Superior girls excited for season

       Basketball is a team sport in

which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or

“shooting” a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while

following a set of rules and the Superior Lady Cats are excited

that the 2010-2011 season is finally here.

The Superior girls practically played a

full season of basketball over the summer, but Coach Jeff Schultz

said that they are excited to finally be on the courts again.

“It feels like it’s been forever. It

feels like it took forever for the season to get here,” he

said.

With drills in place to help the

players hone their skills, practice started on Nov. 22. Schultz

said that the big goal overall is to work as a team this

season.

“We have great individuals, but they

aren’t nearly as close to how great the team is going to be if we

come together,” Schultz said. “We’re also young and with those two

things you generally have a rough year. But we’ve been coming

together and we’re fast so we’ll be using speed as an

advantage.”

Schultz has three seniors on the team

this year, with six juniors, four sophomores and four freshmen.

“We have a few strengths with the

speed. We’re very fast, we have good shooters and we’re good

finishers under the hoop,” Schultz said. “With rebounding, we’re

going to have to box out because we’re not going to win the who’s

tallest game.”

Schultz said that they are going to

keep the offensive strategies pretty simple and be prepared for

whatever defense the other teams throw at them. On offense, Schultz

said that he wants to see a lot of movement.

“We want to try and spice it up and

find out what weaknesses the other teams have and exploit that and

hit them,” Schultz said.

While Schultz said you always want to

win, the big goal for the team is to improve every single time they

are out and to have fun.

“You always want to win, but we want to

improve every single game. My goal is to push them harder than they

thought they could go,” Schultz said.

The girls will play two opening games

with Charlo on Dec. 10 and Mission on Dec. 11. Both games will be

played away.

“Charlo has a really good coach and

they took third at divisionals last year,” Schultz said. “They’ve

got a strong player who very strong low post and tall. They’re a

lot like us. They’re young, but with a lot of experience. I expect

it to be a good game.”

Schultz also said that Mission is a

tough team as well. He suspects that the two games will show the

girls right where they are at.

“I think we’re going to find out right

where we’re at whether we win or lose,” Schultz said. “And from

there we can improve and get better.”

Schultz said that he would almost

rather start the season off with a game against a team they know is

going to be tough so they can figure out right where they are and

find out what the team is made up of.

“We’re going to get a real look of

where our team is at,” Schultz said.

Schultz said that practice has been

going good and that the girls have been playing hard right from the

start. They will play their first home game against Darby on Dec.

14.