Height is big plus for ML girls

New Medical Lake girls head basketball coach Brett Ward will be bringing some higher-level learning and practices to his job.

Ward, who spent the past six seasons as an assistant for the Medical Lake boys, plans to integrate some of what he took in while a student at Washington State University. He worked inside the WSU athletic department.

He got to see first-hand and be involved in practices and games what a college program really looks like,” Ward said. In particular, he was able to observe the amount ofw time and effort and energy that goes into that.

“And that’s sort of how I’ve been approaching it with these girls,” Ward, who took over following the eight-year stint of Kyle Lundberg who stepped down last spring.

To say the least it’s a fast-paced environment filled an emphasis on weight training as well as skill development.

“This summer, the schedule kind of was Monday through Thursday, we’d lift for an hour and then we do at least an hour of skill work right after that,” Ward explained.

Another element borrowed from those days in Pullman is film study. “We watch a lot of film. My girls just were watching film for about 30 minutes on who we’re playing tomorrow,” Ward said.

And like college, scouting reports on the upcoming opponents are part of Ward’s team prep.

“We were going through a scouting report on the team’s strengths and weaknesses that we’re playing and how we can attack those and try to minimize those strengths,” Ward said.

Medical Lake’s tenure under Lundberg featured a run of three consecutive Northeast A League regular season championships and state tournament berths.

The Cards, however, were sixth last season 0-8 in the NEA and 5-11 overall. But there’s plenty of experience, and something unique to the program — height – that promises to see an improved bottom line in 2022-23.

“We have a nice mix of some returning players as well as some players that are coming up from JV,” Ward said. “We are a young team in the sense that our only our only senior,” that being Mckenzi Hammel who tore her ACL playing soccer.

Notable among those returning players is junior Charde Luat, who earned All-NEA recognition last year as a sophomore. “I think she has a chance to be the best player in the league,” Ward predicted. “So that’s a great building block to have,” he added.

Delaney Gunther, who “Played a nice role in varsity last year,” worked hard in the off-season and has a chance for some League honors in the future. Cassidy Fitzpatrick is another returner who didn’t have as big of a role last year on varsity, but will this year, according to Ward.

Now for that height.

Junior Chiche Okembgo lists about 5-10 and will be at post. “I think she has a chance to be one of the best defensive players in the league,” Ward said.

Tessa Appel, also a junior post, at 6-2 who Ward said is “A high level volleyball player who’s really starting to figure out how to translate that athleticism to basketball.”

Junior Natalie Flavelle, Ward said is the tallest of the group — “She’s probably a little bit taller than Tessa is” — who has a ton of potential and has been getting better every day.

Sophomore Chloe Parsons is projected to be “Our sixth man this year. “

Ward is a ninth-grade English teacher going on seven years at the school.

Paul Delaney is a retired Free Press Publishing reporter and can be reached at [email protected].