new to the Varsity level, that will be getting the opportunity to earn playing time. We had five seniors graduate from last year's team, and a few of them were Varsity players since they were freshmen and one of them since she was an 8th grader. We don’t look at it as trying to replace any of them. We look at it as focusing on what we have and finding a way to be successful with the players on this year's roster."
As things are today, is there a certain aspect of the game that you think will be the strength of your team, be it the guard play or in the post or transition offense/defense, etc.?
"After graduating so many players from last year's team, and the fact that we will have some players in new roles and many young players new to the Varsity level, I think finding out what our strengths are will be a work in progress early in the season. We were able to get a look at some things this past summer and started seeing some things that may eventually become strengths. One thing we always emphasize in our program is playing defense. We believe in defense and we want defense to be a big part of our identity as a program."
Are there other players that have already shown you that they will be leaders both on and off the court this Winter? "One of the many areas we will need players to step up and fill is leadership. We have a few seniors who have some strong leadership skills and are very capable of being great leaders this season. They value the importance of building good relationships with their teammates and they understand the positive impact of great team chemistry."
Are there any goals that you and your players have in mind that you would be willing to share?
"We usually wait 2-3 weeks into the season, before we start having discussions as a team about what our goals are for the season. We feel like we get a better idea of what our potential is for that season, what we want to accomplish, and what we need to do to make it a successful season."
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