Chesterton girls basketball coach Jack Campbell is certainly no stranger to the sidelines.

Tonight when the Trojans open the 2012-2013 season at CHS against Munster, Campbell will begin his 25th year as head coach.

“The significance of it is that things have certainly changed,” Campbell said. “Title IX has made such an impact with scheduling and everything else. That’s probably the biggest change, but kids are kids. Kids are more skilled now then they were when I first started.

“The open summer and the time the kids put in has had a lot to do with that. Girls basketball has really changed.”

The Trojans return a significant number of letterwinners from last season’s squad, including a trio of starters in Caroline Puntillo, Jocelyn Lipscomb and Sarah Richards.

“Caroline, Jocelyn and Sarah are returning starters from last year,” Campbell said. “Sarah has really improved her ball-handling and is making some plays she hasn’t made in the past. Those three are all going to have to handle the load.”

They won’t have to do all the scoring as Campbell’s squad returns several other letterwinners that can be counted on in Kelsey Conway, Kassidy Scott, Hannah McCafferty, Kelly Braun and Mary Mochen. Hayley Sekula also will be counted on.

“We’ve got great kids that have all done the things we’ve asked them to do,” Campbell said. “They spent the summer with us and played about 25 games. We have some other kids that are capable of helping us as well.”

The Trojans have looked best when getting out in transition in the preseason, but will have to be able to run their set offense as well.

“In coaching, I’ve always felt that you have to be able to do a little bit of everything,” Campbell said. “You’ve got to be able to run when you need too or call a set play. You have to have a mixture of several things to be successful. When we got out in transition during the summer and against Lowell (scrimmage), we had some success.

“If you do that, and miss a couple of quick shots, you’re going to have to slow things down at times.”

Defensively, the Trojans will look like they have in the past with their run-and-jump pressure and a few other surprises.

“Defensively, we’ll still run and jump, but we’ll play some zone like we did last year,” Campbell said. “We aren’t a go out and stick you man-to-man team. We don’t have that kind of personnel. If we change things up from time to time, I think we’ve got a chance to be successful.”

The Trojans problem on the defensive end may be rebounding the ball after forcing a tough shot.

“We’re short on size,” Campbell said. “You can’t just measure kids by their height though. We’ve got tremendously competitive kids and hopefully that balances it out a little.”

And at the end of the day, basketball may be just as simple as it was 25 years ago when Campbell started.

“Putting the ball in the basket is the equalizer for everybody,” Campbell said. “If we shoot the ball well, we can be competitive with anybody.”

Posted 11/9/2012