After making a surprising run to the Class 5A state tournament a year ago, the Ankeny Centennial girls’ basketball team is looking to make even more progress in its second season under coach Chris Harken.
The Jaguars return many of their players from a team that went 7-9 in the CIML Conference and finished with an overall record of 12-12.
“Our main goal is to make it farther at state, but we know that the road is more challenging this year with Dallas Center-Grimes joining 5A and it appears that the CIML might be more balanced, although Dowling Catholic, Johnston and Waukee Northwest will still be the teams to beat,” said Harken. “The rest of us will be fairly balanced and fighting for positions.”
Centennial advanced to the state tournament with a 40-35 win at Cedar Falls before dropping a 54-30 decision to Johnston in the quarterfinals. The Dragons went on to capture their third straight championship while extending their winning streak to 79 games.
The Jaguars return a trio of all-conference players in senior guard Lizzie Beam, junior forward Lydia Michel and sophomore guard Faith Perpich. Five other players are back from a year ago.
“We are returning most of our pieces from last season,” Harken said. “A few have decided to pursue other activities, and we respect that. With the ones that are returning, we have seen growth in the players in the offseason, but are still looking for who wants to fill in the roles that are left with Rylyn (Boeding) and Mylie (Hatfield) graduating. We do have a lot of eager athletes that want to step up.”
Beam is the fourth-leading returning scorer in Class 5A. The Concordia-St. Paul recruit averaged a team-high 17.0 points, 1.7 steals and 0.5 blocks as a junior.
Beam was named to the Class 5A all-state second team by the Iowa Girls’ Coaches Association and the Iowa Print Sports Writers Association. She was also selected to the all-conference first team and to the Class 5A West all-district squad.
“We are excited for Lizzie’s senior year. She has been working hard this summer to improve her game,” Harken said. “She will still play a key role for us, but we also are anticipating her teammates to step up and alleviate some pressure from other teams. Lizzie is still going to be a challenge for opponents as she has been working on both her outside and inside games, attempting to make her a match-up challenge.”
Perpich will also draw plenty of attention from opposing defenses. She emerged as one of the top freshmen in the CIML a year ago, when she averaged 10.0 points and 3.8 rebounds.
Perpich led the Jaguars with 49 assists and was also the squad’s best free-throw shooter, making 60-of-78 attempts (76.9 percent). She was a second-team all-conference pick.
Harken is hoping that freshman Harlow Heath can help Perpich with some of the ballhandling duties.
“We are excited about Harlow’s game and working with her to handle the aggressiveness of CIML basketball,” Harken said. “She handles the ball really well. She was the point guard for our eighth grade team last year, has a smooth shot, and has deceived me a few times about how sneaky she is on defense.”
Michel, meanwhile, averaged 4.1 points and 2.4 boards as a sophomore. She received all-conference honorable mention.
Senior guard Lauren Kenney, sophomore forward Alana Newman and sophomore guard Nyah Weger are among the team’s other returnees.
Newman averaged 2.8 points and 2.6 rebounds, while Weger averaged 1.6 points. Kenney played in 20 games and contributed eight steals.
Centennial will open its season on Friday by hosting a non-conference game against North Polk at 6:15 p.m. The Jaguars will then host Waukee Northwest in their conference opener on Tuesday.
“We start off with two great opponents right before Thanksgiving,” Harken said. “These two games will provide us a great idea where we are and where we need to grow. Even with the experience we have returning, we are still a ‘new team’ with trying to fill starting positions, rotations, and newcomers to the varsity program. We will need to be ready to go Friday, and we still have a lot of work to do before then.”
The Jaguars will be looking to improve both on and off the court, Harken said.
“Our other tangible goal is to have a better record than last year in order to help us potentially have a more favorable route to state,” he said. “Our main intangible goal is to continue to build a culture that we desire that our school and community can continually be proud of while growing as individuals to be successful in life.”
