High hopes for next season

When a team enters the season without a single senior on its roster, that team often gets slapped with the �rebuilding year� tag. But when the 2008-09 Routt Catholic Lady Rockets get into preseason practices next November, there won�t be any talk about a rebuilding year. Although the Lady Rockets are losing their second- and third-leading scorers � seniors Melissa Nichols and Haley Leefers � the team will return three starters, each of whom has two years of basketball left. A strong sophomore class, combined with a developing freshman class, should make next year�s team a winner. Sophomores Katie Lindsey, Morgan Eilering and Brittany Zenge all started this season, and sophomore Sam Heimgartner and freshmen Erica White and Kelly Lonergan all got significant minutes off the bench. �I�m pretty excited because I think this year and last year, going to state, it gives me some really high hopes,� Zenge said. �I�m pretty excited because next year, I think we�ll have a pretty good team also.� Lindsey started as a freshman, and led the team in scoring and rebounding this season. Eilering and Zenge both became lock-down defenders, and Heimgartner, White and Lonergan all showed an ability to shoot the ball. �I think we should definitely go back to state our senior year, and definitely next year, too,� Lindsey said. �I feel like we have a pretty good chance to get back to state the next two years.� The experience many of the underclassmen got this year was invaluable, according to head coach Joe Eilering. �You look at some of the playing time they got, and that�s just playing time you can�t take away,� the coach said. Talented girls� basketball teams at Our Saviour School also have the team excited. The OSS seventh-grade team won the state title this season, and the eighth-grade team was one of the final eight teams playing in its postseason tournament. �It�s definitely looking pretty good,� senior Haley Leefers said of Routt�s future. �Both junior high teams went to state, and they�re pretty good, and the sophomore class and freshman class this year were definitely good, so I think they�ve got a good chance at going back.� Routt has finished third and fourth in consecutive years at the state tournament, and this year�s sophomores finished second at state two years ago as eighth-graders at OSS. Most of the Lady Rockets are ready for the top prize now. �It makes me want the one, to go in order,� Morgan Eilering said. �They�re all great, great opportunities for me. I guess this one is just harder.� Lindsey was more to the point. �We�ve got everything but first,� she said, �so the next time we go to state, we better get first.�