After defeating Lawrence North in five sets for the Sectional title, Head Coach Mrs. Mary Hemer ’09 has been preparing her team to play New Castle, a top nationally ranked team, on Oct. 26. 

Hemer said both the practices are changing to adapt to teams the women will play next round, but they are also the same. “Things that will be consistent is there will be more jumping at the beginning of the week, just for legs and tapering off towards match days. Practices will also be longer at the beginning of the week regardless of what’s going on. The yes side to the question is we are doing some things to prepare for the competition we will see this weekend to best prepare us for that,” Hemer said. 

Senior leadership, especially during this week, is important. “Honestly, this week has been very scouting heavy, especially because we are playing the Number-1 team in the state right now. So we’ve given the girls the scouting information early in the week and the seniors are the ones who are making sure the girls are studying, knowing what we are talking about going into practice,” said Hemer. From Oct. 21, the first day of the week, to the next afternoon, according to Hemer, there was a difference. 

Playing a nationally ranked team can be challenging, but Hemer is using some of the team’s strengths to play to its advantage. “We are making sure the girls are lined up in our strengths versus their weaknesses, and they are put in positions to better us as a team. We are making sure, especially this week, that we fill every position with the player who is best at that spot to play to our strengths,” said Hemer. 

Before practice at the beginning of the week, Hemer said she told the girls how they practiced would determine their outcome at the Regional. She said they have also talked about the tasks they need to get better at to ensure their successes over the weekend. After practice, they talk about what improvements were made for one day to another, getting the players to buy in on what to expect the next day.

Hemer said it is essential to the success of any team to have a large fan section at the games because it can change the momentum from one side to another. “A large crowd can make or break our team, but also our opponents. I don’t know if our opponents have played with the energy from a large crowd, but I know it energizes our girls and saves us energy when we can feed off the crowd,” she said. 

Hemer wanted every fan to know how important it is to come and support the team. The team has been preparing and will give the crowd their best look because the women are prepared for this step. Hemer’s team will play New Castle at noon on Oct. 26 at Greenfield-Central.