Wildcats looking to have fun, win in last run with talented senior group
Kierstyn Kindschy drove to the basket with Abby Thompson defending during Blair-Taylor girls basketball team practice last week. The two are a part of a large senior class that has helped the program to three straight Dairyland Conference titles. (Times photograph by Andrew Dannehy)
The Blair-Taylor girls basketball team isn’t entering the season thinking about a trip to the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association State Tournament. Or about how it will be the final year the team’s eight seniors play together. Instead, they’re thinking about the experience they have the opportunity to enjoy this season.
“I want to see them having fun on the court, playing together and, really, that’s what it’s all about,” Jesse Lien, the team’s coach said.
Some of the team’s seniors played as freshmen in 2019-20 and almost all saw the court as sophomores as the team has racked up a record of 62-12 over the past three seasons, including 26-2 last year. The team finished last season ranked third in the final WisSports.net poll as their only two losses came to Bangor.
Lien said the group has mostly been together for the last eight years, but they don’t feel pressure entering this season.
“I don’t look at it as pressure,” Lien said. “It is wanting to see them have fun with it.”
The coach said there are benefits to having a group that has been together for so long.
“It’s fun to see little things click between them,” Lien said. “How they don’t even think about it, they just know where each other is gonna be. That comes from playing with each other for so long.”
He said he is spoiled by having a veteran group that includes two players who have scored more than 1,000 career points.
The season could be a historic one for senior Lindsay Stein who enters with 1,730 points, 255 shy of the all-time Trempealeau County record, held by her father, Eric. But she isn’t letting individual accolades enter her mind.
“It’s not something I think about, necessarily,” Steien said. She said her dad tells her to “just go out there and play.”
Like her coach, Steien said she doesn’t feel added pressure entering her senior season.
“I don’t think it’s any added pressure,” Steien said. “I think we all wanna go out there for one goal to win and play well like we know that we can.”
For the first time in her career, she and her teammates enter the basketball season coming off of a winning volleyball season. “That success definitely helps, I think we can just take it into the next season and the next season after that.”
What should also help is having more experience with the coach. While the team has played together for much of their lives, last season was Lien’s first on the bench. Having experience in his system is something he thinks will benefit his squad this year.
“We’re gonna just have the ability to go from one set to another without thinking much about it,” Lien said, adding they can also integrate other plays.
That said, a large part of the team’s success has been their ability to use their instincts.
“I can put a play out there, but they also play basketball and go to the basket or shoot the ball when they’re open,” Lien said.
While the team has eight seniors, Lien said there are some younger kids who could enter the system and help his team this year.
As they enter what most expect to be a successful season, Lien said he enjoyed challenging his team.
“It’s really good to challenge these girls and they like that,” Lien said. “They like doing something different, something difficult. I’m looking forward to a good season with them.”
