Winter sports preview: SHS girls basketball

Head coach: Larry Brown (2nd season)

2016-2017 record: 5-7 in league (fourth), 8-14 overall; 0-2 at districts

Top returning players: Jessica Dietzman (so.), Hope Glasser (so.), Bobbi Sparks (jr.), Kyla Armstrong (so.), Alisha Grasser (sr.)

Key additions: Kalli Wiker (fr.), Jayla Julmist (fr.), Abigail Schroeder (fr.), Melissa Porter (fr.), Pilar Allseda (jr.), Jessica Dominguez (sr.), Lindsey North (sr.)

How does a team learn to replace two all-league players, including one named co-MVP?

Quickly, their coach hopes.

Entering his second season as Sequim High’s girls basketball head coach, Larry Brown looks to a crop of young, speedy players to help rebound from losing athletic forwards Adrienne Haggerty and Ella Christiansen to gradaution.

“Losing experience is scary,” said Brown, following a preseason practice last week, “(but) what we lack in size we make up for in the love of basketball and knowledge of the game.”

A trio of sophomores are back to lead this year’s Wolves in Jessica Dietzman, Hope Glasser and Kyla Armstrong, while junior guard Bobbi Sparks looks to help lead the way at guard and Alisha Grasser is back after a one-year absence from the squad.

Ninth-graders Kalli Wiker, Jayla Julmist and Abigail Schroeder look to make an impact right away, Brown said.

Schroeder “may be one of our fastest players,” Brown said, and called Julmist a “rebound machine.”

“All of them are multiple-sport athletes,” Brown said of his squad.

“We have 12 girls who are under six feet tall but they’re super athletic. We’ll force teams to play faster than they want to play.”

Brown expects the Wolves to be in the mix in the Olympic League despite a lack of relative size and losing his star forwards, plus graduates Erica Bower and Carissa Leal.

“All teams lost a good senior or two, at least,” he said. “It should be fairly even (in the league).”

North Kitsap is the reigning champ with a 10-2 league record, followed by Olympic (9-3) and Port Angeles (8-4). Bremerton, Kingston and Sequim finished with 5-7 records.