New Season, New Coach, High Expectations for Saline’s Girls Basketball

The Saline Hornets girls basketball team is settling in under a new head coach.  Jeff Waltz takes the reins in his first season, and, despite losing a key senior to a foot injury, his expectations for the team are high.

“My expectations are always high. I don’t care who we play, I know that we’re going to be more prepared and we’re going to work harder than or as hard as anyone else in the league,” Waltz said.

The preseason started with eight seniors looking to be on the roster. Britten Clark and Katie Crysler will help power the offense, and Amanda Price is tenacious on defense, according to Waltz. He also said Allison Rentschler, Kelsey Pelletier, Cera Smart and Alli Cope will play key roles throughout the season. Jill Borowski’s foot injury on the last day of tryouts dropped the number to seven, but Waltz sees important rolls for all seven of them.

“(The seniors) will all contribute in one way or another; they’ll all get a lot of minutes, especially early on,” Waltz said.

Despite this being his first year, Waltz’s hiring came before the summer practices, so he was able to implement some of his plans earlier than other new coaches. While not perfectly smooth, Waltz said he is happy with the progress his team has shown, particularly on defense. The offense might be a little behind where he’d like, but Waltz said he feels that his team will work hard on all facets of the game, including rebounding.

“There are still definitely bumps in the road, areas where we need to improve and areas we’re not comfortable with, but we’ve scrimmaged twice now and we’ll shore up those areas. In terms of rebounding, missing Jill will be huge, but what we lack in height or muscle we’ll make up in effort and determination. I don’t think it’ll be a weakness; I think these girls have that kind of heart and desire to get the boards and play hard on defense,” Waltz said.

The Hornets open the regular season at home against Canton on Dec. 6.