New head coach seeing progress with girls basketball
By Bob Nuse, Sports Editor
When Dan Van Hise thinks about goals for the Princeton High girls basketball program, he looks more long term than short term for the Little Tigers.
”Our motto is to establish the culture,” said Van Hise, who takes over as PHS coach replacing Stefanie Shoop. “We’re trying to get the girls to see that you can say you want to win, but you need the commitment. The girls have a positive attitude and work as a team. We understand it won’t happen right away but we want to get those things rooted in the program.
”I think the attitude has been great. The girls seem rejuvenated with the new coaching staff. If we had played a game that first day of practice we would have won. They were chomping at the bit and raring to go. Our seniors, Liz (Jacobs) and Steph (Hauer) are doing a great job as captains.”
Van Hise got the head coaching job just before the end of last school year and jumped right in trying to get the players to realize that winning takes more than a December to March commitment to the game.
”I did have the summer to get started,” Van Hise said. “We had some interest meetings at end of the year. We did some open gyms in the summer. One of the things we’re hoping to change is to get more girls involved with basketball and playing basketball year-round.”
Van Hise has added longtime area youth coach Clarence White to the staff, while Kori Washington is a holdover from last year’s staff. The coaches have been working on getting the team ready for Friday’s season-opener against Allentown.
”We have been trying to find a rhythm with the girls,” Van Hise said. “They are excited. We’re trying to change the tone. We’re just doing JVand varsity this year. We had 24 girls try out for the team so we have 12 on varsity and 12 on JV. We’re trying to build things and spread the word a little. Our middle school program has good numbers and hopefully those girls stay with basketball.
”Clarence has come on as my lead assistant and he knows the players well and we hope that connects the younger girls with the older girls.”
Van Hise and White have coached together in the past and work well together. The new coach thinks that will help with the high school program.
”When I moved back to the area and wanted to get back to coaching after got a teaching job in Princeton, he was one of first names that popped up,” Van Hise said. “I coached with him with some AAU teams and once I got the job I called him right away.”
The Little Tigers have just two seniors, but there is varsity experience with some of the younger players.
”Our rock is Elizabeth Jacobs,” Van Hise said. “She’ll be our big girl inside. Stephanie Hauer is our other senior. We have a couple strong guards with Julia Ryan, a sophomore, and Mary Sutton, a junior. With Mira Shaine and Katherine Curren-Groom we have three juniors who have played varsity since freshman year so it is nice with those three juniors. We had our first scrimmage (last Wednesday) and held it together for a quarter and a half and then our starters got a little tired. There were some positives.
”This will be a rebuilding year but the girls we have do have some varsity experience so maybe we can surprise some people out there.”