Starting spots are up for grabs.
That’s the message second-year Shorewood girls basketball coach Nina Lowe is delivering to her players.
“The door is wide open for anybody to come in and take a spot,” Lowe said. “Anybody has the opportunity to be in the starting lineup.”
One certainty, however, is senior-to-be Becky Farden who returns to lead Shorewood. The 5-foot, 9-inch small forward/guard averaged 16.3 points per game last year.
“She’s an amazing scorer,” Lowe said. “She’s always been great on defense. She’s even more focused on defense.”
Farden will play both small forward and guard again.
“We’ll really look for some mismatches,” Lowe said. “If we get a smaller player on her we’ll use her size if she’s guarded by a taller player, we’ll use her quickness.”
Farden is a leader by example but Lowe hopes she’ll speak up more this season.
“She leads by her actions but she needs to be a little more vocal,” Lowe said.
Lowe, a 2000 Shorewood graduate who played on the T-birds 3A title team in 1998, was brand new last summer. She said she knows her personnel much better this summer and the players know what to expect from her.
Also returning is junior-to-be Taylor Nephew, a 5-9 post who was the Thunderbirds second-leading scorer last year, averaging 6.8 points per game. She provides rebounding muscle in the post and an inside scoring threat.
Last year, Shorewood relied more on a perimeter game with Farden, point guard Anna Ellersick, guard Tiffanie Bronson and guard Erin Ellersick providing two-thirds of the scoring.
Nephew and 6-0 senior post Kelsey England might play a bigger role now.
“We’re going to add some new things,” Lowe said. “We’ll look to get it in to Taylor and Kelsey England a lot more.”
“We’ll work on mismatches, regardless of who’s down on the post,” Lowe said.
The T-birds are without Erin Ellersick who tore her anterior cruciate ligament playing basketball in the spring. When she’ll be back is unknown right now, Lowe said.
Lowe said the T-birds have young guards and junior varsity players who are capable of coming up and filling roles.
“I like what I’ve seen from them this summer,” Lowe said.
Shorewood is playing in the Shoreline Center Summer League and split its first four games. Lowe plans to hold open gyms after the league winds down this week but no camps are scheduled.
“I’m just really excited about how hard the girls worked,” Lowe said.
Shorewood earned the fourth and final 4A playoff seed in 2007, its first trip to the playoffs in seven years but slipped to 3-13 in the Western Conference South Division and 4-16 overall last year. Lowe is eager to get back to the playoffs in her sophomore season as coach and the opportunity could be there in a league that looks wide open.
Meadowdale and Jackson have dominated the Wesco South the last couple years led by Eryn Jones and Kristi Kingma respectively, but now that they’ve graduated other teams and players have a shot to take a league title.
“I’ve seen the teams this summer,” Lowe said. “It’s going to be a pretty competitive league.”
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