Finally Healthy, Hopewell HS Girls Basketball Hope to Start 2nd Half Charge Towards Playoffs
With just 7 games left in the regular season, the Hopewell Vikings High School Girls basketball team is looking to start a winning streak.
That’s going to be needed if they hope to continue their streak of participating in the WPIAL Playoffs.
Unfortunately, because of a slow start, the Vikings are hoping to climb out a hole caused by an early season losing streak. Not to make excuses, but a big part of that losing streak was due to injuries up and down the roster, particularly to last season’s leading scorer Caylee Sundy.
The good news for Coach Jeff Homziak’s squad is that for practically the first time this season, they are completely healthy, which is great news and gives the team optimism.
This morning, Vikings Sports Now had the chance to catch up with Coach Homziak and asked him the impact of not having Sundy for the majority of the season and what her recent return has meant.
“Anytime a team is without a player who provides leadership on the floor or playing field, it forces other players to have to assume roles that they may not be ready for at the time, but it forces them to develop skills that will benefit themselves and the team further in the season and their playing careers,” said Homziak.
While it may have negatively impacted the record, plenty of young players benefited as they saw their minutes and responsibilities increase with the absence of Sundy. Addison Blosnick and Cici Smetana, in particular, are playing a lot more than maybe they expected considering they’re just in 9th grade.
“Over the last five-six weeks, younger players have been provided opportunities to display their abilities against varsity competition which otherwise may not have been available,” said Homziak. “It has also helped our coaching staff evaluate our strengths and weaknesses going forward. This has made our total number of players who can provide varsity minutes greater in terms of bench depth.”
The coaching staff is hoping that this depth and playing time will pay dividends down the stretch as Hopewell looks to sneak into 4th place, which would get them in the playoffs.
“We currently are in 5th place in the section standings halfway through,” said Homziak. “On Monday we have the opportunity to earn a season split with Hampton and move into a tie for 4th place. Four teams and ties qualify for the playoffs from our section, so Monday’s game is critical for us trying to earn a season split and the second half of section play.”
The game tomorrow is at Hopewell High School with a tipoff set for 7:30 PM. It’s a big game so if your schedule allows you to, showing up and supporting this team would be appreciated.
Here’s a look at the current standings and Hopewell’s remaining schedule.
Class 4A, Section 2:
Blackhawk: 6-0
Beaver: 5-2
Central Valley: 4-2
Hampton: 3-3
Hopewell 2-4
Lincoln Park: 1-4
Ambridge: 0-6
Hopewell’s Remaining Schedule-
1/20: vs. Hampton
1/23: vs. Blackhawk
1/27: at Beaver
1/30: at Ambridge
2/1: at Rochester
2/6: vs. Central Valley
2/10: at Mohawk
*Need to reschedule a postponed game against Lincoln Park
