Following a seventh consecutive KMAC championship and 11-1 KMAC mark and 18-4 overall record last season, the Cardington-Lincoln’s girl's basketball program begins a new era with a clean conference slate and a new head coach.
Gone are KMAC Player of the Year Beth Hardwick and a slew of seniors.
Over is the 67-game conference win streak, which came to an end against Danville in last year’s regular-season finale.
Departed is successful head coach Jamie Edwards.
New is first-year head coach Kevin Fitzpatrick.
Despite the many changes, there remains a thread of continuity, Fitzpatrick is not new to the program.
“I have been coaching 22 years at different grade levels,” Fitzpatrick said. “I have been the varsity assistant at Cardington for the last six years, but this is my first varsity head coaching job.”
The first-year head coach will rely on lessons learned from a variety of mentors.
“I’ve been blessed to learn from and work with some great coaches over the years,” Fitzpatrick said. “ My philosophy comes from a combination of those coaches.”
With three returning lettermen from last year and two other players who lettered the year before, Cardington-Lincoln faces the same challenges many of their opponents do as well.
“We lost a lot of varsity experience from last year’s team, but so did the other teams in our league and in our area,” Fitzpatrick said. “I’ve been trying to get the kids to buy into the slogan or motto or whatever you want to call it, 'Why not us?'”
The Lady Pirates have a winning tradition, compiling a 148-22 record over the past seven seasons, and achieved top-5 division rankings often, and that may go a long way in shaping this season’s success.
“I am counting on our returning kids. They are the ones that had the opportunity to play with some great players and to learn from them,” Fitzpatrick said. “I want them to help our staff instill that same desire, commitment and work ethic that they learned from past players.”
Size, skill, knowledge of the game and athleticism are assets for a squad that will rely on inexperienced players as much as returning veterans.
“We still have talented players,” Fitzpatrick said. “We just need the court time and experience of playing at the varsity level.”
Fitzpatrick hopes to reinforce the team by putting the players in high-intensity situations against quality preseason opponents.
“The speed and intensity of the game is just different, and we are trying to get them to that level,” Fitzpatrick said. “I scheduled some tough scrimmages mainly for that reason. I wanted them to get the feel for a varsity level game.”
Look for Cardington to run a motion offense.
“I have a simple rule that I learned when I first started coaching, and that is: One, two, what do I do?” Fitzpatrick said. “Every player has two seconds to make a decision: Am I going to pass? Drive? Or shoot?”
The Lady Pirates will play mostly man-to-man defense in the forecourt while adding some full-court pressure as the season progresses.
“The reason I want to slowly add in our pressure defenses is that we can focus more on fundamental man-to-man defense,” Fitzpatrick said. “If we can play solid man-to-man defense, the rest will take care of itself.”
Allowing opponents second-shot opportunities is an area in need of improvement.
“My biggest concern defensively is our ability to rebound,” Fitzpatrick said. “We have struggled in our scrimmages to limit teams to one shot, and I want to continue to work on that. If we can limit teams to one shot, that will help us tremendously.”
Transitioning up and down the floor should not be a problem for this group.
“We should be able to get up and down the floor and put pressure on the opposing team,” Fitzpatrick said. “It’s pretty simple. I want our team to play with great effort on both sides on the floor. If we can do that, we will be very successful.”
Enthusiasm and confidence should prevail for the Lady Pirates this season. Fitzpatrick feels they will contend for a KMAC title after early season growing pains against the rigorous competition.
“We start off with North Union, who will be a strong contender in Division II this season,” Fitzpatrick said. “The following week, we play Loudonville, who returns a player that has scored more than 1,000 points in just two years, and they are a team who won over 20 games last year. Those games will be early tests for us.”
A difficult early-season schedule coupled with of philosophy of continuous improvement should go a long way for the Lady Pirates
“I believe we will be a team that gets better as the year goes on,” Fitzpatrick said. "We want to be playing our best basketball at the end, and I believe that we will be doing just that.”
