Winamac girls basketball preview: Kroft, Smith, Link headline Stesiak’s 2nd Winamac team

Val T.
Oct 31, 2023
4 min read

BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS

Sports Editor, RTC

For two-and-a-half quarters, the Winamac girls basketball team had seemingly peaked at a perfect time against North Miami in a Class 2A, Sectional 36 semifinal, building a 21-18 halftime lead and maintaining it early into the third quarter.

One might consider the halftime score to be unexpected. Winamac came into the game with four wins, and North Miami came into it with 17.

Then North Miami outscored Winamac 21-5 in the third quarter and went on to win 49-31.

Though they lost, that might be what second-year Winamac coach Tony Stesiak hopes is the “springboard” for the 2023-24 version of the Lady Warriors.

“I thought we played them really well in the sectional,” Stesiak recalled of the North Miami game. “We led them for two-and-a-half quarters. I think that might be our best game of the year. It was a halfcourt game in the first half, and we walked off at halftime, and I think that was a great sign. Typical of our season last year, there was always one stretch – one quarter, one part of a quarter – where things went off the rails. … Still, they didn’t blow the doors off us, and we were able to walk off there thinking that helped to propel us. That wasn’t a doomsday end of sectional. We were sad to see the seniors go, but I think everybody else that’s coming back actually gained confidence in this game.”

Three of last year’s top four scorers – Kandace Kroft, Maggie Smith and Piper Link – are back, and there are other veterans back like Lily Bennett, Mershai Loehmer, Kaelyn O’Connor, Cyaira Wolford, Lauren Bruce and Marissa Iverson.

Kroft not only led the team in scoring last year but was second behind the graduated Hailey Attinger in rebounding from her point guard spot.

“I think she did a great job,” Stesiak said. “That was a lot to put on a player. It’s not easy to be a freshman point guard, boys or girls, especially when you have so much inexperience around you. … She’s got to handle the ball. She’s got to try and score. She was our leading rebounder and has to do all that for a team that’s trying to get experience on the floor as well. I think she has the highest ceiling of anybody on our team, and I think the year of experience probably does her more benefit than anybody else.”

Smith is expected to be on the floor for tonight’s season opener against Frontier just three days after she competed in the cross-country state finals in Terre Haute.

Cross-country is one of five sports – golf, basketball, softball and track are the other four – in which Smith competes.

“She’s been participating in practice since we started,” Stesiak said. “All of the cross-country kids have. Not at the full extent of doing everything we’re doing, but they are in practices and doing practice things… I know I haven’t coached a better athlete than Maggie Smith.”

Asked to describe Link’s role, Stesiak said she plays a what-do-we-need-to-be-successful role. He also said she had her best game against North Miami after an injury-marred season.

“People aren’t going to look at her stats, and nothing’s going to really jump off the page, but things just worked better offensively and defensively when she was on the floor,” Stesiak said.

Sadie Popejoy is a freshman who could see varsity playing time right away, bolstering the backcourt with Kroft and Smith.

Stesiak coached the Rochester girls from 2000-17 before stepping down and spending five years as an assistant boys coach at Rochester.

He took over the Winamac girls last year. During his Rochester tenure, his teams finished in single digits in wins just four times. His 2004 team won the Class 2A state title, and his 2015 team reached the Class 3A semistate.

The four wins last year were the fewest for a team he has coached. But he praised his players for buying in and working hard.

Another memory he has was the locker room celebration after beating county rival West Central after a season-opening eight-game losing streak last year.

“I’ve said this before,” Stesiak said. “It’s one thing to build a successful program. It’s another thing to maintain that. And I think I lost a little bit of the joy in coaching maintaining our level of success, at least in my own head. I always said when – if – I became a head coach again, I would sort of remember that: Not forget the joy of success. At the end, I never gave myself really time to enjoy wins. You always take losses a lot harder, but I never really took a moment.

“So I always made it a point to say when I came back and became a head coach again to never forget that. So even though it took a lot longer than what we wanted, to walk back into that locker room and be able to celebrate after winning finally and beating West Central, the joy on their faces, that’s a snapshot in my head that will last forever.”

Coaching changes

Morgan Ruff, who played for Stesiak at Rochester and who teaches first grade in the Eastern Pulaski schools, is new to Stesiak’s staff as the varsity assistant. Steph Smith returns as JV coach, and Jake Ruff will be a volunteer assistant.

“As I told the players, there’s nothing, good or bad, that Morgan hasn't been through in our player-coach relationship,” Stesiak said.

Schedule notes

Valparaiso and Western are gone from the schedule. Frontier and DeMotte Christian replace them.

Winamac’s first six games are against Class 1A opponents. They will host North Newton as part of a girls-boys doubleheader on Dec. 18 in the first round of the Kitchen Classic.

Class 2A, Sectional 36

Lewis Cass, North Miami, Pioneer, Wabash, WINAMAC

Schedule

Oct. 31 – at Frontier, 6:30 pm.

Nov. 7 – vs. Westville, 8 p.m.

Nov. 10 – at Argos, 7:30 p.m.

Nov. 11 – vs. Caston, 7:30 p.m.

Nov. 14 – vs. Culver, 7:30 p.m.

Nov. 16 – vs. North White, 7:30 p.m.

Nov. 18 – at Manchester, 7:30 p.m.

Nov. 25 – at Rochester, 6 p.m.

Nov. 28 – vs. West Central, 7:30 p.m.