YORK - This past Tuesday the Centennial Bronco girls’ basketball team was in York to compete in the Duke team summer camp.
The off-season work that goes on during the summer camps is about getting in the gym and working with teammates to build chemistry, according to head coach Jake Polk.
“It’s not about the wins and the losses and we really want to stress that with the girls that we don’t want to put the pressure on them, because these are all practice games,” Polk said. “I think the off-season is more about getting in the gym and building the chemistry and seeing the new team you have after having lost seniors. Continuing to work on your skills and find your strengths is more of what we do in the summer camps.”
While every team experiences losses to graduation, the Broncos do return a significant number of players who got their feet wet at the varsity level last year. Centennial posted a record of 9-16, but did make the district final and hope to build on that for the upcoming season.
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Polk said they work with the parents to try to get kids to camps, but that he and coaches understand that can’t always happen.
“We definitely try to get the schedule set really early in the spring, right after the season around March or April. They can plan and our families do a great job of working with us and we try to get the girls here as much as possible and if they can’t make it we can’t hold that against them and we won’t,” Polk explained. “If they have vacations or if they have to work we understand that. We have a lot of committed athletes here at Centennial and we are pretty lucky with that.”
Some of the key returning players include; JR., Samantha Horne (3.9/1.3), JR., Molly Prochaska (1.0/1.2), JR., Karley Naber (4.6/3.2), JR., Cora Payne (4.8/5.5), SO., Averie Stuhr (1.8/3.2), SO., Catelynn Bargen (5.8/5.1), SO., Ella Wambold (4.0/1.3).
Polk also said younger classmen will have to step in as well for the team to have success when the season rolls around in December.
“We are done with them after Thursday, we will go to Concordia and then we will leave them alone to be multi-sport athletes in the fall with volleyball, softball and cross country. We don’t bother them when they go to those and we will see them in November,” Polk said. “We encourage them to work on the skills we have been working on in the summer and when they are at home. They can go outside and shoot some hoops and work on some ball handling skills, but that’s it till November.”