{"id":8964,"date":"2023-11-01T21:14:40","date_gmt":"2023-11-02T01:14:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/?p=8964"},"modified":"2023-11-02T08:58:30","modified_gmt":"2023-11-02T12:58:30","slug":"sisson-excited-for-patriots-23-24-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/2023\/11\/01\/sisson-excited-for-patriots-23-24-season\/","title":{"rendered":"Sisson excited for Patriots’ ’23-’24 season"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

MIKE MACKE<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

WZBD.com<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every year in high school basketball is a new season. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most teams graduate a few players and look to build on their returners with some underclassmen who will fill the holes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At Heritage this season, coach Nicole Sisson will be replacing five seniors and 86% of the scoring from last year\u2019s team that went 6 \u2013 17 and finished fourth in the ACAC (3 \u2013 4). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Coach Nicole Sisson graduated the bulk of her scoring last season. She will have a clean slate to mold this year’s Heritage team. (Photo provided)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Leading scorer, rebounder and first team all-conference selection Claire Bickel (14.5 ppg and 4.5 reb\/g) has graduated along with classmates Ava Pilon, Kendall Zelt, Lydia Schultz and Raelyn Mullins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Three players, each with only one year of varsity experience, will return. That means it will be a very young, inexperienced club that takes the floor for the Lady Patriots. It is something that coach Sisson looks forward to working with this season. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Senior Natalie Otte will see plenty of minutes at the guard position for the Patriots this season. (Photo provided)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAlthough being young and having a lot of new faces, this team has huge potential for growth and improvement based on their work ethic and coachability.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Returning are seniors Natalie Otte and Grace Guenthner along with junior Danica Fuller. Guenthner will be a forward while Otte and Fuller are guards. Combined they averaged 4.2 points and 3.3 rebounds per game last year but will be counted on to step up those numbers this season. They will also need to provide leadership and guidance for the youth movement that will be Heritage basketball. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Addison Meyer and Isabella Martin are sophomores on the roster while Audra Bickel, Trinitee Brown, Olivia Lybarger, Kaydence Wallace and Elise Hissong are freshmen who will make the squad. Brown and Lybarger are listed as key newcomers as well. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The team\u2019s success will depend on how rapidly they can come together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur young players will need to learn and develop quickly. I look for us to compete, especially the latter half of the season after gaining more game experience as a group.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Coach Sisson believes that this year\u2019s ACAC will be more open than in the past. Jay County will still be favored but may not be as far ahead of the rest of the teams. Woodlan and Bluffton should also be strong contenders. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur sectional should be pretty exciting as there is not an outright favorite or dominant team at the moment. We\u2019ll see who develops and is playing their best basketball in January.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Heritage Patriots have hopes to be competitive in the ACAC this season. (Photo provided)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Clearly, coach Sisson is optimistic that her Lady Patriots will be one of those teams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first two games on the schedule are at Leo on 11\/2 and at Garrett on 11\/7. The first home game for Heritage will be against Wayne H.S. on November 14.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MIKE MACKE WZBD.com Every year in high school basketball is a new season. Most teams graduate a few<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8965,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[15,51,26],"class_list":["post-8964","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-featured","tag-heritage","tag-sports"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wzbd.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/image3-7-scaled.jpeg?fit=2560%2C1707&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8964","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8964"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8964\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8964"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8964"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8964"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}