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Basketball team tries to find stability

Basketball team tries to find stability
By Emily Bresette

STA athletic director Mark Hough believes the varsity basketball team is on the road to becoming a better team, despite having four head coaches in the past three years. With a record of 11-10, Hough has watched the team play to one of their best starts in in the last five years.

Over the past five years, the basketball team has a record of 51-74, in addition to being lead by six coaches in nine years.

According to Hough, the team has been playing better under the direction of first-year head coach Chance Stephen, particularly at the free throw line. Hough has seen players become more aggressive and dive for more loose balls. The team is winning their games by more points and losing by less points than last season.

The Dart attempted to contact Coach Stephen for comment but did not receive answers.

According to Hough, each coach has resigned for his or her own reasons.

“When personnel issues come up [the coaches] just resign,” Hough said. “They just hand me a letter of resignation. They don’t put reasons in there, they just resign. I would hate to speak on their behalf.”

Hough said that last year’s assistant coach Dianna Krull was poised to take over the program, until her daughter, who was a freshman at STA during 2010-2011, decided to transfer to a public school on the other side of town. After former head coach Doug Nelson resigned mid-season, Krull took over the team for the remainder of the games. Krull then interviewed for the head coach position, along with Stephen.

Krull was selected as the head coach with Stephen as her assistant.. However Krull knew she would not coach at STA after her daughter graduated, recognizing Stephen would become her successor. Contrary to her original plan, Krull informed Hough in early October she would not be able to coach due to her other childrens’ schedules. As a result, Stephen took over the team just three weeks before the season started.

Because Krull coached only half a season, Hough considers Krull an interim coach.

According to senior varsity basketball player Megan Lewis, the coaching changes have helped the team improve their win-loss record.

“I think it’s just that [previous coaches’] style of coaching hasn’t really worked in the past few years,” Lewis said. “Our winning record has shown that, and I really feel the athletic department is just trying to get it where the basketball team is successful again like it was a long time ago­.”

Lewis believes Coach Stephen has played a major role in the team’s improvement.

“He definitely pushes us more than other coaches have,” Lewis said. “Before, if we did something wrong, we wouldn’t work on it. ­Now, we go back and fix [our mistakes].”

Hough agrees with Lewis.

“I think [Coach Stephen] really does a good job of coaching the girls he has here,” Hough said. “[Coach Stephen] came in and worked with the talent he had. I think it’s a combination of the girls playing harder [and Stephen’s coaching].”

This combination has shown in the team’s record. At this time last year, the team was 4-13.

The team is also winning their games by a margin of 15.08 points and losing by a margin of 9.4 points. In comparison to last season when the team had a winning margin of 12.4 points and a losing margin of 24.6 points. They have also played seven games within six points and had one overtime game and one double-overtime game.

Although Hough said that the team has gotten better, it can still be hard to have so many different coaching changes.

“[The players] have to get used to different coaching styles,” Hough said. “They have to learn what different coaches are demanding, what kind of philosophies they have, what kind of offenses and defenses they run.”

While Lewis agrees with Hough, she believes the team is used to having a new coach almost every year.

“Since we’ve had four coaches in four years, I feel like we’re kind of used to [changing coaches],” Lewis said.

Despite all the changes, Hough said his priority is finding the best coach for STA.

“My number one goal is finding the right fit for St. Teresa’s Academy,” Hough said. “I look for coaches that will help provide a positive experience through athletics for the students.”

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