By Logan Miller, staff reporter.
Delta College women’s basketball nears the beginning of the 2016-2017 season as Head Coach Kelly Miller enters her twentieth year as a coach. She was an assistant coach for three years and has currently been the head coach of the team for seventeen years. Coach Miller has been a steady anchor for Deltas women’s basketball program, capable of succeeding at a high-level amidst a constantly rotating door of young players flowing in and out of the roster.
Last year, the 2015-2016 Delta Pioneers ended their season with a win-loss record of 18-11 in their regular season games. They held a record of 11-5 within their conference, playing against division II teams.
Miller says she doesn’t really compare past teams to her current players.
“I usually don’t have a reason to compare teams. There are six returning players mixed in with the freshman. So it’s not an entirely new team, really,” Miller explains.
Miller’s teams are always competitive, but especially when facing off against a particularly infamous postseason foe, St. Clair.
Miller and sophomore player, Ashley Lee, speak on the budding rivalry between the two college programs.
“St. Clair is always well coached. Always very competitive. We want to come out with a win against them, for sure,” Miller says.
Lee describes it as a continuous tally of their past meetings, recording the wins and the losses.
“There’s definitely more competition and a sense of revenge. We all remember the players on the team from last years games against St. Clair. We had beaten them twice in the season but then ended up losing to
them in the playoffs,” Lee says.
The loss to St. Clair was their first game of the 2015-16 postseason. The final score was 77-71.
There’s definitely a mutual grudge shared between the coach and the players against St. Clair and the playoff game that slipped away from them last year. They focus their energy, though, on working towards the major goals they’ve set for themselves this season, including and especially the sophomores, such as guard Brooke Schutte, who are eager to break past the first round and compete deep into the tournament.
“A goal for us as a team would be to win regionals. We’re also aiming towards being 1st in our conference,” Schutte says.
“We have a lot more sophomores this year, so there really is no excuses,” Lee adds.
The Delta coaching staff works to mold the style of play around the abilities the players already had when they walked through the door. Miller says that her playbook usually always changes drastically from year to year based on the variety of different athletes that join the team. If a group of players on the team excel at an uptempo type of game, Miller explains, the coaching staff would focus on installing a fast-paced offense centered around aggressively attacking the fast break.
Delta’s current team has a variety of strengths for Miller and her staff to utilize in a way that best benefits the team as a whole.
“We’ve got strong fundamentals, very scrappy; a tough, defensive team,” Miller explains.
Schutte and her teammates are upbeat about their season and very ready to play winning basketball late into the year.
