2019-20 Lady Huskies short on experience

By Mike Zummo
Posted 12/4/19

Highland girls’ basketball coach Jim Malak calls his team a two-year project.

There are no seniors as the Huskies prepare to take the court for the 2019-20 season.

It’s a rare thing …

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2019-20 Lady Huskies short on experience

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Highland girls’ basketball coach Jim Malak calls his team a two-year project.

There are no seniors as the Huskies prepare to take the court for the 2019-20 season.

It’s a rare thing knowing that unless something unforeseen happens, you’re not going to lose any players from one season to the next. There’s always some turnover.

“Usually you lose somebody,” Malak said. “We know everybody here is going to play a minimum of 40 games.”

Last year, however, generated some losses.

The Huskies lost to Marlboro, 73-56, in last year’s Section 9 Class B semifinals, ending their run of two straight sectional championships.

The Huskies didn’t only lose their title streak when last season ended. They also lost all-time leading scorer, Bri Rozzi, Highland’s all-time leading scorer with 1,903 career points.
Paige Dauenheimer, a member of last year’s team, isn’t returning to the basketball court this year after suffering an ankle injury.

“She is putting all her eggs in a basket and wants to play softball in school,” Malak said. “She’s planning to rest her ankle, get it 100 percent better and probably playing basketball isn’t the best thing for her.”

The Huskies also lost Bridget Carl, who Malak said may have a torn labrum.

So, before they stepped on the court for a single game, the Huskies have faced some adversity.

Katie Dauenheimer also missed some preseason time with a concussion, but she expects to be back as soon as concussion protocol expires.

“It’s the next-man-up philosophy,” Malak said. “The next man up has to be ready to play and step in and that’s the good thing about practicing together with JVs.”

Overall, the Huskies have four juniors, three sophomores and four ninth graders, and he plans to take the best 10 or 11 with him on varsity once the season starts.

“We’re going at each other in practice,” Malak said. “The varsity and JV girls are practicing together.”

Despite her own struggles with a concussion, Dauenheimer said she has liked what she has seen from her teammates so far.

“I hope we win some games,” she said. “I think we’re going to do good, but I don’t think we’re going to do as good as we did last year. We have to grow more and be more of a team.”

The combined practice is key for the two-year Huskies as it gives the younger girls the taste of varsity play.

“They benefit tremendously,” Malak said. “We had a scrimmage and they played very well. In practice. They play against the older girls and with everything I do in practice, we try to have competitive drills.”

The Huskies can expect to have some ups and downs this year, and Malak says he has probably done more teaching this season than he has in the previous four years he’s coached the team.

He said the team is very fast and he stresses defense because he said that will make the offense run. To be successful, he said his defense will have to keep opponents under 50 points.

“We’re going to have a lot of adversity,” Malak said. “We’re going to have ups and downs. We’re going to have periods where we don’t score. We’ll see how it goes.”

For that reason, no one is putting a concrete goal on the Huskies’ season, except for improving and creating success this year as the Huskies launch into next season.

“Next year, I think we’re going to be good because we’re going to have growth,” Dauenheimer said. “We’re going to play through and make sure we know what we’re doing.”