Parke Heritage girls' hoops team looks to continue success

After falling in the semi-state the last two years, the Parke Heritage girls' basketball team would love nothing more than to go one game further and compete for a state championship this season. 

Last year, the Wolves went 20-8 under first-year head coach Mitch Simmons and bring back a wealth of talent this winter and a desire to cut down the nets at Gainbridge Fieldhouse. 

"After last year, we were chomping at the bit to get back in the gym. The biggest thing is we have tried to not talk about last season and how it ended. It is coming from every other direction, and we have heard how we are supposed to be good and we only have one step to take. There is so much to take into a season, and there is luck involved, and you can't project anything. Was it motivation? Absolutely. Did it put a bulls-eye on our backs? Absolutely. But, we are a much different team than we were a year ago. We are bigger, stronger, faster and we had a really good summer to build off of last year," Simmons told The Parke County Post. 

The Wolves fell 48-41 to Eastern (Pekin) in the second game of the semi-final last year. Simmons said watching the boy's basketball team win a state title a few weeks later has his team believing they can do the same. 

"You don't play or coach at Parke Heritage to be average. The goal is to be the best you can be at it. If you're not, you aren't doing it the right way. The greatest worst part of last year was you get beat and you are sitting there and sulking. The boy's won the state championship, and all of a sudden we think we can do this," Simmons said.

During the offseason, Parke Heritage dealt with the injury bug and got to see a lot of players get meaningful minutes against a variety of teams. 

"We had a whole bunch of injuries and played only one half of one of our 15 games as a unit. We had a lot of girls who were thrown into the fire and got better. We went to Purdue camp and played teams from Chicago, and it was huge to play those games. You see different styles, but they didn't like playing against the Parke Heritage physicality. It was really good for us, and we had to figure some things out," the second-year head coach said. 

Simmons also admitted having an entire offseason with his team was huge.

"Last year, we were still figuring out how to dribble and how to defend. Now, if we say something, it is a done deal, and that is huge. The girls do the pre-practice on their own. They take over, and I can go talk to the coaches now. The offseason and summer stuff was good for us because we were able to fine tune some things, and we didn't get that last year," Simmons said. 

Parke Heritage brings everyone back, including a nucleus that includes: Birkley Schelsky, Kennedy Mitchell, Lila Busenbark, Carly Newnum and Addie Ramsay. 

"We knew last year when we started a freshmen, two sophomores and two juniors the future is what you are building for. Last year's run was premature and it was kind of ahead of schedule. Once we bought in, we figured out how good we could be. We have a year where we are older and stronger. A lot can happen between now and tournament time, but our confidence level is high," Simmons said. 

With the experience come the expectations, and Simmons understands that completely. 

"We said that last year. This program has had so much success, even before we got here. If you go somewhere, they know who you are and they want to beat you just because of what you've done. When you bring everyone back, it heightens it for the area. We are going to get everyone's best shot, and we know that. If you have success, people want to beat you. I think you manage it by going to work every day. There is a lunch pail mentality, and we work to get better. We know who we are and what we are willing to do, but the question is what are you going to do when you are by yourself and when things don't go well on a Tuesday night. We will see that as we go. We will have some games where it won't look good, and that is part of it, but how will we respond? That is the interesting part," Simmons said.