Fresh off winning the Central Wisconsin Conference East title, having fun and the love of the sport seems to be the secret to the success of the Wittenberg-Birnamwood High School girls basketball team. With an impressive 14-0 conference mark, coach Nick Mechelke is looking forward to seeing how far this team will go.
“Our biggest strength is our defense and the pressure that we put on that teams have a hard time dealing with,” Mechelke said. “We are extremely quick and athletic, and the other teams can’t handle. We harass them to make mistakes that end up in our favor.”
With three rounds of regionals, two rounds of sectionals and then the top four competing at state, there are still a lot of games ahead. Mechelke is confident this team has what it takes to go far this season.
Melaina Granquist, junior, and Faith Resch, senior, have been playing basketball since middle school, and Mechelke has been there the whole time. His coaching philosophy involves trying to keep the passion of basketball in the sport and making it fun for them with the end goal of being successful.
Going into these championship games, Granquist, center, feels they have a 100% chance of taking it all the way to state.
“I just go in and play as hard as I can and hope for the best,” she said.
Resch, guard, prepares for one game at a time.
“I just go in thinking it’s just like any other game and always put in as much effort as I can and know that I’ll play as hard as I can and it’ll end up as it’s supposed to in the end,” she said.
Resch and Granquist are prepared for whatever comes their way, and that preparedness is due in part to their exceptional attitude and training. For Resch, each school year has begun with swimming, then basketball, then on to track, then summer league and then straight into strength and conditioning. Mechelke coaches Resch in basketball and track.
Granquist plays volleyball in the fall and basketball in winter. She contributes her success to extra practice and participating in club sports. She would like to turn pro and is inspired by all the players in the WNBA, noting they all work hard to play at that level.
They each bring unique talents to the team.
At just 5 feet 4 inches, Resch uses her speed to outrace her opponents.
Granquist, at 5 feet 11 inches, finds most girls playing that position are about the same height, so she tries to consistently jump higher and faster than her opponents and get the ball to the right person.
In a normal game, they play around eight or nine girls.
“Their strength is being quicker and able to outrun their opponents,” Mechelke said.”The defense is good at throwing the other teams off their game.”
Most of the team members have been playing basketball together since middle school. They have been able to learn to depend on each other over the years to work as a well-oiled machine.
“I think just knowing each other and getting each other out of slumps and just having fun and playing the best they possibly can,” Resch said is the secret to teamwork.
“We are very proud of our girls on their accomplishments this year and look forward to supporting them with hopefully more continued success into the post season,” added Superintendent Garrett Rogowski.
How far will Charger girls team go?
