'99-00 SCHEDULE

Dec. 6 -- Kennedy Christian       9 -- Canfield       13 -- at Liberty       16 -- Newton Falls       28-30 -- Brookfield Tournament Jan. 3 -- at Badger       6 -- Hubbard       8 -- at Boardman       10 -- Lakeview       13 -- at Champion       20 -- at LaBrae       24 -- Liberty       27 -- at Newton Falls       31 -- Badger Feb. 3 -- at Hubbard       7 -- at Lakeview       10 -- Champion       14 -- at Fitch       17 -- LaBrae

Lady Warriors are inexperienced

By Matt Deutsch
Herald correspondent

Many times during Tim Filipovichís 18 years as a head girls basketball coach at Brookfield High, he has been able to shuffle his players in and out of the lineup with great success, due largely to their versatility and talent. It appears as though that is the case again for the Lady Warriors basket-ball team this season.

One potential obstacle, however, is Brookfieldís overall lack of experience. The Lady Warriors re-turn just three letterwinners from last yearís squad, which finished 12-11 overall, 8-6 in the Trumbull Athletic Conference (TAC-8) and advanced to the Division III district semifinal contest.

Those three letterwinners are 5-4 senior guard Rena Paroz, 5-6 senior forward Jessica Keso and 5-11 junior forward Jessie Truchan. According to Filipovich, thereís a good chance that those three will be part of his starting lineup, although nothing is yet set in stone.

"I havenít decided on a starting lineup yet," said Filipovich. "Everyone is competing for it right now, which is good."

In addition, 5-6 senior forward Kelly Pasquerilla is looking to rebound from an injury which lim-ited her action last season, and there are seven others who are vying for playing time.

Among them are 5-7 senior guard/forward Andrea Zagger, 5-3 junior point guard Corrie De-Capua, 5-6 junior guard/forward Callie McMullen, 5-8 junior forward Amanda Kohler, 5-5 junior guard Monica Reiser, 5-6 senior guard Katie Raykie and 5-4 sophomore guard Jennifer Ford.

Although Filipovich expressed concern regarding the relative inexperience of his unit, he also noted that the burden of victory wonít be carried on the shoulders of just a few players.

"I do think that inexperience is going to hurt us early in the year," said Filipovich. "I donít have the kind of team thatís going to depend upon one or two players to execute, though. I have a group of 11 who can play pretty well, so weíre going to try to use them all."

"That (inexperience) could be a weakness at the beginning. However, even though my seniors donít have a lot of playing time, theyíre doing a good job of leading at practice and theyíre working really hard, more like an experienced team would."

Another of Filipovichís worries revolves around his teamís ability to put the ball in the hoop. The departure of last yearís top two leading scorers is the main source of that concern.

"I donít know where our scoring is going to come from yet," said Filipovich. "We graduated (Heather) Mohney from last year, and also (Mandi) Mortimer, and those two were responsible for 22 points a game. That was about half of what we were scoring.

"Right now, I donít have anybody who was really a scorer last year, but like I said, I donít think weíre going to depend on any one player. Weíre going to try to play some full-court defense and work on creating some turnovers to give us some easy chances."

Regardless of who starts and who doesnít, Filipovich is confident that his pool of reserves will be one of the strongest in the conference throughout the campaign.

"One of our strengths is our bench," he said. "Any one of these 11 players could end up being a starter. As long as everyone accepts their roles and where theyíre at, we should be alright."

Concerning this yearís TAC-8 race, Filipovich is of the opinion that almost any squad is capable of winning the title, including the Lady Warriors.

He did tab last yearís champions, the Bulldogs of Lakeview, as the early-season favorites, though.

"I think the TAC-8 is wide-open and up for grabs," said Filipovich. "Itís made up of a lot of teams that are similiar to us, teams that lost some senior players who were major contributors. Thereís a lot of young players, so the group that matures the fastest may have the best chance of winning (the league championship).

"Itís really a balanced league. With Lakeview winning last year, they have a solid group of return-ing players who have a little more