Sports
Analysis: Lemont Coach Heller Optimistic About Team's Youth
With three underclassmen starting, Lemont has plenty of youth, but there are still growing pains to endure.
Second-year coach David Heller is positive and optimistic about his young Indians team going into the 2011 spring season. That optimism is tempered with strong expectations for the future.
“We lost four seniors last year, but we have a very young starting lineup with two sophomores and a freshman. Most teams are trying to rebuild this year.”
Even with a pair of tough conference losses in the first week to Richards and Oak Lawn, the Indians have plenty of talent to go around.
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The talent was best displayed early in the first game with solid defense by the Indians’ front line and kills by hitters Mike Krueger and Ryan Leadley. Their solid team play gave them an early 14-10 lead before Oak Lawn called a timeout to regroup.
“They came out flat to start with,” Spartans coach Ryan Skendzal said. “They played with more emotion after the timeout.”
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The early momentum the Indians enjoyed evaportated after Spartans setter Ali Sheikh led the Spartans to seven unanswered points and a 17-15 advantage. The Indians could not respond and lost 25-19.
Game two started close, but missed chances, poor hits and poor sets by Lemont put them in a deep hole early and they couldn’t get out of it, giving the Spartans a clean sweep.
Heller remains upbeat, but realistic about the future. “We need to keep pushing teams and grow as a team ourselves, but these things do take time.”
