A new feature at Outside the Huddle during basketball season, we will connect with area coaches on occasion to get their takes on big wins, huge matchups upcoming and more.
This week, we tracked down Columbia City girls basketball coach Amy Shearer, coming off a monster week for the program with wins over Homestead and Norwell.
Q: Talk us through the win over Homestead, the first one since 2010, and what it means to you and some of these girls to get over the hump against them?
The Homestead win was a big one for our program. It was a tough fought victory and has given our kids a great experience of executing in a tight, intense game with an incredible crowd. We are hoping that experience will pay off near tournament time.
Q: This is a program that has been built for longevity with 6 straight winning seasons and three straight winning seasons. What do you attribute that most to? And as a coach, how hard is that status to maintain?
There are many people involved with making our program successful, from our elementary Junior Lady Eagle coaches, to our middle school staff, and then our HS staff … people put in a lot of time and effort to help our kids develop. It takes a lot of time, dedication, and organization to oversee all of these parts to the program and make this process work.
Q: Earlier this season, you surpassed 200 career coaching wins, what did that milestone mean to you?
Although the 200 wins in a career was a nice milestone, I am still focused on our yearly program goals: conference championship, sectional championship, highest cumulative GPA for a sports team at CCHS, philanthropy outreach opportunities in our community, etc.
Q: Addison Baxter has continued to take over almost every game she is in. What about her makes her such a star?
Addison is a very important part of our team; she is a leader, a play maker, a friend, a competitor, and she is someone who wants to make her teammates better in order to win basketball games.
Q: When you look at this roster, how important has it been for less experienced girls to step into key roles?
Our less experienced team members have had to step up early due to our strength of schedule; they are learning as we go and we as a coaching staff have had to step back and do more teaching this season than last due to the loss of four senior starters from last year’s squad. They come in ready to learn and improve each day.
Q: You have a top 25 offensive team in the state and a top 35 average margin of victory. What do you focus on most on the defensive end to give yourselves that kind of space?
We emphasize not taking plays off, winning 50/50 balls, rebounding, limiting our opponents scoring opportunities, etc. Our kids know that if you are not going to defend and you are not going to rebound, then your minutes are going to be very very limited.
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