The Kansas Wesleyan women’s basketball team certainly does not lack experience and veteran leadership in advance of the 2024-25 season.
“This is going to be the oldest team that I’ve ever had,” coach Ryan Showman said Tuesday during the Kansas Conference’s virtual media day. “In our top 17 that’s in our varsity practices there are nine seniors and seven juniors. Of those seniors four are fifth-year seniors – LaMyah Ricks, Jill Stephens, Angel Lee, and Alexis Dixon.”
The Coyotes, who return all five starters from a year ago, are not the only KCAC team with plethora of familiar faces though. Ten others return at least four starters – four have all five back.
“This is going to be a fun, challenging year in our conference with everyone that has returned and with the continuity of the coaching staffs,” said Showman, who enters his 13th season as KWU’s head coach.
Wesleyan was picked to finish fifth in the coaches’ poll conducted Tuesday. Tabor was first, Friends second, Saint Mary third and Evangel fourth. KWU was fourth in the media poll with Tabor first followed by Friends and Saint Mary in a tie for second.
The Coyotes rebounded from a 2-5 start last year and finished 17-13, 14-8 in the conference, before losing to Tabor in the conference tournament semifinals.
Showman expressed cautious optimism Tuesday.
“We return 86 percent of our scoring and 81 percent of our rebounding which on paper looks awesome,” he said. “But before anybody gets too worried remember we only scored 67 points a game and shot 37 percent from the field so some of that was smoke and mirrors.
“We had conversations starting in March. I really like the response that we’ve had from our returners in terms of getting better and being more efficient. Just doing the little things that cost us games last year.”
Age, though, has pluses and some minuses.
“A lot of experience back, a lot of players that have been in the league, a lot of players that have been in Kansas Wesleyan, so they know the KCAC grind,” he said. “They know what it takes to win, and they know how that razor thin margin that either creates a win or creates a loss.
“Practice has been fun but as every coach knows with an older, experienced, veteran group practice sometimes gets boring, so we’ve had to come up with some creative ways to keep it interesting until we get going with games.”
Showman is counting on three transfers to bolster the returning group. Junior college guards Kelsey Koza and Abigail Lombardoni come in from Hesston and Fulton-Montgomery, respectively, while Jocelyn Hall, a 6-foot-1 forward, played for Division II Illinois-Springfield last season.
KWU plays eight of its 13 first semester games inside Mabee Arena starting with New Mexico College and Jamestown in the Coyote Classic on November 1 and 2.
“I feel like each of the last few years we were playing some of our best basketball at the end of the year,” he said, “so our challenge now is to have some success early, take advantage of some of those home opportunities first semester to build that momentum going into January and February.”
Showman has two new aides. Madelyn Denslow is the assistant coach after serving as a graduate assistant at Midwestern State for the last two seasons. Peyton Crowe is a graduate assistant and was at Parkland Community College last year.
