Emporia High’s girls basketball team worked plenty of things in at its first practice of the year on Monday at EHS — which is good, because there’s a lot of newness and a lot to learn.
Coach Bill Nienstedt worked in a little bit of everything — offense, defense, scrimmaging and conditioning — at Monday’s inaugural practice.
“I guess this is the 25th year that I’ve done this for a first day of practice, and I’m always a little nervous, a little anxious,” said Nienstedt, entering his ninth year at EHS. “But it always seems to go pretty well in the end, and it did today.”
Nienstedt knows that after senior forward Lindy Arndt, he’s got a highly inexperienced team. Other than Arndt — a first-team All-Centennial League pick and the Spartans’ leading scorer last year at 12.2 points per game — there aren’t many varsity minutes back from the 19-6 team that took fourth place at State last year. Once you’ve factored in forwards Sarah Kolmer and Courtney Waldner — both of whom came off the bench last year as sophomores and figure to have much bigger roles this year — almost all the returning varsity playing time is accounted for.
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