Helias girls basketball features veteran core

Helias senior Ashley Rehagen looks to make a move under the basket during Friday's Jamboree at Rackers Fieldhouse.
Helias senior Ashley Rehagen looks to make a move under the basket during Friday's Jamboree at Rackers Fieldhouse.

The Helias Lady Crusaders have made a habit of making it to the state basketball playoffs in recent seasons.

It's a habit they don't want to break.

"We're hungry to win," Helias coach Alan Lepper said as the Lady Crusaders prepare for tonight's season-opener against the Blair Oaks Lady Falcons in Wardsville. "We've made the playoffs a lot in recent years and the older kids are teaching the younger ones the work ethic that it takes to get there."

The Lady Crusaders have a lot of veteran leadership. Helias returns six players - seniors Morgan Wieberg, Ashley Rehagen and Claire Ludwig, along with juniors Lauren Alexander and Erin Wyrick and sophomore Ellie Rockers - who at least were part-time starters last season.

That experience has already been on display in practice.

"The kids are holding themselves accountable," Lepper said. "If somebody is doing to wrong, there's good leadership on this team and they encourage each other when things go wrong."

Among the key reserves off the bench are senior Kelsey Schenewerk and junior Rachel Schulte.

"Then we're looking for kids to step up and earn some playing time," Lepper said.

The Lady Crusaders are coming off a pair of victories last Friday in two-quarter contests in the Jamboree at Rackers Fieldhouse. It was a good learning experience, even if things didn't always go so well.

"It showed we still have a lot of work to do to be a good team," Lepper said. "I've never questioned the ability of the players, we have some high IQ basketball players. We are an athletic team and know the game of basketball.

"But it's going to take some time to get where we need to get to, we know that."

The Lady Crusaders plan to be aggressive on the offensive end.

"We're going to attack the rim," Lepper said. "Whether it be in transition or in a half-court offense, we're going to go at the rim."

On the defensive end, the Lady Crusaders plan to use multiple sets this season.

"We're going to play a lot of stuff, change things up during the game," Lepper said. "I don't want to get caught with just one defense, whether it's working or not."

And while the Lady Crusaders won't wow anybody with their size, Lepper believes his team will be strong in the rebounding department.

"We're not tall, but we have some kids who can get up in the air," Lepper said. "I think we're going to play taller than we're listed in the program."

After serving as an assistant for the past decade, Lepper is entering his first season as head coach. There are a lot of changes to moving one seat down the bench.

"The biggest thing is the planning," Lepper said. "At this level, you have to be prepared every day. I promised myself when I took this job that we would be a strong fundamental team and we were going to work and not move on until we got it right."

Chris Wyrick is the head varsity assistant, while Victor Bell takes over as the JV head coach. The freshman coaches are Mark Ordway and Kelly Lepper.

Alan Lepper is ready to get his first season started.

"It's time to play," he said. "We need to play somebody."

The JV game will start at 6 p.m. today, followed by the varsity contest around 7:30 p.m.

III

It doesn't take long to go through the schedule for the Helias Lady Crusaders to figure you're looking at misprint.

Saturday, Dec. 3 - Helias vs. Incarnate Word in the Norm Stewart Classic at Columbia College.

Start time? 4 a.m.

Wait, what?

"It's completely out of what we normally would do," Helias coach Alan Lepper said.

The Lady Crusaders were originally on the Classic schedule for a 2 a.m. contest. But Helias did not want to play that late, so the Lady Crusaders declined an invitation to play in the event.

But as the this season's schedule was being finalized, Helias lost three games it was figuring on playing. So it was 4 a.m. in the Classic, which will feature 48 consecutive hours of basketball Dec. 2-4.

"I know the administration wasn't real crazy about it, but when it ended up being our last chance to get a game, we decided to take it," Lepper said. "We'd rather do that then not have a game."

The Classic, in its ninth year, is a fundraiser for the Coaches vs. Cancer program that Stewart helped develop while coaching at the University of Missouri.