While many high school boys and girls basketball teams played a lot of games during the June period in which they were permitted, the Hauser girls stuck mainly to practice.
The Jets worked out three mornings a week during the month of June, when coaches were allowed to work with their players. Coach Chad Evans said he had about 10-to-12 kids at most of the practices.
“It was a good summer,” Evans said. “We pretty much worked on fundamentals and our skill set. We worked on shooting the basketball. We didn’t play in a summer league because it’s hard to get kids in the gym because a lot of them are playing softball or volleyball. There were some bright spots. The kids worked hard and the benefited from playing a couple games down at Batesville.”
In their only two games of the summer, the Jets beat South Decatur and lost to Batesville, despite being without three key players.
“They did pretty well,” Evans said. “Batesville was a game of two halves. They were a little more athletic than we were, and we came back and played a lot better in the second half. Against South Decatur, we made some mental mistakes and held on to win.”
Hauser will return at least three players who started at times last season in juniors Kyliegh Parrott and Adriana Musillami and senior Gabby Johns. Junior Hannah Taylor, who was the Jets’ second-leading scorer behind Parrott, played mostly softball in June and is up in the air as to whether she will play basketball next season.
“We should have most of our core team back,” Evans said. “We’re still pretty young. We only have one senior, but Gabby Johns is a bright spot. She worked her tail off. I think she’s going to surprise a lot of people this year.”
Sophomores Kenze Bostic, Bella Kilps, Maddie Foster and Katie Stoner could move up after playing mostly junior varsity last season. Freshman Nora Berkenstock is a promising newcomer.
For most of the summer, Evans had Musillami at the point, Parrott at shooting guard, Berkenstock at small forward, Johns at power forward and Bostic at center.
“Kenze Bostic and Nora Berkenstock are going to get thrown into the fire right off the bat,” Evans said.
Evans said the players will get back in the gym in July and work on shooting two nights a week.
Hauser went 8-15 last season, including 2-4 in the Mid-Hoosier Conference.
“I think we’ll be better basketball wise, and skill-wise, I think we’ll be better,” Evans said. “We’re still trying to do the same things we did when I took over — get the ball up the floor and do the pack-line defense. We just need to get the girls to buy in. Hopefully, more wins will bring more kids out.”
