Marysville High School senior Cassidy Francisco shoots a jumper during a practice session earlier this week. The Lady Monarchs will begin their season in a couple of weeks under new head coach Brooke Young.
(Journal-Tribune photo by Tim Miller)
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High school girls basketball teams in Ohio have been working during the preseason for the past couple of weeks as the 2018-19 campaign is rapidly approaching.
The Marysville Lady Monarchs, who will open the regular season at North Union on Tuesday, Nov. 27, are doing so under the leadership of new head coach Brooke Young.
A former MHS varsity assistant coach, Young took over the program last summer after the resignation of Mindy Eisnaugle.
Eisnaugle held the position for the past two seasons.
“Practice has been going well,” said Young. “We’ve put in a lot of work to implement a new system.”
Young, who most recently served as a girls hoop coach at Bunsold Middle School, said she is concentrating heavily on defense during the preseason.
“I want this to be a competitive and defensive-minded team,” she said. “If we can become that, I think we have enough shooters that the offense will come around.”
Young, who is a teacher at the Marysville Early College High School, coached every current player in the freshman, sophomore and junior classes while she guided the middle school program during her stint at Bunsold.
The only class she hasn’t coached is the seniors. She left the high school program to coach at Bunsold as this year’s seniors were going into their freshman season at the high school.
“I’m still getting to know those girls,” said Young of the seniors.
Young knows that changing the course with a new head coach will take some time.
“It’s not going to happen overnight,” she said. “I’m a competitive and somewhat impatient person, but I know this is a process.
“We’ve got a lot of talent here and the biggest challenge so far has been to determine who is going to play varsity and who is going to play on the JV team.
“We’ll have some girls who will play on both.”
Young said she hasn’t had any problems with the girls taking to a new system.
“The girls are really buying into the whole ‘family’ mind-set that I want to establish with the program,” she said. “I want them all working together and building this program into a family unit.
“They are taking to that very well.”