The Garden City Telegram
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Lady Buffs' bigs look to be formidable foes
Published 12/4/2008 in Special Sections : GCHS
By JASON ELMQUIST
Garden City High School girls basketball coach David Upton has been coaching for years -- both boys and girls -- but this year's girls squad is different. At least for Upton.
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Brad Nading/Telegram — Garden City High School's Marisela Rodriguez, right, grabs a rebound away from Dodge City's Kaley Temaat during a game last season at Dodge City.
It's big.
"We've got some pretty good size and it's not just at the forward or center position," Upton said. "We do have some size at our guards, too. Our three starting guards aren't that big, but we've got some guards coming off the bench that have some pretty good size. So this is one of the taller teams that I ever have coached."
The height down low is more than pretty good with post players senior Marisela Rodriguez standing at 6-3, junior Carly Schmale listed at 6-1 and Lexi Josserand, a 6-0 junior forward. And one particular guard with size is Paula Gonzales, who at 6-0 also anticipates seeing some playing time on the blocks.
"I used to play down low too," Gonzales said. "I kind of like it better down low because of my height."
The scary thought with the bigs for the Buffs, is Upton thinks they still have room for improvement.
"They have the potential. They haven't reached what we think they can do yet," Upton said. "And that's part of coaching. You've got to get them to believe what you see they can become because a lot of kids buy into this easy way out of saying, 'I can't do that.'"
"One thing they have learned to do, is how to fill up the lane on defense.
"We've really been working on posting up hard and getting our hands out really wide on defense," Schmale said. "Because we realized the other day that if Marisela and I just spread our arms across the lane both of our arms can cover the entire lane. So the offense can't really get in between us."
While the post players are thinking how their size will help on defense, Upton is talking about the athleticism of the girls which he hopes will translate into offense.
"My style is kind of where we want to push the ball and be up-tempo," Upton said. "Fortunately, all of our girls can run the floor pretty well. I've never seen any of our practices or any of our games from last season to where we had a real issue with big girls getting up and down the floor. Not only will our size be a factor, but having girls that can actually run the floor is going to help us stay with the style we play."
And leading that charge will be a point guard at the other end of the height scale. Junior Ashley Nuzum, a projected starting guard, is listed at just 5-2.
"Our point guards are pretty much amazing," Rodriguez said. "We have someone that's like 5-foot and she's just running circles around everyone."
So it's no surprise that Nuzum is anticipating the transition offense with the way the entire team will be able to get up the court.
"Our fastbreak will probably be pretty dominating," Nuzum said. "We'll be able to spread the court real wide. We'll have our two wings and then our post player will be right down there and just feed the ball to them for easy lay-ups."
It's not just Nuzum that sees the potential for "easy lay-ups." Her coach also wouldn't mind being in her current position on the floor.
"If I was playing point guard for this team I would be eating it up because that just means that if I get the ball and push it down the floor I've got some big girls coming," Upton said. "If I can just draw the defense to me, I'm going to get an assist all night long."
And it seems all the guards already understand that.
"It's amazing because we have so many other options instead of just a jump shot or a drive to the lane," said junior Syd Sassaman, a projected starting guard who is listed at 5-4. "We have so many options to go inside. Me and Carly like to go in-out, kick it in and out and it just opens up so many things."
Coach: David Upton
Roster: Alyssa Heitschmidt, Jr., forward; Cindy Benitez, Sr., guard; Cathy Boos, Sr. guard; Mari Ruvalcaba, So., guard; Amy Golay, Jr., guard/forward; Lexi Josserand, Jr., forward; Paula Gonzalez, So., guard/forward; Ashley Nuzum, Jr., guard; Syd Sassaman, Jr., guard; Traci Martinez, So., guard/forward; Carly Schmale, Jr., forward; Marisela Rodriguez, Sr., center.
SCHEDULE
Dec. 4-6-Hays City Shoot-Out; Dec. 12-13-Elk City (Okla.) Festival; Jan. 9-GREAT BEND; Jan. 10-Dodge City; Jan. 13-Liberal; Jan. 20-Ulysses; Jan. 22-24-Valley Center Tournament; Jan. 29-31-Newton Tournament; Feb. 6-Hays; Feb. 7-DERBY; Feb. 10-COLBY; Feb. 13-Great Bend; Feb. 14-Guymon; Feb. 17-DODGE CITY; Feb. 20-HAYS; Feb. 24-LIBERAL.
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