It is just about that time of year again when the weather officially cools down, fall sports end and winter sports settle in. Time to put the soccer balls and field hockey sticks away and gear up for girls basketball.
If you are a player, coach or even a fan you know you get than certain feel of excitement and joy when November rolls around. Teams start picking up open gyms and taking them seriously. Eventually, official practices begin and that’s when you know basketball is definitely here.
Northern Lebanon Girls Basketball began their “open gyms” this Monday the 29th. The Lady Vikes are looking forward to yet another great season.
Leading the charge this year will be seniors Emma Kelliher and Rae-Ann Lessing along with junior point guard Zara Zerman. The girls will be short on seniors this year but held up by a strong junior squad with upcoming sophomores to follow.
As mentioned, Lessing and Kelliher are the only seniors on the team going into the season. Highlighted juniors are Zara Zerman, Tabitha Hubbard and Lindsay McFeaters. Freshman Ashlyn Messinger is also likely see varsity time, along with sophomores Emily Hauck and Rachel Papson.
“Goals really never change,” said head coach Ken Battistelli. “Our goals are to be as good as we possibly can be...both as a team and individually.”
NLGBB may look a little different than in years past. Everyone from the 2017 District 3 championship squad has graduated, except for Zara Zerman who came off the bench as a freshman two years ago. 1,000 point scorer Liz Voight, starter Cassiah Ray and Jenna Wentling were seniors who graduated last year. Including the 2017 graduates Zoe Zerman, Amber Kintzer and Megan Brandt, all of the starters from the championship team have graduated. Coach Battistelli is thrilled to see how this year’s team takes up character.
“I’m really excited to see how this team develops and inherits its own personality,” stated Battistelli. “This team will write it’s own script for who it really is and what it’s all about”.
Zara Zerman will be a strong offensive force for the Vikings this year. “Zeke” as she is called by Battistelli, was a starter last year as a sophomore and will look to take over the offense and find some of her other teammates to score. When asked what she wants to improve on individually this year she said “My court-awareness.” She also said confidence this year will be key on offense and defense this year for the team.
“I think we have the potential to be freakishly good on defense. We have tremendous athletes, a lot of speed and physicality…we are going to need kids to develop as scorers,” said NL’s head coach on his team’s strengths and weaknesses this year. “We have some really good scorers but not the balance that we’d like and that’s gonna require some individual growth”.
Northern Lebanon opens up their season with a tip-off tournament at home that runs through December 7th and 8th. The Vikings will take on Ephrata along with others at the tournament.
The Lady Vikes will face some new opponents this year that have come along because of the L-L section shift. They will renew rivalries with Donegal, Lampeter-Strasburg and Cocalico. Usual rivals like Lancaster Catholic and ELCO will also appear on the schedule.
Zerman commented on what games she was looking forward to this year, “Definitely Lancaster Catholic. I love playing against them...just the atmosphere and competitiveness.” She is also looking forward to playing all-state forward Kiki Jefferson from Lancaster Catholic.
With the season right around the bend, good luck girls and fans get ready for another great girls basketball season!