FeedsLady Chiefs stick with winning strategy
Defend, rebound, take care of the ball and take good shots are the keys that the Canton Lady Chiefs basketball team lives by.
It’s the same basketball mantra the team followed last year with great rewards in the form of a district championship and a place in the state regional tournament. Now, it’s a new season with a new team and Coach Brian Samulski hopes to build on that success.
“That’s really all we’re concentrating on right now,” he said. “Those are the four keys that we always stress. It’s a new team and a new deal but if we can defend and rebound and take care of the ball and take great shots I think we’ll be okay early on.
“We have returning kids that have experienced a lot of success so we all expect to do well and we have high expectations for ourselves,” he added. “So we’ll just get out there and see what happens.”
Samulski lost a lot of senior leadership with the departure of Lisa Ealy, Leslie Olech, Kelsy Zamanski, Ali Perry and Amanda Sitko to graduation. However, he has a host of experienced players returning.
Senior Becci Houdek is in her fourth year as the starting point guard. Senior guard Lauren Delapaz is in her third year on varsity and, although she was new to the team, senior guard Ja’nee Morton played a lot of games for the Lady Chiefs last year. The team will also retain the services of junior center Marie Martin in her third year on varsity.
“I’m looking for those four to lead us,” Samulski said. “Becci worked real hard all summer on shooting the ball. She’s really extended her shot. Her vision and point guard skills have always been very good. Now that she’s extended her shot and her ability to shoot it has gotten a lot better she’s really improved her game.”
Houdek started as a freshman and knows now, as a senior, she has to step up.
“I’m excited this is my senior year,” she said, “because when I was a freshman I was looking at Sarah Samulski and Katie Cezat thinking that they were so much older and I was always the young one. Now I’m the old one and it’s my turn to support; my turn to lead; my turn to help everybody and get them through the season and help young players get used to the varsity game.”
Samulski is looking for others to step up as well.
“Ja’nee is very athletic and we’re looking for her to do more things like she did last year,” Samulski said. “We’re looking for Delapaz to help us defensively and to shoot 15-17 footers and Martin has really come on this summer and improved and is a lot more aggressive than she has been in the past so that’s a good thing.”
Junior Center Baylee Hollowell is new to the varsity team this year.
“She’s improved a lot from junior varsity last year to now,” Samulski said. “We’re going to look for her to score inside. She’s a big kid and doesn’t realize how strong she really is.”
Rounding out the top eight are returning junior Hillary Pain, Leslie Weisz from the junior varsity team and ninth grader Kali Martin.
“This year we have more role players,” Houdek said. “It will be more spread out and each player will have their game. We all have to do our job. We have to make sure we do our jobs. We have to play good defense; that’s first thing—play solid defense—and make sure we’re rotating well and hopefully everything will explode into our offense.”
“We’ve been working so hard,” Morton said. “I think the difference this year is that it’s mostly going to be more team oriented; it’s not going to be formed around one person or something like that.
“I think everybody on our team is more bonded than we were last year; everybody is really together; there’s no clicks on the team; everybody talks to each other; and I think everybody that has come up from JV has made a great transition,” she added. “I think we’re going to have a great season this year.”
The going is never easy in the Western Lakes Conference. Canton will have to face tough division foes like Plymouth, Northville and Livonia Franklin and could face crossover games against Lake Division rivals Salem and Walled Lake Central.
To start the season the Lady Chiefs will do battle against Marian High School, Howell and Saline in non-conference match-ups. On Saturday, Sept. 9 Canton will travel to West Bloomfield and face the team that knocked them out of regional play last year.
“I’m looking forward to West Bloomfield because I lost to them in my freshman year in regionals and lost to them in last year in regionals so now I kind of want to get them back,” Houdek said.
“I really want to beat them,” added Morton.
“I’m excited to play those (teams) to see if we have improved at all from last year,” Samulski said. “The conference is a good conference and our division is going to be tough this year.
“I’d just like to get the kids to compete as far as they can and play as well as they can and we always want to play for the division, conference and districts. The main goal is that I want my team to compete as hard as they can.”
