{"id":9346,"date":"2023-11-10T06:00:29","date_gmt":"2023-11-10T11:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/?p=9346"},"modified":"2023-11-10T09:58:27","modified_gmt":"2023-11-10T14:58:27","slug":"culture-is-everything-for-this-years-bellmont-braves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/2023\/11\/10\/culture-is-everything-for-this-years-bellmont-braves\/","title":{"rendered":"Culture is everything for this year’s Bellmont Braves"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

RANDY HISNER<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

In Andy Heim\u2019s first five years at the helm of the Bellmont girls\u2019 basketball program, his teams averaged four wins per season. In the seven years since then, they\u2019ve averaged 18.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How did they turn it around? And how do they keep it going?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt has to do with culture,\u201d Heim said. \u201cCulture is important to everything.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In those early years, when his team was struggling to win games, Heim was slowly building the culture he wanted. A culture of excellence. Of high expectations. Of iron-clad commitment. It is paying off. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Kate Kitson (shown with ball) is one of several talented freshmen in the program this year. <\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen I first started,\u201d Heim recalled, \u201cgirls would show up in the summer whenever they wanted, but most of these girls, including our 11 freshmen, showed up all summer long, played in the Carroll league, played in all the stuff I asked them to, with no questions asked. They\u2019re showing up because they want to get better, or they like it, or\u2014I don\u2019t know what it is, they just show up. It\u2019s a testament to them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

\u201cWe are 25 individual people who have their own minds and their own thoughts and their own agendas, so culture can never be perfect,\u201d Heim added, \u201cbut for the last handful of years, we\u2019ve had really good team chemistry.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Coach Andy Heim gives instruction to his players during a practice earlier this season. <\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The chemistry on last year\u2019s team helped produce a sterling 18-5 record. Heim graduated three starters from that squad: leading scorer Sydney Keane (12.1 ppg), second-leading rebounder Rachel Bleke, and sharp-shooting guard Ellen Scott.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Heim will miss Keane for more than just her scoring. \u201cSyd was a great key for us in positivity and leadership and just being that calming presence on the floor,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rachel Bleke\u2019s graduation leaves a void as well. \u201cRachel was tough,\u201d Heim noted. \u201cThat\u2019s six rebounds a game. And she was just an intimidating presence out there. We need a replacement for that toughness.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rachel\u2019s younger sister, Emily\u2014a junior, returning starter (8.3 ppg, 4.0 rebounds), and a second-team All-NE8 selection\u2014is perhaps equally tough, but Heim can\u2019t afford to play her inside much. \u201cEmily could fill that toughness role,\u201d he said, \u201cbut I need her out away from the basket doing ballhandling things, which is obviously going to bring her rebounding numbers down.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fortunately, last year\u2019s leading rebounder, first-team All-NE8 center Hailey Cole, returns for her senior year. She averaged 7.6 boards and 10.8 points. The versatile Cole, who has committed to playing for Trine University next year, will be difficult to guard in the post, but she can also step out and drain a three.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Braves have plenty of other very capable athletes. Junior Kam Jarvis, a leading player for the JV team who also saw some varsity minutes, will accompany Cole in the post, and senior Arabelle Laurent will provide depth at point guard. Gwen Laurent, a junior, will see action as a forward. Freshmen Kate Kitson and Lanie French, who both played well in the team\u2019s recent scrimmage against Southern Wells, will also add to the team\u2019s depth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Heim hasn\u2019t totally abandoned last year\u2019s offensive system, but fans should expect to see something new. \u201cThe old stuff is still in, with the flare screens and the handoffs,\u201d he stated. \u201cWe\u2019ll still run that occasionally, but we have switched to the Stanford-Princeton offense. It will put the ball in Hailey\u2019s hands a lot. It\u2019s a lot of back cuts. We\u2019re doing the back cuts now, but kind of going through the motions. We got better all through the summer, and we\u2019re getting better now as we\u2019ve picked it back up.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scoring, Heim feels, can come from many sources. \u201cShooting is a strength of ours,\u201d he said, \u201cbut as I tell everybody, I thought it was a strength of ours last year too, but you\u2019ve got to learn how to shoot with pressure and with a hand close, and not just shoot when we\u2019re at practice and scrimmaging against people we know.\u201d Heim\u2019s two returning starters have shown they can do that: Emily Bleke (56%) and Cole (52.8%) led last year\u2019s regulars in field goal percentage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So impressive is the athleticism of this year\u2019s squad that Heim plans to expand the Braves\u2019 defensive repertoire too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI hope we get to play a little bit of man this year,\u201d he said. \u201cI think we\u2019ve got a couple freshmen (Kitson and French) who are really good defensive players. Emily can defend. We\u2019ve got smart kids who can defend, so we\u2019ll toss in some man. It\u2019s probably on me as a coach to understand that there are going to be some hiccups and not just bail on it. I think we can get good at it by the end of the year.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the NE8 conference race, it\u2019s mostly the usual suspects\u2014defending champ Columbia City, tradition-rich Norwell, and Bellmont. Columbia City returns all its starters, including three first-team all-conference players. Norwell brings back NE8 first-teamers Kennedy Fuelling and Makenzie Fuess, along with second-teamer Dekota Hubble and honorable mention picks Annabelle Johnson and Vanessa Rosswurm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Heim considers defending champ Norwell the favorite in the sectional, with his team and Northwestern providing the biggest challenges to the Knights. Northwestern ended the Braves\u2019 season last year in a hard-fought sectional semifinal game. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Braves open the season at home against Concordia on Tuesday, November 7.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RANDY HISNER WZBD.com In Andy Heim\u2019s first five years at the helm of the Bellmont girls\u2019 basketball program,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9349,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[41,13,15,26],"class_list":["post-9346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-basketball","tag-bellmont","tag-featured","tag-sports"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wzbd.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/DSC_0023-1-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1696&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9346","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=9346"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9346\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}