Wayne High Girls Looking For More Improvement, Talented Youth

WAYNE – In about two weeks, the Wayne High girls basketball team will open their 2022-23 season.

Earlier this week marked the first official NSAA practices as the Blue Devils enter year number two under head coach Aaron Carlson.

Week one of practices have been set aside for fundamentals.

Coach Carlson said this year’s group has felt a lot more comfortable.

“Not as much of our stuff that we’re putting is new,” said Carlson. “A lot of it is review for some of our girls expect for the freshman. I think they’re just picking up stuff a lot quicker this year which is a benefit to us and I think we’ll have a little bit of a jump coming into our first couple games of the season.”

Joining coach Carlson on staff will be Brendan Dorcey and Payton Andel.

This year’s roster will be made up of 22 players with three seniors being Brooklyn Kruse, Logan Miller and Madi Urbanec.

Over the summer, the Wayne High girls basketball team participated in the Concordia (Seward, NE) team camp and stayed overnight in Valentine while rafting down the river and playing more games.  Players also competed in a summer league in Norfolk.

Coach Carlson added there’s a big class of 10 freshmen out.

“That freshmen class I think they got a couple girls that are going to be fighting to contribute on some varsity time,” Carlson added. “Like I said we kind of got a mix of age levels. We got some players from every grade level that can be fighting to contribute and get some playing time at the varsity level.”

Last season, Wayne High finished 12-13 falling to Bancroft Rosalie/Lyons-Decatur, 46-44 in the C1-7 Subdistrict tournament. WHS showed a five-win improvement from the 2020-21 season after going 7-19.

The Blue Devils girls will begin their season at Battle Creek on Friday, December 2 at 6:15 p.m. before welcoming in Ponca on Saturday, December 3 at 5:15 p.m. during their home opener.

Coach Carlson is looking forward to a great year with another tough schedule featuring state caliber teams.

“So, we’re looking forward to competing with them,” Carlson mentioned. “We want Wayne to be one of those schools that other schools look at and think ‘man that’s another tough game on our schedule’. I’m excited for the season and I know our girls are pretty excited. We’ve had a great couple days of practice and we’re looking forward to continuing to build on that.”

This year’s Holiday Tournament hosted by Wayne will feature the teams of Auburn, Hartington Cedar Catholic, Laurel-Concord-Coleridge, Pender, Pierce, Plainview and Winnebago. The tourney will last from Wednesday, December 28 – Friday, December 30.

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