Trotters turn the page

There’s a new coach in town and the Plains Trotters will be playing basketball a little differently from now on.

Actually not a new coach in Plains – he has coached the Horsemen football team the past two falls – Eddie Fultz inherits a Trotter team which won the District 14C regular season title last year before suffering two upset losses and being eliminated at the District 14C tournament.

That team was led by 14C first team selections Jessica Thompson and Lindsay Laws and honorable mention pick Kassidy Kinzie, and important role players Kara Altmiller and Analisa Loberg. Of those five, only Kinzie, now a senior, returns.

Junior Kylee Altmiller and seniors Rachel Huenink, Haley Josephson and Natalee Deschamps, did see quite a bit of court time last year, however, and will join Kinzie in the Trotters’ projected starting lineup this season.

Fultz said that, after some initial trepidation from some of his players (“Some of the girls seemed to think that I was kind of a tough coach to play for coming in for some reason,” he said), that things are going quite well in practice so far.

“I am enjoying the heck out of it,” he said. “I’m getting to know the girls better and they are starting to get a better feel for me. We plan on playing a different style this season – we are going to be looking to run a little, and maybe press a little more – and to be more aggressive on the defensive side, so we are still adjusting some to that in practice.”

The Trotters will open Fultz’s first season as coach at the Western C Tip-Off Tournament in Frenchtown, playing Drummond Friday and Clark Fork (Alberton-Superior) Saturday.

Working as the Trotters’ lead assistant under a third head coach (Richard Griffin and Jessica Nagy were the first two), Kyle Cole returns to the bench as Fultz’s assistant.

Fultz’s significant other, Rheanna Fultz has been helping out and will likely continue to do so. Paige Fickler, currently coaching the Plains junior high boys, is expected to enter the coaching mix for the high school team later on, Fultz added.