Ladies poised for a fun season

Sonja Karp
NLJ Sports Reporter
 
Young and untested, but talented and full of potential describes head coach Chad Ostenson’s Lady Dogies this season. The squad is returning only a couple of players who saw serious varsity time last season, but with the addition of a talented pool of underclassmen, Ostenson is looking forward to having a loaded arsenal once the Lady Dogies get into the groove of 3A hoops.
“We should be more balanced than we’ve been in the past with the addition of the freshmen,” Ostenson predicted. “They’ve played together for a long time, and some of the things we saw this summer really were exciting. I anticipate us having depth this season and playing 10 early on this year.”
There are 21 girls out for the sport this year. The seniors include Madi Pearson, Sara Sweet, Anneke Reimenschnieder and Louisa Rietra. The juniors are Mercedes Voelker, Claire Beasatrom and Isabel Frank, while the sophomores include Shawnee Miles, Rachel Sweet, Olivia McVay, and Bailey Benshoof. 
There is a large contingent of freshmen, several of whom will be seeing substantial time on the varsity court this year. Jaylen Ostenson, Ally Cass, Shelby Tidyman, Makenzie Conzelman, Tiernan Stanton, Hunter McFarland, Ansofia Baeza, Brylee Toth, Gabby McVay and Oakley Checketts are the youngsters donning the uniform. 
McVay is a recent addition to the team so she will not be eligible to play until the Stateline Shootout given she needs 10 practices before she can compete. Checketts is easing into the season after getting conditionally released from her concussion so it is unknown at this time when she will be able to play. 
“We have good numbers and a pretty good mix of players. We are inexperienced, but have a lot of kids who have played a lot of basketball, just not at the varsity level,” Ostenson explained. “That gives us something we can work with and allow us to play full JV and varsity games, while being able to work with the quarters to move kids around how we need to.”
With the personnel they have, the Lady Dogies are not huge but they are fast. As such, Ostenson plans on playing a fast, full court game. 
“We want to play 84 feet and press as much as we can, because offensive transition is going to be big for us. We’ve got to get as many easy ones as we can and we really don’t want to sit in a slow half-court offense,” he began. “We’re not good enough yet to beat people with our offensive skills, so we need to create our offense from our defense. I like our chances if we can do that because we have some kids who can fly around, read pretty well, and get people the ball.”
Playing full-court, running and gunning style requires a bench with depth which Ostenson feels pretty confident he will have this year. He noted that his plan is to rotate nine or 10 kids into the varsity lineup in order to keep legs fresh enough to play that sort of game.
“Playing fast is fun for the kids and fun for the fans, but we have to be able to get kids out to sit and rest if we expect to do it for 32 minutes,” he nodded. “The girls have been working hard in practice and we don’t have to even condition much at the end because they are going hard through all of practice. That makes it fun.”
Fans got a little taste of the style of game Ostenson intends to run last Saturday at the Orange and Black Scrimmage. The girls did show some good things in the 20 minute contest they played. They played fast, and those in attendance got to see some players who seem to be living up to expectations. 
“It can get a little chaotic, but we definitely have some things to work with and it’ll get better as the season goes on,” Ostenson smiled. “They just need to get in some games to get it all figured out consistently. Staying healthy will be huge, because to play our pace, we’re going to need the depth.”
During the preseason contests this weekend and next, Ostenson plans to take advantage of the opportunity to find the most optimal rotations and personnel for when they return to open up conference play following the Christmas break. 
The Ladies will debut their season this Friday in Custer when they tip off against a talented and tough Lady Wildcat team.
“We want to play fast and get out and go, and the first team we see has won back-to-back cross country state championships,” he chuckled. “They will be like us and want to go fast, and press so we’ll get a good test right out of the gate. They are very athletic, and also have a 6-foot, 3-inch kid they can throw in who was the state shot put champion and has good feet and good hands. It’ll give a look at what Douglas should be this year. I’d like to see a lot of Newcastle people there, because it should be fun and I’m excited to see how it plays out.”