Heading into the 2020-2021 season, the Wright City girls basketball team has plenty of reason for optimism despite tallying just 11 wins over the past two campaigns.
It is, after all, all …
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Heading into the 2020-2021 season, the Wright City girls basketball team has plenty of reason for optimism despite tallying just 11 wins over the past two campaigns.
It is, after all, all about having the right outlook — and increasing your win total by seven victories from one season to the next can definitely help to paint a positive outlook.
Wright City head coach Dan Friedel is among those who believe the future is bright for his team.
“Last year, we made tremendous strides with the program,” Friedel told The Record. “We went from two wins in 2018-2019 to nine wins in 2019-2020. After Christmas break last year our girls really started to buy in and believe in what we were doing.”
In addition to the sizeable increase in victories from two years ago to last year, the Wildcats can also look to four returning starters that definitely have the team headed in the right direction.
“We are returning senior guards Abby Raines and Emily Schanuel, sophomore forward Jasmin Simpson, and junior forward Daetyn Gurley,” said Friedel. “We are also returning sophomore guard Katie Schanuel.”
Given the number of players coming back who saw a lot of time last season, Friedel believes the Wildcats will continue to improve on the progress made during the 2019-2020 season.
“My expectations are that we continue to build on what we did last year. It’s really hard to totally turn around a program in one year,” said Friedel. “Our girls have to stick to the process of continuing to develop their fundamentals and continue to play as a team. If we can do that I think we can be better this year.”
In addition to the five players returning from last season, the Wildcats will also look to some new faces as they look to post better results for a second straight season.
“We have a couple of newcomers that should help us this year,” said Friedel. “Abby Vossen is a sophomore who is extremely athletic and will be a regular in our rotation. Freshmen Kaedyn Johnson and Lynnsey Grunzinger could see time as well as they develop and become acclimated to the speed of the game.”
The Wildcats are scheduled to open the season on Friday, Dec. 11 when they host Winfield at 6:30 p.m. followed by the Orchard Farm Tournament, which is set to run from December 14-18.
