Coach
Tom May - 23rd year; Record: 378-128
Assistant coaches: Beth Jacobs
JV coach: Scott Reid - Freshman coach: Brian McClanahan
8th grade coach: Mike Malaski - 7th
grade coach: Angie Babjak
Start
times are JV starting times
11-15-2002
(F) Hebron (6 p.m.)
11-16-2002 (S) at Andrean (6 p.m.)
11-22-2002 (F) Kankakee Valley (6 p.m.)
11-23-2002 (S) at Munster (6 p.m.)
11-29-2002 (F) Warsaw (6 p.m.)
12-3-2002 (Tu) Lowell (6 p.m.)
12-6-2002 (F) at PORTAGE (6 p.m.)
12-7-2002 (S) at Highland (6 p.m.)
12-13-2002 (F) MERRILLVILLE (6 p.m.)
12-21-2002 (S) at Valparaiso (11 a.m. )
Lady
Bulldog Shootout (with Martinsville, Carroll and Noblesville)
12-28-2002
(S) semifinal - 11 a.m.
12-28-2002 (S) finals - 6 p.m.
1-4-2003
(S) at Hanover Central - 6 p.m.
1-10-2003 (F) MICHIGAN CITY - 6 p.m.
1-18-2003 (S) CHESTERTON - 6 p.m.
1-24-2003 (F) at LaPORTE - 6 p.m.
1-25-2003 (S) Bishop Luers - 6 p.m.
2-1-2003 (S) HOBART - 6 p.m.
2-4-2003 (Tu) at Lake Central - 6 p.m.
Portage
(4A) Sectional
2-11-2003 (Tu) Quarterfinals (6 or 8 p.m.)
2-14-2003 (F) Semifinals (6 of 8 p.m.)
2-15-2003 (S) Championship (7:30 p.m.)
Valparaiso
(4A) Regional
2-22-2003 (S) Semifinals (11a.m.)
2-22-2003 (S) Championship (7 p.m.)
Plymouth
(4A) Semistate
3-1-2003 (S) Semistate championship (TBA)
Crown
Point varsity coach Tom May was asked to preview
and profile this years Lady Bulldogss basketball team. Here's what he
had to say, courtesy of the Lake County Star newspaper.
Amy
Zondor - 5-6 - senior - guard
Amy
is one of the finest young ladies that has ever progressed through our program.
She's been here for three years at the varsity level and this third year is her
breakout year. She has to step forward and assume the role that any of the top
seniors who have ever achieved anything in our program assume. We have put that
pressure on her. We know she's a shooter and a pretty decent ball-handler. But that's one
dimensional. We want her to rebound. We want to start getting into the pressure
defenses. We want her to be very aggressive offensively and defensively which is
not her basic personality. She's got to do other things. For the
first time, she's not a role player. She's someone we expect to be approaching
double figures in scoring and we expect her to go to the free throw line a lot
so she's got to play aggressively. She's not going to just sit there and
be pretty and shoot the basketball. And she's trying to respond to that. She's being pressed a great deal right now by our best athlete in the program
which is Kaitlyn Sertich. When you're a senior, you've got to play.
Danielle Brueck - 5-7 Senior - guard
Danielle has been a really pleasant surprise. We felt coming into this summer
and this year that Allison Isailovich would have a lock on the '3' spot because
Allison played last year and she's got experience and good size. But based on
our experience during the summer and at the team camp, Allison played well but
Danielle Brueck stepped up and did things that surprised us when the
pressure was on. She has the 'hops''. She's a good athlete. She can get
her shot of and she can go in and board. She'd start tonight (11-1-2) if
we played. She's probably our 3rd or 4th best shooter. We know good
ballplayers should be able to do that. Danielle is also a top student and a
great kid. She's the kind of person we like to have in our program.
Allison Isailovich - 5-9 - Senior forward
Allison has good size at the '3' spot. She was a former guard at Taft Middle
School so she has good ball skills. She sometimes tries to do too many things
with the basketball. She likes to shoot the basketball. Probably, she's my
captain. She has a better understanding of what we're trying to do and what's
going on on the floor. And she can communicate it with me and talk with me very
frankly. Right now, I'd look for her to start but that's not a given. We
need people pushing people.
It's making for real good competition.
Keri Cuculich - 5-8 - Senior forward
Keri is probably the strongest, most athletic senior that we have. She's
probably a '4' player but because of her strength and some of the things she
can do, if we started (the season) tonight, she'd start at the '5'
position. The only time she's ever going to play the '5' is on defense.
Offensively, she's going to b exposed to everything we do. She'll be on the wing
shooting the basketball, handling the ball and passing the ball. She's always
going to have help on the defensive end so, quite honestly, what we're going with is two guards and three forwards. The key with Keri is
her mental toughness. Can you keep playing when things are going wrong? Keep
going when she makes a few mistakes. If she does that, she'll have a nice year.
Kathleen Fredericks - 5-7 - Senior forward
Three years ago, Kathleen Frederick's had less basketball skill than anybody
else on the squad. But she has worked harder than anyone in our program.
She's a great kid. And she decided that, after watching herself become very
mechanical. She finally decided that if I just play, I don't have to think so
much, things come naturally. She's going to play a lot of minutes if not push to
start. She bench presses 170 pounds, she's very athletic. If we would give an
award to the kid who's put the most time in, it would go to her. She's a
'4' and we just hope she'll play well when the lights come on.
Lauren Rhodes - 5-9 - Senior center
Great kid. Hard worker. She has communicated with the staff and we've communicated with her. She's probably in the best shape she's ever been in. But something's going to have to happen before she takes a lot of time away from Jill (Weiand) and Keri (Cuculich). But she told me last season, "Hey coach. All I'm asking is that you give me a chance. Don't make your mind up ahead of time. I'm willing to wait. If the situations arises. I promise you I'll be ready."
She's trying to show us she wants to play.
What's high school basketball about? If I have a 13th, 14th or 15th jersey, I'm
going to give it to someone who's worked hard and stayed with the program.
Everybody thinks I'm a hard-nosed guy. But I'm not a hard guy to great kids who
have given back to the program. Lauren's probably our best big, physical
person to push inside against a big center.
Jessica Herdt - 5-8 Senior - Guard
Jessica Herdt is another fine young lady. She's probably in the third position at the ''1' (point guard position). She was a very good basketball player at the small school level. Her dad works for BP Amoco and her family transferred here. She was valedictorian at her school but she's come here and been thrown into a quagmire. She's with a lot of people she doesn't know her senior year. She wants to be part of something. I can't promise you she'll get a lot of playing time. But we're going to give her a minute or two here and there and if injuries occur, she's got to be ready. She's having a great deal of trouble adjusting to all the different things we do.
Jen McMullin - 5-9 Senior - guard
We have a great group of seniors this year. Probably some of the best we've ever had. Jen McMullin adds something we haven't had. She adds the fuel to the fire. Quite honestly, we've got nice kids but they're not really very tough. Coach Reid has been impressed that she always plays hard. She never takes a play off. She never seems to say, let's take it easy here. I need a rest. She's probably our best '4' but she's got some terrible fundamental habits that we work on every single night. At the same time, when we scrimmaged, she was the person. Now, she's trying to think about exactly what we're trying to do and how she fits in. When can she do her thing? But she's picking things up rapidly. We like her a lot. I think she'll be in there at the end of close games at the '4' spot.
Melissa (Missy) Cooper - 5-6 Junior - Guard
Missy lost 15 pounds from last year so she's in the best shape she's ever been
in. She can bench press almost 150 pounds in the weight room. She got herself in
top shape to play on the soccer team for coach Malaski and they had a good year.
Missy knows she's not going to score 20 points a game. She knows she's got to be
ready to go hard for a minute or a minute and a half a quarter when we need her
because Cassie can't go. She's a smart kid. She knows that she's always going to
be behind Cassie Pruzin (both are sophomore point guards). That's life.
But I've had kids who were always behind Nancy Cowan and Anne Kvachkoff. And
they were better than some of the kids we have right now. When Annie was
in foul trouble, we had a couple of them come in and help us win the state
title.
I look Missy to play two quarters in the JV game and three quarters for us. We
may need her at the end of games if Cassie fouls out. She needs to play the end
of games and with the 5-quarter rule, she can do all that for us.
Stephanie Sandilla - 5-7 Junior - forward
Stephanie is a '3' . She might be the 3rd or 4th '3'. She's stayed in the program because of her work ethic and she's a smart kid. She's behind a couple of girls but she's got to be ready in case of injury. Stephanie will be waiting her turn to probably some minutes play next year. She's better than the sophomores we have at her position.
Blayre Reeves - 5-10 Junior - forward
This should be her year. This should be a breakout year. If Blayre is ever going to progress towards the point where she'll play at a Div. II or Div. III college level, we feel that Blayre this year has to be a player in the game that everybody in the region knows about. The time for talking about it is over. The time for playing is here. Finish the plays. This is the year where she's got to do what she has to do. Kids want a starting position. Well, here it is. Mental toughness is the key. Playing against Kathleen Fredericks and Jen McMullin in practice, she'll have to get tougher or they'll be playing. Blayre should be averaging double figures in points and rebounds.
Mallory Michaels - 5-4 Junior - guard
Mallory is in the mold of Jen McMullin. She's probably our third '2'. She knows that and she knows what her weaknesses are. Next year, she'll be playing a lot but this year, she'll probably play a lot on the junior varsity.
Jill Weiand - 5-10 Sophomore - center
Jill's another great kid. Very enthusiastic. Always has a smile on her face. She's probably a true forward who's going to play '5'. When we were outmatched all summer with big, strong post people who were mean and physical, she's the one who stepped up. She got knocked down but she kept fighting and fighting. It's not a given that she won't start. She'll battle with Keri for playing time. Next year, she'll probably slide over to the '4' position. We're very excited about her. She gets better every day.
Kaitlyn Sertich - 5-7 Sophomore - guard
Right now, our seniors will be hard-pressed to keep her out of the lineup. The only thing that might keep her out initially is that I'd feel more comfortable starting a senior coming into the season. She could be our best basketball player. The question is, will she make the commitment that Cassie has? Play AAU. Go to Indianapolis. Start traveling. Everybody's going to ask who she is. She's the one who when somebody goes down to shoot a layup, she can run up behind them, jump up and knock it away. She can play. She's a '2''. You'll notice her really quick. They are very young. They'll make some mistakes. She'll make sophomore mistakes. She, Jill (Weiand) and Cassie (Pruzin). Sometime the tears are gonna flow. They're not even one-game sophomores yet.
Cassie Pruzin - 5-7 Sophomore - guard
Cassie did everything over the summer. She played AAU and traveled all over the country. Her parents have done all the right things to get her noticed. Kaitlyn probably should be noticed, too, but she's not out there. Cassie will be the quarterback of our team but she's going to have to do a lot more things than she did in the past. She can't just throw the ball to Alex (now graduated Alex Webster) because Alex isn't here anymore. We need 15 points a game. We expect steals. We expect rebounds. We want her to be on the floor and not get in foul trouble. She's very capable of doing all that. It all depends on her mental approach. Can she take criticism in a very mature manner and implement what we tell her? If she does that, she can be the best guard in the state. If she doesn't, she could be the worst guard because of the maturity factor. I talk about Nancy Cowan. Everybody saw her as a senior but I saw her as a freshman and a sophomore. She wasn't any better than Cassie. I'll live with the young players' mistakes. As Cassie goes, we go. But, as I told the seniors, she's not the kid who has to carry us. She can do her thing on the outside because they have to worry about stopping you, too.
Coach Tom May's Outlook:
We'll be running a no post offense. I don't mean an open post. We probably only
have two people than can beat you one-on-one and that's Pruzin and Sertich. So
we're doing a lot of things with screens and double screens. Freeing up kids to
get wide open shots. We'll have everybody playing a lot of different positions.
That's a pro type of thing but we're running it pretty well right now.
Against a zone, we're not that worried because we've got a lot of kids who can
shoot the basketball.
We're allowing the guards to step in and the forwards to step out. We'll fast
break like crazy. We're encouraging kids to shoot the basketball when you're
open. Feel comfortable knowing that coach May and the staff want you
to shoot the ball.
I think Valparaiso is still the one but the team with the best talent is
Merrillville. The other team that has everybody back is Chesterton. Merrillville
and Chesterton can beat Valpo early and Chesterton wants to beat them. Defensively, we have all our presses and traps but we're more
athletic. Our
guards are bigger than they were. In the games we lost last year, as long as we
pressed we were fine. But when we didn't score, we couldn't press. I went to a
couple of coaches that I really respected who do something I've never seen
around here. They press after missed shots. Now, when you see it, it'll look like
folks are running all over the place but there's a plan. I have never seen a
team in this area press after misses.
Luers was the best team we saw last year and they could be the best team
we'll see (1-25-2003) this year. They could be the best team in the state.
For the
Record: 2001-2002 (15-7)
11-9-2001:
61-39 at Hebron (25-3)
11-10-2001: 60-35 Andrean (19-5)
11-17-2001: 61-49 Munster (9-12)
11-23-2001: 55-66 at Warsaw (17-5)
11-27-2001: 55-29 at Lowell (6-16)
11-30-2001: 55-33 PORTAGE (12-9)
12-1-2001: 48-55 Wawasee (23-3) at Hammond Civic Center
12-7-2001: 68-35 at MERRILLVILLE (8-14)
12-11-2001: 35-26 Highland (21-6)
12-15-2001: 37-39 VALPARAISO (21-3)
12-19-2001: 35-43 Lake Central (12-10)
Lady
Bulldog Shootout (in Crown Point)
12-29-2001:
69-22 Lew Wallace (3-14)
12-29-2001: 25-43 Martinsville (16-7) title
1-4-2002: 47-35 at Michigan City (5-16)
1-8-2002: 47-35 at Kankakee Valley (13-9)
1-12-2002: 50-31 at CHESTERTON (11-11)
1-18-2002: 65-45 LaPORTE (5-16)
1-22-2002: 55-45 at Plymouth (14-7)
1-26-2002: 45-33 at HOBART (12-9)
2-2-2002: 53-56 at Bishop Luers (22-5)
Portage
(4A) Sectional
2-8-2002:
46-30 Hobart (12-9)
2-9-2002: 38-41 Valparaiso (21-3)