For the first time in more than a decade, Columbus North has a new coach leading its girls basketball team.
Brett White, an assistant for the Bull Dogs the past nine years, is settling into the role vacated by Pat McKee, who left after 11 years at the helm. McKee, the school’s all-time winningest coach, led North to six sectional, four regional and three semistate titles and the 2015 Class 4A state championship.
“I feel like (the adjustment has) been fairly smooth,” White said. “The basketball portion of it has been really smooth. Probably the biggest thing has been the added administrative duties that I have. But the practices and the games have been very smooth.”
White had a chance to get a look at the team he inherited when coaches were permitted to work with their athletes in practice and game settings in the month of June.
While most of the assistant coaches return from last year, former Bull Dog and Manchester University point guard Jocelyn Hamilton steps in as JV coach. She will be assisted by her father Brad, the former Hauser girls basketball coach.
“I think we accomplished what we set out to, which was getting the coaches used to a new coaching staff in different roles,” White said. “We even tried some things that we’ll maybe do during the season. Then as coaches, we started evaluating some of the players. We have 42 girls freshmen through seniors, and we kind of put them in different positions to see what they could do.”
Throughout the month, White used 19 different players that played some varsity, in six separate events. They only had all their varsity players for four of those.
Leading the way are the three returning starters from a team that went 13-6 — senior forward Kylah Lawson and junior guards Lauren Barker and Emma Long. Senior Andrea Justus started most of the games in June, and seniors Lucy Norman and Reagan Ables shared the other starting spot.
Also returning are several players who saw mostly JV action last season, including juniors Rylie Boezeman, juniors Maddi Rutan and Moana Steele and sophomores Elise Preston, Olivia Johnson, Greta Brown, Kathryn Wilson and Kaitlin White.
Freshmen Hadassah Hurt, Kennedy Horn and Maggie Russell played some with the varsity this summer, as did junior Kayla Jones, a transfer from Columbus Christian.
“I feel like our three returning starters give us a nice nucleus to work with,” Brett White said. “It’s just a matter now of finding the right fit with the other girls, and that’s going to be a matter of using a lot of different girls. We feel like we’re going to have some depth.”
The varsity went 12-6 in those six events in which it played. North started by going 2-1 in an event at Lafayette, with the loss coming against reigning 4A state champion Crown Point.
The Bull Dogs then went 1-2 at Westfield, 2-1 at Lawrenceburg, 3-0 at Ball State, 2-1 at North Montgomery and 2-1 at Charlestown.
Brett White was pleased with the attendance and the effort that the players gave this summer.
“Really, June wasn’t about wins and losses,” he said. “Our goal wasn’t necessarily to go out and win a bunch of games. It was just to practice game situations. It’s kind of hard to replicate game situations in practice, so we got a chance to work on those. And as coaches, it gave us a chance to see what worked and what didn’t work.”
