The Emmaus High School girls basketball team wrapped up its season with a 2-10 record in the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference and a 6-12 record overall, missing both the EPC and District 11 playoffs. At season’s end, the young team featured two seniors – Vanessa Huber and Jenna Lessel – who were honored at the team’s annual senior night against Whitehall, which was a 60-45 loss.

Carl Scheitrum, the team’s third coach in the four years that Huber and Lessel were with the team, says the record is no indication of how hard the team worked and prepared for games, or how hard they fought in those games.

“First of all, I thanked the girls for all of their hard work from day one,” said Scheitrum. “It’s tough adjusting to yet another coach and another program and I thanked the seniors for staying with it after four years and three coaches, it really is hard. They’re role models for the future of this program. The energy and passion that they put into this season is going to show well for the younger players and they set great examples for the younger players.”

Huber admitted that the turnover on the coaching staff was difficult to manage, but believes the team was lucky to have good coaches throughout her time with the team and happy that she could finish her high school career playing for Scheitrum.

“It was difficult to deal with the transitions every year, but I’ve been happy with all of the coaches that we’ve had,” said Huber. “Coach Scheitrum I’ve had since I was in eighth grade on the freshman team, so I’m familiar with him. This was a good year. It wasn’t too much of a change.”

Lessel was disappointed that the team lost its last nine games. The team was 5-5 when the calendar turned to 2016, but the second half of the season proved to be tough for the Hornets.

“We beat the teams that we could,” said Lessel. “It seemed like all of the teams were so matured this year and had a bunch of seniors. Our division is absolutely insane, but we fought where we could and it’s unfortunate not to be close to districts, but we can just affect how we play.”

While both players are headed off to college, they’re already looking forward to coming back over break to see how the team, which had a number of young players develop this season, continues to build.

“There are some bright things happening in the future,” Lessel said. “They told us that we’re role models for them and I hope that they continue to be leaders and don’t leave anything on the court, because it just goes by so quickly. I definitely see a lot of success in the future.”

“I see a lot of potential from all of the girls,” said Huber. “I think starting next year will be a big turnaround for the program because our middle school teams, the freshmen and JV are doing well, so I’m excited to see what happens.”

Scheitrum admits he’ll miss his two senior players, but also admits that he’s excited about what lies ahead for the program.

“I am as excited now, maybe more excited, than I was at the start of the year when I said ‘I think we have some special things here,’” Scheitrum said. “We’ve got a growing middle school program. We’ve got a very nice freshman team. The JV team and a very young varsity team, so there are a lot of opportunities to see these girls get better and better.

“We made some strides with defense, but we still have gaps and with all of these good teams in the division, we can’t afford to give up 50 points or 60 points to those teams. We have to really focus – our goal is ten points per quarter – and we have to stay to that goal,” said the Emmaus coach. “It just means getting smarter and more together as a team. I use the word anticipate rather than react. They’re getting used to it. They’re learning that they have to anticipate rather than just react to what’s happening.”