NEW PALESTINE — Expectations are high.
They should be. The New Palestine girls basketball team, coming off one of the best seasons in school history, finds itself in a strong position.
The Dragons graduated one senior from last year’s sectional championship team. They have eight on this year’s team, a staggering number that gives New Palestine an experience advantage over just about everyone.
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“We have set very lofty goals. We’d love to repeat as sectional champs and compete at regionals,” New Palestine coach Sarah Gizzi said. “Our girls think they can do that. We’ve added a couple of tough teams to our schedule to try to help us prepare for playing some of those big schools. We’re really excited. We’re hoping to kind of seek some revenge in the conference. We lost on a tough buzzer-beater here to clinch the conference title. We’d love to do that as well.”
Gizzi, in her second year, couldn’t ask for a much better start to her time as coach of the Dragons. The team started last year with a nine-game winning streak, went 18-7 and won a sectional.
But losing to No. 1 Pike in the regional semifinal, and finishing third in the Hoosier Heritage Conference, means there is still work to do.
She’s confident in the group she has this year. The only senior that graduated was a role player, not a starter, and they have a key piece back from injury in Jordan Reid.
“We’re just really looking forward to building on my first year as coach, the fact that we have this really special senior class of girls,” Gizzi said. “We just want to build on that and see how far we can go.”
Most of the Dragons’ roster has been playing together since third or fourth grade. Team chemistry is a huge factor for the team, Gizzi said.
That experience and familiarity has also allowed the team to do more review than teaching, focusing on fine-tuning some things instead of teaching new concepts.
It adds a good deal of confidence, too.
“We’re a really deep team. We’ve been playing with each other as long as I could possibly remember,” senior Haley Harrison said. “Especially only losing one person — she was a good player for us and definitely made an impact — but also we have Jordan coming back. It’s really cool having all these returning varsity players. We all know each other’s strengths and weakness; we all know what we’re good at and our abilities. We’ve all seen each other play good games and bad games. All these girls, we’re friends on and off the court. Year-round, we’re hanging out. It’s really cool to have such a deep team, but also such a close team. We know each other from the inside out.”
Reid’s name keeps coming up around Dragons practice. One of the few key players that isn’t a senior on the team, she missed all of last season after sustaining an ACL tear during the 2017 soccer season.
Now a junior, she is just another piece in a well-known Dragons puzzle, adding another dimension and benefit for the team.
“I think we can start from where we ended last year,” senior Leah Seib said. “With Jordan back, that’ll add speed to our team. That’s really exciting. Practice so far, we’ve been ahead of schedule. Everybody knows the plays and everything already.”
With all the seniors in the lineup, the Dragons have an abundance of potential starters. Gizzi said at least seven could start now, with several more that could work their way into the starting lineup during the season.
They are led by Seib, the reigning Hancock County Player of the Year, an all-conference player who led the HHC in rebounding and free-throw shooting and was the conference’s fourth-leading scorer at 13.7 points per game last year. Her 6.2 rebounds per game topped the conference.
Guard Megan Jolly, another senior, contributed 9.2 points, 4.2 rebounds, 3.3 assists and 2.4 steals per game last year. She and Harrison, who averaged 7.9 points and 1.7 assists per game, were the Dragons’ other All-HHC players.
Senior guard Tatum Biddle and senior center Katie Herron were both named honorable mention All-HHC in their junior years.
“It helps a lot because teams don’t focus just on me,” Seib said of having such a deep team. “If I’m not having a good night, other people will have a good night so we can still have a chance to win.”
The Dragons figure to pile up the wins again this year. Gizzi is hoping they do it in a more consistent fashion than last year, though.
The team started hot and finished strong but had two stretches where they lost three out of four games.
“The girls just kind of kept it rolling, and it didn’t seem to affect them either way,” Gizzi said of the winning streak to open the season. “They weren’t overwhelmed by that or getting big heads about it. They kept it in perspective. I think that they know that we should win a lot of games. We have a high expectation to win a lot of games.”
The goals are big this year, but for this group, they appear attainable.
They expect to win a lot. But it’s specific wins — conference title, sectional, regional and beyond — that matter the most.
The Dragons had another taste of success last year when they won their fifth sectional in program history. They want the conference title, though, something they haven’t attained since 1993. They also want to get back to the regional and see if they can push beyond.
“Every single one of these girls wants it,” Harrison said. “We know we can do it. We saw us go that far last year. With that confidence, we can keep that in mind but work harder to get past that point.”
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Coach: Sarah Gizzi
Last season: 18-7, lost to Pike in regional semifinal
Top returnees: Leah Seib, Megan Jolly, Haley Harrison, Katie Herron and Tatum Biddle, seniors; Jordan Reid, junior
Key newcomers: None
What to expect: The Dragons are a loaded team, with a massive amount of experience that should serve them well in the new campaign. Last year’s 18 wins were the second most in program history, and this year’s team is capable of surpassing that mark. With three all-HHC players returning and eight total seniors, the Dragons have the talent and depth to push for their first conference title in 25 years. New Palestine should be favored to win another sectional title, too, with a deeper tournament run in sight. Seib should be a player-of-the-year candidate, but with the experience around her, she won’t need to carry the load every night. Expect another very successful year out of the Dragons.
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