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Last year a ‘motivator’ for basketball team
By LEE DIEKEMPER
Article published on Thursday, Dec. 28, 2006 |
CLEARWATER – Clearwater High School girls basketball coach Tom Shaneyfelt has built quite a reputation since he took over the Tornadoes program in 1993.
Consider last year: The Tornadoes won 23 games and advanced to the region semifinals. Yet, by the standards set by his previous teams, it was one of the worst.
Such is life for the girls basketball program at Clearwater. The bar has been set so high, that 23 wins (the “worst” under a Shaneyfelt-coach team) was considered subpar.
Last year marked only the second time in Shaneyfelt’s tenure that the Tornadoes didn’t win a district, breaking a streak of a decade of district titles. It also marked just the second time since Shaneyfelt came to Clearwater that the team did not advance to the state tournament in two consecutive seasons.
Shaneyfelt referred to last season as a “rebuilding year.” His players look back on it as motivation for this season.
“It stunk bad, it really did,” guard Megin Kawczak said.
“We knew we could do better,” guard Brittany Carannante said. “To not get to the state tournament, well, we want to get there even more now. And we can get there.”
“I wouldn’t say it was embarrassing, but it was frustrating,” said forward Lauren Lee. “Tradition is important here and part of that tradition is getting to the state tournament. Everyone (playing previously for Shaneyfelt) has done it. I feel like we’re letting people down if we don’t. It’s the standard Clearwater has set to get there.”
One reason the Tornadoes may not have reached the state tournament last year was Lee, through no fault of her own. She was making the transformation from guard into a post player and was just starting to catch on with playing the new position when she was injured and missed the rest of the year.
The Tornadoes never quite recovered from missing Lee.
Still, despite her solid play of late (consecutive games in wins over Boca Ciega and Largo with 20 points and 10 rebounds), Lee admits she’s still learning the position.
“Last year it wasn’t like I was used to playing center,” Lee said. “It’s different than playing guard, real different. I mean you have to rebound playing center and you have to help out in ways you won’t as a guard. I’m still learning.”
What Clearwater may lack in experience on the front line the team makes up for with plenty of experience in the backcourt.
“We have some things a lot of teams don’t have and that’s a lot of guards,” Kawczak said. “Everyone can handle the ball pretty well.”
“I think we are good now but we can still improve,” Carannante said. “We can still improve on our defense.”
Shaneyfelt likes the fact his team is experienced and healthy and seems to be clicking at just the right time. He thinks the team can pull together and return to the state tournament, especially since the girls are more than a little motivated from last year’s stumble.
“We have kids who we are confident of and are coming on,” Shaneyfelt said. “Hopefully we can get back to the form of what we are used to. I guess you could say we’re back to the future.”
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Article published on Thursday, Dec. 28, 2006
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