Saint Joseph’s Catholic girls basketball’s first-year players carved out role on revived team
The Saint Joseph’s Catholic girls basketball team was born just weeks before the season.
It was a scramble to get the program back on its feet with head coach Bethany Irwin taking over and only having four girls to start. First-year forward Aubrey Yartz was one of the four and impressed this season.
Yartz even had a triple-double last week with 17 points, 13 rebounds and 11 blocks against Upper Dauphin in a 44-31 loss on Feb. 3. Irwin has seen the first-year forward blossom over the course of the season.
“She shot pretty well — I think it was like 6-for-10,” Irwin said. “She’s really had to take on that role of doing everything. We’ve needed her to bring the ball. She’s really embraced doing what she has to do. For her to get that in a game against a very decent team is pretty cool.”
The forward didn’t even realize that she reached the accomplishment in the moment.
“At first, I didn’t know that I had it until the day after,” Yartz said. “So, I was super excited about it, especially because it was supposed to be a team that’s super good. I was really excited and it was the first of this season.”
She entered the season with experience playing AAU basketball, being confined to the post position. Irwin worked with Yartz during the summer to introduce her to a number of post moves. With the way that the season went, it was difficult to focus on just developing Yartz’s individual game.
Irwin looked to catch everyone up on how to play team defense and other ways to improve the team. Yartz was just one part of a first-year duo.
Players like Monika Peters were still in the process of learning. The first-year began as a post player, before Irwin switched her to a wing position. Peters’ final transformation as a player was to move to the lead guard position, with Irwin placing an incredible amount of trust into her young guard. Kelsey Prospero initially took the lead at the position before making way for Peters at the point guard position.
While the team’s record sat at 0-16 before their last regular season game on Thursday, Peters was able to develop as a player with sharp coaching from Irwin, a Penn State women’s basketball alumna.
“I loved it because I learned to do everything and if I make the wrong pass or I do something wrong, I know where I’m supposed to go,” Peters said. “It’s like, ‘Oh that was my fault or that’s not my fault. That’s for that person.’ If we’re on the court and somebody goes in that doesn’t know what they’re doing, I can help them figure out where they’re supposed to go.”
Peters and Yartz have known each other since kindergarten. The connection could be seen while the two worked together in drills, with Peters dribbling the ball at the top of the key and finding Yartz near the bucket for a layup.
The fun doesn’t end with just the two players on the practice court for the Lady Wolfpack. Irwin often challenges her roster to watch game film and break down the differences between their fundamentals at the beginning of the season against the team’s current play.
“I’ll go back and watch from the games before — our very first game and I went and watched this last game and I go, ‘Oh my gosh. We got to dribble down the court. We broke the press,’” Peters said. “It’s very exciting.”
