Having dynamic athletes is nice, but they won’t be of much help without skills.
That’s the dilemma new Bayfield High School girls basketball head coach Bri Simbeck faces as the Wolverines prepare for the 2013 season.
“Our team is extremely athletic, but we’re also kind of raw,” she said. “We’re working on kind of honing our new skills.”
Simbeck, a BHS and Regis alumna, inherits a team that went 10-13 last year and lost five seniors to graduation.
The Wolverines expected to carry a lot of experience with six returning seniors, but they’ll be without Carrie Yost for the first part of the season and Effie Nistler for maybe longer.
The team is awaiting the results of a magnetic resonance imaging exam to determine whether or not she tore the anterior cruciate ligament in her right knee.
Simbeck plans to lean on seniors Haley Clarke and Jaida Ross in their absence.
“I think she’s just expecting us seniors to step up more because we lost a lot of our seniors last year, to step up and help her out and really help the team out starting a new good season,” said Clarke, daughter of Simon and Tica Clarke.
Clarke and Ross averaged 7.2 and 7.3 points per game, respectively, last season.
But this season, a new coach comes with a new set of expectations, too.
“I demand a different style of play than they’re used to,” Simbeck said.
Simbeck, who graduated from BHS in 2008, emphasizes effort and speed across the floor, which should lead to good ball pressure and an attacking offense.
“We’re learning how to really play with such a small team up to speed,” Clarke said. “We really hustle a lot harder than other teams that are taller.”
They’ll also need to learn how to integrate and help along freshman point guard Kyle Baker.
Simbeck, however, isn’t shy about her goals for this year.
“We’re trying to create our identity and adjust to new ways of doing stuff,” she said. “Right now, my most immediate goal is to try and win our league.”
kgrabowski@durangoherald.com
