Wolves coach wants players to step up

“Who is going to step up?" is one of the questions on the mind of Wolves girls varsity basketball coach Mark Zastrow this season.

After winning a ninth straight Packerland Conference title and advancing to the Division 4 sectional finals last season, Zastrow lost seven strong varsity seniors at the end of last season.  This season, he has only three returning letter women:  seniors Baleigh Delorit and Anna Dier and sophomore Mikayla Haack.

“We’ve got two really experienced players, and our depth – all the other kids are pretty even,” he said.  "A lot of them are going to have to learn to be varsity players this year."

While Zastrow is waiting to see who will step into various varsity roles, he hailed Delorit who signed a national letter of intent with the Northern Michigan University women's basketball team on Nov.16.

In the Wolves first two wins against Sevastopol and Green Bay Preble last week, the girls showed they were able to “be strong with the ball," said Zastrow.  But they will need to work on consistency, he said.

The new varsity players also have to improve their defensive intensity and get comfortable with the physical nature of the game at this level, he said.

“They are a new bunch of girls, but they are fusing well,” he said.  “They work really hard in practice.”

Zastrow, who is in his 10th year of coaching the Wolves, said that as the season moves forward he will be looking for some of the players to step in to the starting roles of last year’s seniors.

“This team can be as good if not better than our previous teams if the younger players continue to develop,” he said.

The Wolves play Valders High School at Valders at 2:30 p.m. this Saturday

This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press Gazette: Wolves coach wants players to step up