NEW PALESTINE — If Sarah Gizzi could suit up again, the New Palestine girls basketball coach would immediately become the tallest player on her 2021-22 varsity roster.
Towering over her loftiest player by two inches, at least, and by six inches, at most, compared to her shortest, Gizzi, who stands 5-foot-9, can clearly see the hurdle her Dragons will face this season.
It’s evident when the former 1994 Indiana All-Star out of New Palestine scans the court during practice or peruses the Dragons’ depth chart.
“We’re really five guards, so I wouldn’t even say we have a forward. We’re just going to have to do things a little bit more position-less than we normally have,” Gizzi said. “It’s the 5-7 and under league right now.”
Gizzi jokes about the 2021-22 Dragons’ obvious height disadvantage to offset the clear-cut frustration. One that is beyond anyone’s control.
The program was antipating the pressence of 5-10 senior forward Anna Ackerman near the post, but an unfortunate season-ending knee injury suffered on the first day of practice robbed the Dragons of their lone remaining interior threat.
Add in the transfers of 5-8 senior forward Grace Marshall and 5-7 sophomore forward, Koryn Marshall to Heritage Christian this fall — not to mention 5-9 junior forward Khloe Patterson leaving for Mt. Vernon — and the Dragons are essentially left short.
“When it rains it pours, I guess,” Gizzi said. “We’re trying to stay positive. The girls are handling it really well. It’s a good group of girls that are working hard. They’re just taking it one day at a time. I can’t ask for more than that really.”
Work ethic will be the top priority for the Dragons, who finished 15-10 overall and 6-1 for second in the Hoosier Heritage Conference last season.
While less built for crashing the boards, the revamped Dragons are designed for speed, which will be the catalyst to their projected success this winter.
“We should be fast. We like to play uptempo anyways, so that is definitely going to be something we have to focus on. I don’t think anyone is going to be surprised by us trying to score in transition. That’s going to have to be even more of an emphasis for us this year, and hopefully, people will have trouble matching up with us a little bit because we are small and fast,” Gizzi said. “We may force some teams to do things differently also to matchup with us, so that could be a positive.”
Playing fast is a strength for team’s top-returner, 5-7 junior point guard Isabella Gizzi, Sarah’s daughter, and the Dragons’ leading scorer in 2020-21.
Isabella Gizzi averaged 13.8 points, 4.5 rebounds, 2.2 assists and 2.4 steals per game as a sophomore. As a true freshman starter in 2019-20, Gizzi posted 11.1 points, 5.4 rebounds, 2.6 assists and 1.6 steals for the sectional champion Dragons.
Ackerman was entering the season as the team’s second-leading scorer from a year ago at 8.3 points and 2.9 rebounds per contest.
“The hard thing about losing Annie is that her and Isabella had played so many minutes and played such big roles for us. Knowing that we didn’t have a lot of experience coming back (losing two starters to graduation), knowing I had those two was like was nice. Plus, with Rachel (Kelley) and Alaina (Miller), they were really key for us last year and played a lot of minutes. But, now, they’re going to play a lot more this year,” Gizzi said. “It is really nice to have those girls who’ve played some big varsity minutes for us.”
Kelley, a 5-5 senior, will start after averaging 3.5 points in 2020-21. Miller, a 5-7 senior, contributed 2.9 points as a multi-sport (softball) standout and is penciled in to start this year as well.
Fellow softball star, 5-6 sophomore, Allie Blum will start at guard along with 5-5 sophomore Vivian Miller.
In the past, the Dragons relied on swiftness and competitive agressivness to compensate for height. That philosophy won’t change.
“I would say it’s the first time I feel like I have to consider making changes, a little bit, to what we have done in the past. But, we’ve gotten smaller and smaller each year. We were not big by any means last year, but we did have a couple of players that like to play in the post and had a natural post game. We played with four guards pretty much the whole year (in 2020-21), so that’s not a huge change for us,” Gizzi said.
“I think, the girls know if we’re going to accomplish anything, we’re just really going to have to pull together.”
Team chemistry has been the positive result of the unexpected this preseason, and the Dragons have maximized their efforts on learning their strengths while overcoming their weaknesses.
“I feel like we don’t have the depth that we had in years past, so girls already know where they stand and can maybe spend less time worrying about having a bigger role and spend more time trying to be good in the role that they have,” Gizzi said. “I think, that maybe that’s a neat gift to have. The girls can feel comfortable and confident in their role and not always look over their shoulder and see if someone else is playing well.”
Off the bench, the Dragons intend to call upon 5-5 senior Taylor Kelley and 5-3 freshman Tylar Whitaker, who was named All-HHC in soccer this fall. Freshman Kylee Beranek (5-5) and sophomore Ella Holman (5-5) will also have spots on the varsity roster.
“I don’t know what people are expecting from us. I would think losing Annie and girls to transfer that maybe people have changed their expectations for us. So, I hope our girls are ready to fight and prove them wrong,” Gizzi said. “It’s fun to try to prove people wrong sometimes.”
Adversity is nothing new for New Palestine. While finishing 18-8 in 2019-20, the team learned as the season progressed and captured the program’s second sectional title in three years. Gizzi has led the Dragons to five consecutive winning seasons since she took over the program in 2017-18 and has a 72-28 coaching record. The Dragons have won 21 games and 18 twice in the past five years.
“With having a small lineup, it’s been more about asking, what are we already doing that we can really focus on and try to enhance and make it an even bigger part of what we do? I don’t think we’re necessarily going to reinvent the wheel or recreate our style, but we might need to play more zone than we have in the past. We might need to press more than we have in the past. Or, we might need to work more on conditioning, if we don’t have the depth we’ve had in other years,” Gizzi said.
“That’s a lot of what we’ve done as a coaching staff, trying to identify what great positive things come from playing five guards and how can we capitalize on that instead of seeing it as a weakness? How do we make that our strength and make it tough on other teams?”
2021-22 New Palestine Girls Basketball Roster
No. Player Pos. Ht. Yr.
3 Anna Ackerman G/F 5-10 Sr.
32 Kylee Beranek G/F 5-5 Fr.
13 Allie Blum G 5-6 So.
45 Nevaeh Gebhart G 5-3 Fr.
11 Isabella Gizzi G 5-7 Jr.
15 Rachel Kelley G 5-5 Sr.
12 Taylor Kelley G/F 5-5 Sr.
5 Alaina Miller G 5-7 Sr.
34 Vivian Miller G 5-5 So.
20 Tylar Whitaker G 5-3 Fr.
5 Ella Holman G 5-5 So.
Head Coach: Sarah Gizzi (72-28 in 5th year at school)
Varsity Assistant: Nancy Workman
Varsity Assistant: Bruce Haynes
Junior Varsity Coach: Bruce Torgersen
