Lightning looking for improvement in all the right spots

Patrick Laverty

Last season, Sage Hill School’s girls basketball team improved its

record from 5-13 in 2001-02, its inaugural year, to 16-6, reaching

the second round of the CIF Division IV-A playoffs.

But third-year Coach Shanna Renkin isn’t necessarily looking to

improve on that record again this season. She would much rather see

the Lightning take their lumps during a more difficult nonleague

schedule with the hope that it will help them improve upon last

year’s third-place tie with Brethren Christian in the Academy League.

“I’d rather have a successful league season than a successful

preseason,” Renkin said.

Last year, Sage Hill had just one loss prior to beginning Academy

League play, but lost its first two league games. An improvement on

the latter is expected with four returning starters and the kind of

height that coaches at the Newport-Mesa public schools would die for.

Leading in both categories is 6-foot-1 sophomore Haywood Wright, a

second-team All-CIF Southern Section Division IV-A selection, and 6-2

junior Katie Puishys, a second-team All-Academy League player.

With 5-4 sophomore point guard Debbie Yoder-Lee and 5-6 junior

guard Vicky Gutierrez also returning as starters, visions of a jump

to the top of the Academy League standings are realistic.

“Definitely,” Renkin said. “This year, [a league championship] is

definitely realistic for us. It’s not just building anymore. We’ve

got our whole man-to-man defense down. Now we can start pressing. We

can start changing our defenses. We haven’t been able to do that.”

For the past two seasons, Renkin has been trying to build a

program. It grew with the birth of a junior varsity squad last

season. Now that junior varsity team is beginning to assemble its own

talent that can flourish for Sage Hill in future years.

Renkin also added an assistant coach, Richard Bowen, a former

assistant with the Sage Hill boys program, which will allow for more

individual development.

That individual development is key, particularly at the guard

position.

“We’re definitely stronger,” Renkin said. “Guard-wise, we had

Carrie Clark and that’s it [last season]. This year we have five to

six guards that can start.”

Clark graduated, but her leadership role is expected to be picked

up by Puishys and Gutierrez. The improved guard play is expected to

help Puishys and Wright inside.

“Last year everybody played us in a zone,” Renkin said. “No one

played us man-to-man. They can’t do that this season.”

With Sage Hill’s size, some teams will still undoubtedly try,

beginning with Calvary Chapel of Downey on Tuesday. The Grizzlies

knocked the Lightning out of the playoffs last season and begin a

tough nonleague schedule that also includes a nonleague game against

Ocean View and a first-round matchup against Calvary Chapel of Santa

Ana in the Fairmont tournament, which Sage Hill enters as the

defending champion.

Aiding in the attempt to become champions of the Academy League

will be two other returners from last season, 5-8 sophomore guard

Allison Gonzalez and 5-9 forward Natasha Kaliski, the only senior on

the team.

There are also three newcomers expected to contribute including

North Carolina transfer Rebecca Hembarsky, a 5-10 forward, and 5-8

freshman Kaitlin Tyres. Those two are expected to battle for a

starting spot. Laura Schaefer, a 5-4 sophomore guard who played on

the junior varsity team a year ago, rounds out the roster.