Wawasee junior Elizabeth Jackson is determined to make people remember the Lady Warriors in 2013-14.

SYRACUSE – Perhaps the new all-black uniforms are all too perfect for the Wawasee girls’ basketball team. The ominous color itself symbolizes uncertainty and mystery. Uncertainty is certainly a fair word to use when describing the 2013 Lady Warriors.

After graduating three seniors, including the school’s second all-time leading scorer KiLee Knafel, Wawasee is left with no seniors, just two juniors and a mess of underclassmen. Head coach Kem Zolman knows this season will be another roller coaster ride but, as usual, the 16-year head coaching veteran is ready for the challenge.

“We are going to be seeing a lot of vanilla this year,” Zolman started. “By that I mean it will be very, very basic. We have a lot of young players and they are just trying to learn one thing at a time right now. We’ll struggle here at the beginning to find out who our scorers are and where we can score from and really just figure out who we are as a team.”

Youth will definitely be plentiful for Wawasee this year as three freshmen and four sophomores will make up the majority of the varsity roster. But do not let the youth deceive you from the raw talent.

The focus of that underclassmen bunch will be on the sophomore class. Kylee Rostochak and Erin Wiktorowski both started for Wawasee last year and will help to bring back some familiarity to the court for Zolman. The sophomore class also offers Allissa Flores and Katlyn Kennedy. Kennedy’s off season development has been promising and her height, 5′ 11″, will be extremely valuable to an otherwise undersized squad. Zolman hinted that the play of the sophomore class will play a big part in determining the success for the team as a whole.

“We are really putting a whole lot of responsibility on that group,” said Zolman of the sophomore class. “Katlyn is a force inside for us, we are probably asking more from her than a sophomore is really capably of giving right now. But she is just one of those young girls that we are putting a lot of pressure on.

“You’ll see a lot of things this year that you wouldn’t expect out of young players and you’ll see a lot of things that you would expect out of young players. It will be that way until we can get them feeling confident.”

Wawasee brings back two juniors, Courtney Linnemeier and Elizabeth Jackson. While both will add some experience for the rest of the team to lean on, only Jackson saw significant varsity time as a starter on last year’s squad. Jackson. While Jackson was a quiet member of last year’s squad, Zolman has already noticed improvements in the junior’s game and mentioned her being a more confident and vocal player. Both attributes that she will need to help lead this young team.

Some pieces are in place for the Lady Warriors though continued development will be key for this young team. But do not let the lack of experience fool you, Wawasee still brings the attitude that fans have grown accustomed to watching on the court. The Lady Warriors are just waiting for the chance to prove themselves. Opportunity number one comes next Friday as Westview comes to town for the season opener. Tip is set for 7:30 p.m.