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Centralia
Annies Basketball Ready to Roll
“My
expectations are for the girls to get better, as
a team and as individuals.” Centralia Annies’
Coach Roger Stieg explained what he expects for
the 2007/2008 team. The Annies kick the season
off as they travel to
Salem
High School
to face the host Lady Wildcats. Stieg expects
the seniors to step up and lead the team this
season. “You always look at your seniors. I
think that Danielle Miller, Bailee Winkler,
Ashton Tellefson, and Andrea (Wadley) will play
large roles. We’ve got some girls who have
been through the program now for three years.
They know what I expect. They know what the
varsity games are like. I think the seniors will
show the way this year the best they can.”
Offensively,
the team will have to be patient this year.
“I’ve always been a believer that you have
to get a shot you can make. We want to take
good, quality shots. We don’t want to come
down and rush anything. You have to work to get
a good shot. If it comes early, you can get the
ball inside and get a good shot. If you can keep
from turning the ball over and you take good
shots, then you’re going to score some points.
With the girls this year, turnovers are going to
be our nemesis. We’re going to have to get
some quality play from our guards this year if
we’re going to be successful.”
The
biggest key to success for this year’s Annies
will be on the defensive side of the ball. “We
have to try to force teams into things they
don’t like to do. We want to try to put
pressure on the ball, and not give them easy
shots, and make them work for everything they
get. I believe that you don’t have to be a
great athlete to be a great defensive player. I
try to instill that in the girls. Even if
they’re having trouble on the offensive end,
we can still play good defense and keep
ourselves in the game. We’re not going to be a
team that outscores a lot of people. If we think
we’re just going to outscore people, we’re
going to be in big trouble this year. We’re
going to have to guard people and check off the
boards the best we can. We’re not very big.
Rebounding could be a problem for us, too.
We’re going to have to find some girls who
want to play hard, play good defense, play
together, help each other on defense, and check
off the boards.”
Stieg
believes the one thing that needs to be improved
the most is his players’ work ethic. “I
don’t know if a coach is ever satisfied with
work ethic. You always think that they can work
harder. Our girls have got to be a little more
competitive. I told them that in practice. They
need to work harder in practice to make each
other better. That’s one thing I think they
can do in practice is pick the intensity up a
little bit and work harder. We are dealing with
some sickness right now so, hopefully, we can
get through that. We’ve got some nice girls,
but they can’t just go out there and think
they can turn it on and off. I think that starts
in practice. One thing I would like us to work
on is our competitive nature.”
With
the season almost underway, the fifth year head
coach has one goal. He says that is “just to
be the best team we can become. I’m not sure
how that correlates into wins for us this year.
We will find out a lot about our team when we go
to
Salem
, or play
Highland
who is really good.
Salem
is really good, and Okawville is really good. We
have three really good teams in our pool. We
could get off to a really rough start, like we
did last year, and have a good middle of the
season. The good thing about basketball is
there’s usually another game to be played,
even after you didn’t play very well.”
Click
here to read Stile's interview with Coach Lee
Bennett
Click
here to read Stile's interview with Coach JJ
DeMattei
Click
here to read Stile's interview with Coach Ryan
Blaha
Click
here to read Stile's interview with Golf Coach
John Sallee
Click
here to read Stile's interview with Football Coach Phil
Watson
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