Wantagh Girls Basketball Eyes Deeper Playoff Run

Coming off a 10-9 season that ended with a loss in the Nassau County quarterfinals the girls basketball team is primed and ready for a deeper run in 2010-11.

The Lady Warriors return six players from last year's team that competed in the top level class ability group league. This season Wantagh will have some new competition after Nassau County decided to group teams based on enrollment rather than ability. The Warriors will be in Class A-1 with Division, Garden City, New Hyde Park, Jericho Westbury and Roslyn.

Two of Wantagh's key losses to graduation were All-County player Jackie Sileo, and All-Conference  performer Patricia Simpson, who is now playing at Briarcliffe College in Bethpage. Wantagh also lost the services of All-County player Kayleigh Craig, who suffered an ACL injury playing lacrosse last spring.

Leading Wantagh on and off the floor this season are senior captains Paula Schmidt, a 5'10 All-Conference forward and guard April Iannetta, who was All Class A last year. Both Schmidt and Iannetta are talented athletes who have signed letters of intent to play lacrosse at North Carolina and Hofstra, respectively.

Joining Iannetta and Schmidt as starters this season are 6'2 eighth grader forward Alex Parlato, who played varsity last season, 5'7 sophomore guard Demi Valenti,, and 5'7 guard Tara Basile.

 "It is a well balanced group of kids up and down the lineup," said Wantagh girls basketball head coach Stan Bujacich. "We have some youth but we also have some experience."

Two returning Wantagh players who will contribute off the bench are Brenna Smith, and Shannon McDonald. Four newcomers expected to contribute are junior Michelle Buccheri, sophomore Erin Pugh and freshmen Paige Craig and Stefanie Wenz.

Bujacich said he expects to use at least eight players each game and possibly more depending on the matchups. Wantagh's defensive style is typically a man-to-man defense and at times will also institute a full-court press. "We're very aggressive and get after it," said Bujacich. "We are a very physical team."

Bujacich said he expects Division, Garden City and New Hyde Park to be the teams to beat in Class A-1 and likes that Wantagh is flying under the radar heading into this season. "What I like is nobody is looking at us as anything," he said. "We're not cocky, we just feel good about ourselves right now."

The Lady Warriors opened the season last week in the Wantagh Sports Booster Club Invitational with a 63-50 loss to North Shore and a 55-28 victory over Roosevelt. Wantagh opens league play on Thursday at home against Westbury with tip-off at 4:30 p.m.