By Jordan Burton (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
Drew Schulte is entering his seventh season at Seneca, a run that has included a pair of 20-win seasons and a district title in 2022.
The program hadn’t had a 20-win season in more than a decade prior to his arrival.
Seneca returns three starters and seven letterwinners from last year’s 12-16 team as they look to get back to the state playoffs.
A quartet of seniors will lead the way with Samarah Mittag returning after an All-Big 8 Defensive Team selection. The 5-foot-4 guard averaged 4.6 points, 3.8 rebounds and 1.5 steals.
“I look for her to be one of four senior leaders,” said Schulte. “She has worked on being more consistent on offense this year. She can shoot the 3 well, and she can get to the rim. She improved on both aspects in the summer, and I know she will bring that with her this next season.”
Classmates Makenzie French and Sydnee Staley also return to the backcourt. French averaged 2.2 points and 2.1 rebounds, while Staley added 1.3 points and 1.6 rebounds. Danessa Macy is the fourth senior on the roster and is back after missing all of last season due to a torn ACL.
“I expect Makenzie to step up and take a leadership role,” said Schulte. “She’s quick on defense and we look for her to be one of our outside threats on offense. Sydnee does a great job covering the floor on defense, rebounds well, and gets to the free throw line.
“Danessa didn’t get to play last year due to an ACL injury, but she’s ready to get back to playing basketball. I think she could really help us in all aspects of our program. A team player and has a selfless attitude.”
Daelynd Campbell is a 5-foot-9 junior post that averaged 3.3 points and 3.1 rebounds.
“We are going to be looking for Daelynd to patrol the paint on both sides of the ball. She really improved over the summer offensively and we look forward to her playing a huge role for us this year. She’s aggressive on the boards and plays great low post defense.”
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Callie Rhoades and Maddie Collinsworth are two high IQ players that will compete for varsity minutes.
Sophomore Olivia Haase will take over at point guard after seeing varsity minutes as a freshman.
Schulte is also excited about the development of Ashtyn Lannon, Sophia Connell and Olivia Wade.
Lannon adds backcourt depth, while Connell and Wade give Seneca more players that can fight in the paint.
“Our expectations will be the same,” said Schulte. “We are going to have to play fundamentally sound basketball this year. We have a lot of new players competing for starting positions, and we are looking up at who is stepping up. Defensively, our philosophy will not change much, we still have to apply lots of pressure, stay out of foul trouble and we have to control the boards. As usual, we need to prevent second chances for our team to be successful.”
Seneca will jamboree on Nov. 14 at Nevada before opening the 2023-24 regular season by hosting Neosho on Nov. 20.
