Sports feeds
E-mail sports alerts
SNS sports mobile
Home
>
Sports
>
High Schools
>
Springfield Catholic Central
Barbara Perenic
Catholic Central High School's Taylor Johnson takes a jump shot over the Northwestern defense last week. Johnson hit eight 3-pointers in the season opener. STAFF PHOTO BY BARBARA J. PERENIC
Fresh start paying off for Catholic Central
Irish have begun the season 2-1 under new coach Hannah Scherger.
Hot Topics
By Michael Cooper,
Staff Writer
11:08 PM Tuesday, December 6, 2011
SPRINGFIELD — The Catholic Central High School girls basketball team isn’t thinking about its past. The Irish are only worried about what they can do keep improving in the future.
This season, the Irish got a fresh start under first-year coach Hannah Scherger and have begun the season 2-1.
“I think our team chemistry is going well,” said Scherger, who spent three seasons as an assistant under Dave Schlicher and Steve DeWitt. “They’re working hard in practice, doing a lot of the little things. We’re not working on fundamentals as much as we have had to in the past, which is helping us out a lot. It’s allowing us to focus on the big picture.”
The Irish have had just one winning season in the past five years, going 11-8 in the 2007-08 season. They’ve won just nine games in the past two seasons, but that’s all in the past.
The goal, Scherger said, is to prove they shouldn’t be overlooked. Scherger played at Lehman Catholic and helped turned the program from a “joke” into a competitor.
They’re also building at the younger levels, and are fielding a junior varsity team this season.
“I hope we get to a point where we can bring in some fans, get a little more respect,” Scherger said.
Two new players have been key in Central’s success this season. Senior Taylor Johnson, who started at Central as a freshman but played the last two years at Urbana, is averaging 22.0 points per game, while junior Paige Lewis, who transferred from Mechanicsburg last winter, is averaging 17.0 PPG.
“I feel pretty privileged to be here,” Lewis said. “It’s nice to be here to help start the tradition. It’s pretty cool.”
“It’s a lot of fun to be here and be playing for (Coach Scherger),” Johnson said.
Lewis, a slashing guard, and Taylor, a 3-point specialist who hit eight against Northwestern last week, have been a nice compliment to each other.
“I think we work well together,” Johnson said.
While they’re off to a strong start, the Irish know they’ve got to keep the momentum going.
“It’s a matter of discipline,” Scherger said. “We’ve got to keep doing the little things.”
Lewis said the goal is to get to the point where their opponents look at the schedule and not automatically write in a victory against Central.
“I hope this is the year where that changes,” Lewis said.
Contact this reporter at (937) 328-0365, Michael.Cooper@coxinc.com or on Twitter @SNS_Wizard.
Share this article
Breaking news by e-mail
Start your day with top headlines in your inbox and get breaking news e-mail alerts at any time by subscribing to our Headlines e-mail newsletter.
See Sample | Privacy PolicyView All
Top Jobs
 |
 |
Latest Sports Blog Posts
About our ads
About our adsCopyright © 2012 Springfield News-Sun, Springfield, Ohio, USA.All rights reserved.
By using this site, you accept the terms of our
Visitors Agreement and
Privacy Policy. AdChoices
. You may wish to note our
other business policies.
User comments are not being accepted on this article.