By David Boyce, Northwest Athletics
MARYVILLE, Mo. – During workouts and conditioning this spring and summer, sophomore Tanya Meyer and freshman Macy Williams realize there will be moments they will be tired and need a break.
But they will look back on games like their next to last one in which they lost 69-63 to Emporia State, and know if they could have made one more play, dove for and retrieved one more loose ball, perhaps the outcome would have been different.
“What if we didn’t take one of those possessions off, how many of those close games we could have won if we would have worked much harder and hustled harder to a loose ball,” Meyer said. “During the offseason, as we are working out, we know we have to push ourselves that much harder than we have in the past.”
The desire to get better comes from new head coach Buck Scheel, who officially became Northwest Missouri State’s eighth women’s basketball coach on March 22.
In his introductory press conference Tuesday at the Student Union, Scheel, who has been guiding the Bearcats since mid December, stressed that individual improvement from each player will lead to a better a team.
“A lot of that will start with the returners. We have to commit to more individual improvement first,” Scheel said. “I feel when you really commit yourself individually to bettering your talents, then that can come together as a team.”
Scheel has the personality and the demeanor to get the players to push themselves to get better. Athletic director Mel Tjeerdsma saw that when Scheel moved from assistant coach to interim head coach in December.
The Bearcats had just lost by 46 points at Central Missouri. The season was off to a rough start, and it became obvious that many of the players were not having fun playing basketball and even though that still had pride in representing Northwest.
The first game Scheel coached, Northwest nearly pulled off an upset at Missouri Southern, losing by five points.
And in the final two road games before Christmas break, the Bearcats suffered just a two-point loss and a four-point loss.
“He created an atmosphere of respect,” Tjeerdsma said. “The players became a lot more productive, and most important, they enjoyed the game.”
In order to get better, you have to enjoy the game because the process of improving to be competitive in one of the toughest conferences in NCAA Division II is going to be difficult.
There will be many days when muscles ache. Players need to have respect for the coach to push through those tough days when workouts are extremely difficult.
Scheel developed that with his players in his three months as the interim head coach.
“I think we really progressed as a team since he took over last season,” Williams said. “I am really excited to see what we can do next season. He got some really good traits out of us that we probably didn’t know we had. I think he is really going to expand on that.
“I think the biggest thing is taking that drive we had from those close games. We had conditioning this morning and that was the thing that went through my head, we let so many close games slip away.”
Scheel saw how the players responded to his coaching and that caused him to want to be their head coach even more.
“Having two close games right before break told me that I really think I can get this team to buy into each other, buy into me and we can go out and compete,” Scheel said.
“After those two games and after the Christmas break, I had time to sit down and take it all in and it pushed me even more to try to get this team on the right track.”
Meyer recognizes that workouts will be hard. Northwest has missed the MIAA Tournament the last two seasons. The Bearcats want to do more than just make the tournament.
“He will push us to our limits and probably past them to see what we have because he knows we have a lot of potential,” Meyer said.
Indeed. Despite losing three important seniors in Tember Schechinger, Shelby Mustain and Taylor Shull, Northwest has a number of young players who showed flashes that they can compete with the best in the MIAA.
Over the next few weeks, Scheel will be searching for an assistant coach and several recruits to replace the departing seniors.
But the success of next season will depend on how much time and effort the returning players put in during the offseason to get better. Scheel is confident he has a group of players willing to do it.
“I will continue to drive these student-athletes to be successful academically, athletically and socially during their time in the Northwest women’s basketball program,” Scheel said. “I am excited to work with the returning players and the recruits that will be added later on.
“I look forward to building a program that will provide a source of energy, excitement and pride for the Northwest community.”
— Northwest Athletics —