{"id":126625,"date":"2020-01-08T04:49:27","date_gmt":"2020-01-08T09:49:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=126625"},"modified":"2020-01-08T04:49:53","modified_gmt":"2020-01-08T09:49:53","slug":"coaches-corner-van-werts-phlipot-laudick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2020\/01\/08\/coaches-corner-van-werts-phlipot-laudick\/","title":{"rendered":"Coaches Corner: VW’s Phlipot, Laudick"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

SCOTT TRUXELL\/<\/strong>independent sports editor<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Coaches Corner is back for the 2019-2020 winter sports season and this week\u2019s column features two first year varsity basketball coaches, both at Van Wert High School.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hannah Phlipot now leads the Lady Cougars, while Ben Laudick has taken over the Cougar hoops program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hannah Phlipot<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Lady Cougars (2-8, 1-2 WBL) are coming off a 49-47 loss to Delphos Jefferson on Saturday and while wins have been hard to come by so far, Phlipot likes what she sees from her team, especially on the offensive end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA weakness of ours at the beginning of the season was simply scoring,\u201d Phlipot explained. \u201cWe were getting girls in the right spots and getting open looks, but we were not able to knock them down.  We have seen an improvement in this area but it is still a point of emphasis.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Hannah Phlipot<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur girls understand this and are putting in the work to improve, Phlipot added. \u201cWe have girls in the gym at 6:15 a.m. shooting at least two or three times a week.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Freshman Kyra Welch leads the team in scoring, averaging 8.2 points per game, while classmate Sofia Houg and junior Jaylyn Rickard each average 5.8 points per game. Senior Jamison Clouse averages a team high 5.5 rebounds per game, while Welch pulls down nearly five boards per contest. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the season continues, Phlipot noted she\u2019s seen her squad grow closer on the court and away from basketball.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTeam chemistry isn’t something that just happens,\u201d Phlipot said. \u201cIt takes effort from athletes and coaches to make it happen. We as coaches have been pushing the idea of not just playing \u2018with\u2019 each other, but playing \u2018for\u2019 each other. The girls have truly taken to this mantra and we are starting to see it play out on and off the court.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Phlipot also lauded the effort of senior guard Caylee Phillips, who brings plenty of varsity experience to the court, along with a State mentality from cross country and track.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCaylee has really emerged into a positive leader for our group,\u201d Phlipot stated. \u201cShe has always led by her actions and effort on the court, but she is beginning to become a more vocal leader, which has been really exciting to watch.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Van Wert returns to Western Buckeye League action at St. Marys Memorial on Thursday and home non-conference game against county rival Lincolnview on Saturday. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

\u201cSt. Marys and Lincolnview are both going to be tough match ups for us,\u201d Phlipot said. \u201cSt. Marys is a very solid WBL team that has had success early this season and Lincolnview is always a good game because it is a county rival. I suspect both will be very exciting games to watch.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ben Laudick<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Cougars (2-6, 1-1 WBL) last played on December 28 against state ranked Columbus Grove.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs we head into our game this Friday against St. Marys it will have been 13 days since we last played a game, so in that time we have allowed our guys to have an extra day or two of rest for a long month of January,\u201d Laudick said. \u201cDuring this break we have focused a lot on ourselves. We have worked on getting a lot of shots up and working on some things we need to get better at on each end of the floor.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Ben Laudick<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen the season started I was not looking forward to this long break between games because you get into a routine but I think it has come at a great time for us to evaluate some things and make some changes for the next stretch of the season,\u201d Laudick continued. \u201cThe rest of the month is going to go quickly because we will play eight games between January 10 and January 31.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Junior guard Owen Treece leads the Cougars with 23 points per game and while he\u2019s been the focal point of the team, Laudick said he thinks other players are gaining confidence on the court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think Nate Jackson had a really good weekend last time we played against Ottoville and Columbus Grove and I look forward to him carrying that play into our next games,\u201d Laudick said. \u201cJake Hilleary, Keaton Brown, and Clayton Proffitt are starting to knock down some shots and Parker Conrad and Colin Place’s size and toughness has helped us a lot defensively.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hilleary averages 6.6 points and 4.5 rebounds per game, while Brown and Proffit each average nearly six points per game. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The coach added that he\u2019d like to see some improvement on the defensive end, including limiting offensive rebounds and transition buckets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI honestly feel we have not played our best basketball, we have had some stand out performances individually but as a team we still have not put the whole thing together which is exciting and for our guys I hope it happens soon because they have put in a lot of work and deserve to be rewarded,\u201d Laudick said.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Van Wert will play at home twice this weekend, against St. Marys Memorial on Friday and Marion Local on Saturday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSt. Marys\u2019 frontcourt is huge with two post players at 6-6 and 6-8 so that will pose some problems for us defensively,\u201d Laudick said of the Roughriders. \u201cThey have good guard play and they can hurt you from the outside because of their post players attracting so much attention. They are really sound defensively and limit your second chance opportunities because of their advantage rebounding the basketball.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMarion Local obviously had a late start to the season because of their success in football but what I know is they will be fundamentally sound, strong, and physical,\u201d Laudick added. \u201cI know our guys are ready to get back to playing and look forward to the challenge of playing both teams this weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SCOTT TRUXELL\/independent sports editor Coaches Corner is back for the 2019-2020 winter sports season and this week\u2019s column features two first year varsity basketball coaches, both at Van Wert High School. Hannah Phlipot now leads the Lady Cougars, while Ben Laudick has taken over the Cougar hoops program. Hannah Phlipot The Lady Cougars (2-8, 1-2 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-126625","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-03 23:39:51","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126625","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=126625"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126625\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}