The thing you'll notice about the Notre Dame Girls Basketball Team this year is they're going to have some big players crashing the boards.
Shea Norton is 6' 2". Rebecca Krenzer is 6' 1". Taylor DiMartino is 6' 2". Michelle Martinucci is 5' 11".
"This is the biggest team I've ever had," said Head Coach Dave Pero.
It's still a young team -- there are only three seniors on the squad and all of the bigs are juniors -- so the girls still have a lot to learn, but they're showing progress, Pero said.
"I like what we have. We have a really, really nice group of girls. They're working very, very hard."
The goal, as always with Fighting Irish basketball, is to dominate on defense and make points on transitions.
"We always want to keep teams in 40s. If we can keep teams in the 40s, 45, we've got a chance to win."
The three seniors are Krysta Tomaszewski (currently injured), Emily McCracken and Emma Francis.
McCracken and Francis are both guards, team captains, and Pero said they are good shooters who should help score some points.
He said the team is eight or nine players deep. Also expected to contribute are Hannah Bowen and Callie McCulley.
McCulley is a familiar name, of course, to Notre Dame hoops fans and the youngest McCulley (who is 5' 10") to make a varsity roster. She shows a lot of promise, Pero said, even as an eighth-grader.
"When you bring up young players, you're going to live and die with the good things they do and the bad things they do, but we think she's ready and we expect her to come off the bench and give us a hand."
The Notre Dame roster, on paper, looks strong. When the team opens its season at 7 p.m., Dec. 10, in Oakfield, we'll get to see how all those big numbers translate to points on the board.
