(Harlan) Girls basketball season for Harlan will start on November 30th with a trip to Treynor.
The fact the Cyclones graduated no seniors off of last year’s team puts them a step ahead starting this season. “Yeah I would say definitely. You have some leadership in that locker room and you don’t have to re-teach everything. That helps a lot so you can get rolling a little quicker and not have to focus on all the basics.” Coach Zach Klaassen points out some of the seniors are entering their fourth season at the varsity level. “They cut their teeth pretty early and now that they are seniors I think they are ready to get things rolling and build off of the way we finished last season.”
Harlan went 13-9 last year. The won their first four, lost eight of the next nine, and then won eight out of nine before being ousted by Glenwood in the regional tournament. The majority of their losses were to ranked teams and/or state qualifiers. They’ll hope to be more competitive with those upper tier teams this year. “I think confidence wise, sometimes you walk into those games and you have a little bit of doubt in your head.” He says, “I think our confidence in ourselves and within the team is a lot higher than what it was last season.”
With everyone returning it’s simpler to identify the things they need to work on. “We’d like to get a little better from the three-point line and free-throw line. Try to open things up in the middle a little bit and create more space for penetration and our posts to work inside. Conditioning especially, I felt like we got tired in the 4th quarters last year quite a bit. We’ve been getting on the line and running more and shooting a lot more.”
Coach Klaassen says they want to be more patient in the half court if there aren’t any immediate openings in transition. Jocelyn Cheek, Claire Schmitz, Ashley Hall, Brecken Van Baale, and Macie Leinen all averaged between six and nine points per game last year. Glenwood has a roster loaded with talent and coach Klaassen lists the Rams as the team to beat within the Hawkeye Ten Conference.
