Marysville’s varsity girls basketball team is pictured from left, front row, Emily Daniel, Kinzi Lee, Katherine Hazelbaker, Sarah O’Neil, Allie Rioch, Kennedy Welsh and manager Laura-Sophie Freudenholes; back row, assistant coaches Mady Fogle and Jamilia Banks, Morgan Roby, Cassie Francisco, Haley Cook, Sydney Lee, Jenna Rioch, Karleigh Sutter and head coach Mindy Eisnaugle.
(Journal-Tribune photo by Tim Miller)
Mindy Eisnaugle has a wealth of experience at her fingertips as she prepares for her second season as the head coach of the Marysville High School girls basketball squad.
The veterans include double-figure scorer Sarah O’Neil (13.0 ppg), Katherine Hazelbaker, Kinzi Lee, Sydney Lee, Jenna Rioch, Cassie Franciso (a 6-1 post player) and Kennedy Welsh.
They will be joined by senior Allie Rioch, who sat out the 2016-17 campaign. She earned a varsity letter two years ago as a post player.
The lettermen will be aided by several newcomers, including Emily Daniel, who saw brief varsity court time while also playing on the jayvee team.
Morgan Roby and Karleigh Sutter have joined the varsity after a stint on the reserve squad.
Eisnaugle said the Lady Monarchs will put a new tweak or two into their offense.
“We’re still going to run our motion offense,” she said. “However, I want to work some more low post scoring into our offense.
“Allie is new to me since I didn’t have an opportunity to coach her last year,” she said. “We have added Jamilia Banks to our coaching staff and she’s working with both Cassie and Allie on their post play.
“I’m looking forward to seeing what they can contribute to our offense.”
While the focus on offense may be a little more low-post oriented this year, Eisnaugle feels the Lady Monarchs have the team speed in order to play the entire floor on defense.
“I feel we’ve got the quickness to press other teams,” she said. “We’re also going to mix it up between a man-to-man and a zone.
“We want to do all we can to keep our opponents off-balance.”
The Lady Monarchs reached double digits in victories last winter as they posted an overall record of 10-13.
They finished in third place behind Dublin Coffman and Upper Arlington in the Ohio Capital Conference Central Division.
“Those are the two teams that we are going to have to worry about again this year,” said Eisnaugle. “I feel we can compete against both of them, especially since we lost twice to Upper Arlington last year by a total of seven points.
“We’re building on what we accomplished last year,” she said. “We have a lot of players back and I expect to see some sparks right off the bat.”
One thing that Eisnaugle will need to find is someone who can take up the scoring slack from Daryn Stiers, who graduated over the summer.
The Lady Monarchs will open their season at home by hosting Hilliard Darby.