Indian Creek’s Ayla Lollar is one of several county players who will need to take on a larger role this season.
Daily Journal file photo
Casual fans not related to any of the girls on Franklin’s team might grab a roster on opening night and react like the Cleveland fans in the diner near the start of “Major League” …
Who are these (expletive) guys?!?
Graduation comes every year, but seldom does it hit as hard as it has for girls basketball in Johnson County. Indian Creek lost four-year starters Faith Wiseman and Lauren Foster, who combined for 3,237 career points. Center Grove has to replace a trio of three-year starters — two of them Indiana All-Stars.
And the Grizzly Cubs? Well, the next minute of meaningful varsity experience will be the first. For all of them.
“I don’t know if I’ve ever had to start with this,” said Franklin coach Mike Armstrong, who’s entering his third season with the Grizzly Cubs but his 37th overall. “We’ve started from years — in ‘97, when I was at Perry Meridian, (Katie) Douglas’ class had eight seniors. So we came back the next year, a lot was gone, but we did have a starter back that year.”
Not this time around. Franklin had 12 players on its varsity roster last season. Ten, including all five starters, were seniors — and one of the two holdovers, Aubrey Runyon, chose not to play in order to focus on her future in track. The lone player with any varsity minutes is senior Maggie Doty, previously a seldom-used reserve who got injured in the season opener last season anyway.
The crew that led the Grizzly Cubs to 92 wins, four sectional titles, three regional championships and a trip to the state final in 2022 — including four-year starters Lauren Klem, Scarlett Kimbrell and Erica Buening — is no longer around. Those minutes and points are going to have to get replaced by somebody.
”It’s a new group and a new challenge, and one we’re looking forward to,” Armstrong said. “I think what we’re looking at doing is just trying to find the next group of kids and work with them. Our JV was 18-4 … it doesn’t always translate, but it’s better to be that than something else.”
To the southwest, Indian Creek coach Brian Ferris is in a similar boat. Sure, the Braves only lost three seniors, but two of them — Wiseman, now playing at Indiana University, and Foster — were essentially the program’s identity for the last four years, leading the way to four consecutive sectional crowns.
Creek does return a fourth-year starter in senior guard Ayla Lollar, and she and the other returnees have the benefit of having played in some big-time environments over the last season or two. But there’s a difference between being an extra or a bit player in a movie and taking on a starring role, and it’s going to be an adjustment.
The process of moving on, Ferris says, started during the offseason.
“We felt like we took some lumps this summer early and kind of figured out how to play without those two,” he said. “Kids started to realize, hey, when crunch time comes, they’re not here now, so I’ve actually got to take that shot.”
Likewise, Center Grove has three gaping holes to fill in its lineup after back-to-back regional championships, with veterans Audrey Annee, Aubrie Booker and Rachel Wirts — who accounted for more than 60% of the team’s points and over half of its rebounds last season — having moved on.
It’s on Trojans coach Kevin Stuckmeyer to figure out how.
“I don’t know if there’s a specific way,” he said. “You just kind of have to find answers and find, obviously, a core identity that we want. But when you have new pieces and new faces, you’ve got to figure out how everybody’s going to fit together.”
Stuckmeyer does have two starters back, including an Indiana Junior All-Star in Lilly Bischoff, and he also got a major boost when junior Gracyn Gilliard, who averaged 25.9 points at Munster last winter, moved back to the area. So the overhaul won’t be as total as it could have been.
But a lot of county teams are going to look very different when the season tips off next week, and fans will have to learn a lot of new names.
If there’s a silver lining to having so many new faces, it’s that opponents are going to have a tough time putting together a scouting report — especially in Franklin’s case.
“At least for a while, until some people get some film on us,” Armstrong said.
For the last four years, girls basketball has felt very familiar here. Now, it’s a whole new ball game.
