Lake coach Joe Nowak on track to get 100 career wins

Once again, Lake girls basketball plans to use coach Joe Nowak’s style of applying defensive pressure on their opponents.

In his first six-plus years at Lake, his teams are a combined 93-51, and including two years at Seneca East, he is 96-91. He is on track to getting his 100th career win. The Flyers opened the season 3-0 with wins over Evergreen (68-54), Swanton (68-38) and Rossford (68-22). Scoring is no problem for Lake, but it all starts with the defense.

“Our focus has always been at the defensive side of the ball, but in the last couple years we haven’t executed that quite as well as we were capable of,” Nowak said.

“So, we will look to get back to being a physical and disruptive team. On the offensive side of the ball, we will really look to create and take advantage of early scoring opportunities.

“Being very guard-heavy we will look to our returning guards in Ava Ayers, Kelsie Gladieux and Elise Staczek to provide the much-needed defensive edge for us. But like the offensive side of the ball, we have several players who we will look to build on the edge the others set for us.”

Nowak believes his team will be better prepared because they were able to get into a rhythm during the offseason.

“Being able to finally get back into a somewhat normal setting over the summer showed a lot of growth in many different players,” Nowak said. “The coaching staff has been impressed with the players’ ability to keep improving during the offseason.”

Nowak believes the NBC will be tougher than ever this year.

“Every year, it’s been a common goal to compete for a conference championship and this season is no different,” Nowak said.

“That goal has typically been player driven, but as coaches we have always pushed them to make sure that the work they put in lines up with that expectation, and we’ve been fortunate to have players who have been receptive to that level of demand.

 “The NBC should be pretty competitive again this season. It always has been a league where anyone can compete on any given night, and I think we definitely have certain games on the schedule that we look at as being a good opportunity to measure where we are.”