Warsaw junior Aubrie McRoberts returns to lead the Warsaw Lady Wildcats as they work to get to double-digit wins after a six-win season a year ago.
McRoberts has averaged a double-double in each of her first two high school seasons with 693 career points and 564 career rebounds. She averaged 15 points and 11.4 rebounds per game last season.
“At 5’9″ and with her skill set we can play her one through five on offense, which allows us to take advantage of mismatches,” Warsaw coach Cody Morgan said. “If you watch her play softball you can see that she has a cannon for an arm, which makes it easier for her to make passes that others cannot. She is one of the best rebounders I have ever coached or been around. She has a nose for finding rebounds; one of those sixth senses that basketball coaches love in their players. She is our hardest worker day in and day out. She makes everyone around her better. The best thing about Aubrie is she doesn’t care if she leads the team in anything as long as we win on the scoreboard, even though she led us in every statistical category last year as a sophomore. I look for more of the same from Aubrie. It’s hard to stop players who are mentally tough as much as they are physically tough.”
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Seniors Jessie Glenn, Jordan Plybon, Kamryn Yach and Megan Mantonya along with junior Kya Schepker and sophomore Kylee Fajen are other returning impact players to watch. Plybon led that group in scoring at 5.6 points per game. Fajen (4.8 points) and Glenn (4.6 points) were just behind her in scoring average.
Morgan expects sophomores Taylor Spry and Aspen Whitaker to step up as impact players this year. He also has strong group of freshmen to lean on in Taylor Howe, Karlie Jones, Mira Segar and Kylie Clevenger.
This group will bring speed to the court this year.
“Our biggest strength is going to be speed,” Morgan said. “I feel like we have a lot of fast guards on this team, and our post players can get up and down the floor too.”
A big change for Warsaw this year will be joining the Ozark Mountain Conference.
“Joining the Ozark Mountain Conference will drastically cut down on our travel time. Before we were traveling 2 to 2.5 hours to play conference games. This year every conference games is 1 hour and 15 minutes or less drive,” Morgan said. “We feel like the schools that are in this new conference are more like us too, bigger rural schools which makes our kids more comparable and should provide for a competitive conference. One challenge to this new conference is the pedigree that comes with the girls basketball programs from all the schools. Several of the programs have made Final Four appearances and won state championships. The ones that haven’t still have a rich history of girls basketball.”
Morgan has big expectations for his team this year in his sixth year as coach.
“This season is going to be a turning point of our program,” Morgan said. “It is yet to been seen if we can get back to where the program was in the 1990’s under the late Don Dixon, but that is what we want to get back to. Competing for wins every night, tournament championships, and district titles. The most important thing we can do this season is to have a positive influence on the young ladies in our program and help them to continue to grow and mature as productive members of our community.”
Warsaw opens the season on Nov. 19 at home against Cole Camp.
