WINONA LAKE — In its second season as an IHSAA-sanction program, the Lakeland Christian Academy girls basketball team is still trying to build a solid foundation. Fresh off a 4-18 campaign last year, LCA is in its second season under the direction of Ty Propp, who took over for the late Jay Lavender. Throughout last season, Propp saw his girls struggle against aggressive teams, leading to the losses. “I want to see us become fundamentally sound,” he said. “We’ve really made strides to go that way this year. We focus a lot on dribbling and a lot on boxing out. Those are the things I felt we got hammered on last year. We couldn’t handle the ball and people would outrebound us all the time.” If the Lady Cougars are going to make strides in those areas, they’ll have to do it without the experience of five graduated seniors – Alisa Gross, Frani Gerst, Jessica Goss, Emilee Catron and Megan Lang. This season, Propp has three seniors on the roster in Hannah Remington, Morgan Holsclaw, Julianne Haines. “Hannah and Julianne have played as long as they’ve been at Lakeland,” Propp said two of the seniors, while Holsclaw had been a student at Warsaw Community High School. “I wish I could say they’ve been in the system, but they haven’t because (former coach) Jay (Lavender) had a direction going, then I went in a different direction.” Propp’s direction has had to be re-routed depending on girls on the team, but he’s hoping for a little more balance between speed and reckless this season. “I would love to run some more, but I don’t really have the horses to do that,” he said. “I do want to pressure the ball more, so I’m going to work more on a press. I also want to do better at transition. Last year, I had a lot of speed, but not as much control as I would have liked. This year, we’ll try to be more balanced.” Along with the senior class, LCA’s 13-member team also features juniors Joselyn Helton, Emily McCoomb, Jinsil Noh, Maryl Gerst, sophomores Carissa Urschalitz, Brighty Walters, Rachel Sands, Hannah Delp, and Melissa Goss and Ellie Nieveen. “The team dynamic right now is really, really strong,” Propp said. “They really want to support one another and they’re helping each other in ways that I just never anticipated. That’s really, really good. “I see the adaptability of the girls to make things happen,” he added. “I see a lot of heart coming out of the girls this season.” With the heart coming through, Propp is also hoping another mental hurdle can be cleared – confidence. “I would love to see us become a confident team,” he said. “Last year, there were just some games that we just flat out couldn’t hang in. I want us to be able to go into those same games and be able to be a lot more confident and come out thinking, ‘We played a good game.’ Everybody wants to win, but I want to be realistic with where we’re at. I want us to make sure we develop good character and have good ball skills.” LCA will have a chance to gain confidence early in the season, opening up against the South Bend Career Academy, tonight. “I like our opening,” Propp said. “It looks like we’re playing a couple schools that we should match up really well with and be able to play a strong game against.” Following tonight’s contest, LCA is at Howe School Saturday, then hosts Churubusco Tuesday.
