Warriors could have as many as nine juniors on roster.
By Mike Miazga
Correspondent
While the Willowbrook girls basketball team technically qualifies as young, the Warriors are far from bereft of varsity experience.
The Warriors have a trio of returning juniors-to-be in Maureen Schmid, Katelyn McCann and CeCe Lizasuain, all of whom saw time on the varsity as sophomores last year.
“They all played last year and this year they will look to be starters,” said Willowbrook coach Terry Harrell.
Harrell said overall the Warriors made progress during the recent summer season.
“We are really young,” he said. “We’ll have as many as nine juniors on the team. We had a lot of people finding their way. This summer we saw some good player development. It was very encouraging.”
Harrell noted the Warriors went 10-17 during the summer, not that he’s too concerned about wins and losses in June.
“I look at it as a successful summer,” he said. “The girls played hard and played well for the most part. They are getting accustomed to the varsity level. They got better and they were enthusiastic during our time together. They will be ready for the season.”
Harrell also was impressed with the summer participation level. “We had really good participation in the summer,” he said. “The girls were quite excited about camp.”
Willowbrook played in the Montini summer league. “Virtually everybody in the area plays there,” Harrell pointed out.
The Warriors also headed down to Bradley University in Peoria to play in an event where they went 2-2.
“We saw some typical central Illinois schools where they are good shooters and well-disciplined,” said Harrell. “Our girls fought through the games and won. They were challenged there.”
The team also performed well at a shootout at Loyola Academy where it lost to the host school by a basket. “We played pretty well there, too,” said Harrell. “We are emerging as shooters. Our shooters are led by Katelyn McCann. We are going to be a smaller team, but hopefully a skilled team. We’ll be finding our way at the beginning of the season. We’re a bit of a work in progress right now. The girls are truly learning to play at the varsity level. We have the ability and the skills. They just have to have enough confidence. We’re working on bringing out that confidence.”
In terms of younger players, Emma Barrington and Sydney Verdino impressed during the summer.
“Emma played at the sophomore level last year,” said Harrell. “She will be a bigger guard for us. She has some skills. She can attack the basket and has some quickness and should see a lot of time this year. Sydney would be a big guard. She’s 5-8 or 5-9. She also attacks the basket. That’s what we are looking for. Once we spread the floor we’re looking for people who are open and can spread the floor and have that ability to attack the basket and get some scoring out of it.”
Willowbrook no longer will host a beginning-of-the-season tournament. Instead, the Warriors will head to Marist High School for a tournament.
