Batavia brings plenty of depth

Batavia coach Tim DeBruycker said the Bulldogs are deep enough to use six different starting lineups in the team’s first six games.

While that kind of depth is no doubt a good thing, it will make the early part of the schedule trying at times as a Batavia team with just four seniors mixes its veterans with a promising group of young players and DeBruycker looks for the best combinations on the court.

“Right now I’m going to send the girls in (the game) in waves,” DeBruycker said. “We have some parity sort of speak. Almost the exact same talent-wise between our veterans and new kids.

“We will try to play uptempo, try to tire teams out and get up and down the floor. Our biggest key will be finding who will score night in and night out. We don’t need one, we can do it with seven. If get six or seven are averaging seven points you will do great.”

The Bulldogs return two starters, sophomore point guard Sami Villarreal and forward Maddie Sychta.

“Sami, I look for her to score more this year,” DeBruycker said. “Obviously as a freshman getting thrown in she had some growing pains, and I thought she did a great job.”

DeBruycker said Villarreal is relaying what she learned as a freshman with some of the other young faces on the team, which includes freshman guard Liza Fruendt and freshman post Erin Bayram.

Fruendt, whose sister Sara just graduated after starting three years, has a “very nice jump shot, athletic, needs to work on strength and making sure she’s strong with the ball,” according to DeBruycker. Bayram will share playing time inside with 5-foot-10 sophomore Katie Ryan and junior Mariah Zwart.

After coming on strong last year, Sychta will be a focal point of Batavia’s attack.

“Maddie is trying to take more of a leadership roll, she’s worked on her ability to face up to the basket and play more of a four this year,” said DeBruycker.

On the wings, DeBruycker has senior Katie Baglieri at shooting guard with sophomore Miranda Grizaffi and junior Michaela Strehlau competing for time. Juniors Kaytlin St. Clair and Tamar Norville are “both athletic and go to the basket, maybe they will split some time,” at small forward.

Junior guard Heather Anderson led Batavia with 9 points in its season opener Tuesday at Glenbard South.

“We’ve got a lot of new girls with a lot of talent,” DeBruycker said.