With a long summer ahead, NAZ Select coach Kirk Westervelt and his team are ready to compete.
“We do not have tryouts during the summer, we just want girls to show up and improve” Westervelt said. “We do not want to discourage anybody from participating.”
For Westervelt, a successful offseason involves a solid turnout at practice.
“I will consider it a success if we can have more than 10 girls come out during the month of June,” Westervelt said.
NAZ Select has already had a busy few weeks in anticipation for summer ball.
“We won a tournament last weekend, so it was great for us to bounce back,” Westervelt said. “The weekend before that we lost every game, so that is life in a nutshell.”
While winning is always the endgame, NAZ Select looks to strengthen the girls’ games during the offseason.
“It was just competition, it was a higher level tournament that featured a lot of 15-year-old girls,” Westervelt said. “I told them it is not all about winning or losing the summer, but developing your skill.”
Twenty-three girls participated in the Sedona girls’ basketball informational meeting, including 16 underclassmen
and incoming freshmen.
Mingus alumus and West Coast Advantage owner Chris Johnson has also been crucial to NAZ Select’s success.
“His skill academy has been great,” Westervelt said. “He attends practice twice a week, and I believe it has definitely paid off.”
Westervelt has utilized the Flex offense to involve all the players on his guard-heavy roster.
“We are adding some different options to our offense to our Flex offense,” Westervelt said. “Half the team does offense and the other does skill work in 30-minute intervals.”
Westervelt praised the girls for their offensive execution so far this summer.
“It is always tough learning a whole new offense but they have done fairly well for eighth and ninth graders,” Westervelt said. “Ball movement and unselfishness has been key, each girl has been more than willing to make the extra pass.”
Instead of relying upon isolations, NAZ Select focuses on using the girls interchangeably within its offense.
“There is not too much dribbling in our offense, we try to pass and cut or pass and screen away from the ball,” Westervelt said. “We focusing on moving the girls to spots that the defense is not occupying.”
Though the emphasis in basketball has called for less midrange shooting and shifted more to three-point shooting, that trend has not affected NAZ Select too much.
“It has impacted us a little bit, not so much with girls but a lot of kids want to shoot the three like they are Stephen Curry of the Golden State Warriors,” Westervelt said. “Girls are more apt in picking up the fundamentals rather than playing hero ball and it pays off in the long run.”
“All of the girls have played fairly well lately,” Westervelt continued. “Leah Pedersen, Mayra Parra-Landaverde and Helen Westervelt have been solid, as well as Annabelle Cook.”
Westervelt anticipates Cook having a role on the Scorpions varsity team next season.
“Annabelle is already enrolled at Sedona Red Rock High [School], she will definitely have a spot on varsity as a freshman,” Westervelt said.
Defensively, NAZ Select looks to get its pressing and trapping up to speed.
“We try to trap a lot on defense but it is still currently a work in progress,” Westervelt said. “We got burned last week in the tournament as we gave up 10 straight points to a very skilled girl.”
Despite struggling early on, NAZ Select zoned in and tightened up on defense.
“After trailing at halftime, we wore the other team down in the second half and ended up defeating them by 10 points,” Westervelt said.
Up next for NAZ Select is a trip to Phoenix for the Arizona Girls Under Armour Future Tournament. The event lasts from Friday, May 17, to Sunday, May 19.
The AZ Elite Spring Classic will take place at the Phoenix Convention Center, located at 100 N. 3rd Street.
