When women’s basketball season tips off on Nov. 14, Jodie Wynn will have a luxury that she hasn’t experienced in her six years as head coach at Long Beach State.
“This is actually the first time we’ve had a fairly old team,” said Wynn, who returns all but two players from last years’ team that finished with a winning record for the first time in Wynn’s tenure at Long Beach.
Last year’s squad finished the season at 17-15 overall and split their 16 conference games. Gone from last year are Ella Clark and Jade Wilson, who combined to average 15.1 points per game.
According to Wynn, the team has seven players over the age of 21, including three girls who redshirted last season after starting the year before.
However, only three players are entering their final year of eligibility: Alex Sanchez, Lauren Spargo and Hallie Meneses.
Sanchez, a senior guard, has been a captain since her freshman year. She redshirted in 2010, so this will be Sanchez’s fifth season at LBSU.
“I’ve seen people come and go,” Sanchez said. “ I like that this is our experienced year, especially since it’s my senior year. Every year has been our best year, but I feel like this gives us that extra oomph.”
Spargo also stressed the importance of the continuity and familiarity of this years’ squad.
“It’s fun to have a lot of returners from last year,” Spargo said. “We all know the system, and we’ve played with each other. Even the freshmen class last year, they were kind of thrown into the fire when they first got here, and we really needed them.”
Of the four freshmen last year, two of them, Anna Kim and Raven Benton, averaged over 20 minutes per game last year. The other two, Madison Montgomery and Jewelyn Sawyer, averaged just under 20 minutes.
Wynn said that usually one or two freshmen would break into the lineup or the rotation. “But to have all four – they got great quality playing time,” Wynn said. “By the end of last year, we didn’t really consider them freshmen any longer because of their experience.”
Kim, whose 22.9 minutes per game was the highest among freshmen, admitted that it was nerve-wracking to compete against older girls.
“Most freshmen play one or two minutes, but to have a coach like coach Jodie and her coaching staff to the point where she trusted us and was like, ‘here, go play, let’s see what you can do,’” Kim said. “All of us responded quite well and had a lot of fun. I think it prepared us for this season.”
Kim also stressed how great it was to have such a veteran team; as a point guard, she found a mentor in Meneses.
“We’re both point guards, and she showed me the way,” Kim said. “How to be a point guard, how to be composed on the court and how to act in certain situations.”
Meneses is one of five players on this team who was around in 2012, when the 49ers lost to UC Santa Barbara in the Big West Championship game, despite entering the tournament as the seventh seed in the conference.
“My sophomore year, we had a taste of it,” Meneses said. “We were so close. That’s something I really need to emphasize and make sure our lower levels can see that feeling.”
“There’s more experience and more maturity,” Wynn said. “They’re more about the success of the program rather than playing time and who’s starting, and more focused on doing whatever it takes to win a championship. We have seven juniors and seniors, six who have been here for four or five years. They’re ready. They’re ready to make a mark in the Big West.”