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Senior
Allison Hilderbrand will help lead the Lady Jets to a possible
Cross County
Conference crown during the 2011-12 season. The Jets will
battle Ansonia in the opening
round of the Burkett. CNO Photo by Dale
Barger, fmjets.net
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At FM, it’s out with
the old, in with the new
By George Starks
PITSBURG- Franklin Monroe, like many other schools in Darke County, is
in a transition period as the 2011-12 basketball season looms ever
closer.
The Lady Jets have known just one coach for many years, Ned Gray. This
year, the Jets will be under the tutelage of a new coach, Gavin Spitler.
Coming off a 11-12 season a year ago, the Jets graduated six seniors
and finished in the middle of the pack in the Cross County Conference.
With a new coach comes a new system and a new way of doing things.
“The kids seem to be adjusting well,” said Spitler. “They’re getting
stuff down now and they know what to expect in practice and what we
expect of them. So they are getting it.”
With just four seniors, Spitler is positive about his floor leaders.
“Our four seniors are solid,” said Spitler. “Aubree Myers played a
little bit of varsity last year and is one of the best soccer goalies
in the area. Now, you might wonder how soccer ties in with basketball
but as a goalie, Aubree has great hands and does a very good job
handling the ball. She is a great passer, so she will be an asset under
the basket. At 5-9, she will see some time in the post because she
knows how to move her body and get in position to do what has to be
done also. Again, that comes from being a goalie.
“Brittany Glover will come in off the bench for some support on the
wing. She is extremely athletic. Allison Hilderbrand will see some post
time off the bench and Sydney Hartzell will be a wing for us after
taking last year off. I like this group. They are positive with their
attitudes and that is a good influence on the rest of the team. They
are good girls and hard workers.”
If Spitler is battling one thing, it’s height. With Meyers at 5-9,
Spitler does have 5-11 freshman Katey Fuson.
“This team lost some serious height last year,” Spitler pointed out.
“This year, we’re going to be a little short but quite honestly, we’re
going to work hard and hopefully that will help make up for some of the
lack of height.
The Jets might not be the team to beat in the CCC but Spitler does
expect to see things from his team.
“What I really want to see is this team work hard in practice
everyday,” Spitler acknowledged. “I want to see improvement throughout
the season and that we learn and become a team. I think if we work hard
and play our style of basketball, we can play with any team in the
conference. There are some good teams in the conference but we will
give it our all.”
While Tri-Village is the team to beat in the conference, the Jets have
a very tough out of conference schedule starting with Russia right
after the Burkett.
“We have teams like Russia and Ft. Recovery,” said Spitler. “We have
Versailles, Milton-Union and Brookville on that schedule so we have a
non-conference schedule that‘s loaded.”
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