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Fayette girls building from ground level

Kevin Oeth, Sports Editor
Posted 12/3/20

The new head coach of Fayette girls basketball has a new system, new players, and a passion to build. No stranger to Fayette, Brian Spielbauer, a former Central Methodist University athletic …

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Fayette girls building from ground level

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The new head coach of Fayette girls basketball has a new system, new players, and a passion to build. No stranger to Fayette, Brian Spielbauer, a former Central Methodist University athletic director, takes over a program that has lost its leading scorer, Abbey Conrow to graduation, and its second leading scorer, Sydney Spielbauer, to back surgery. While the younger Spielbauer will return to the court next season as a senior, Conrow, the lone senior on the 2019-20 team, will hit the floor for the CMU Eagles as a freshman this season.

While going 9-16 last season, the Fayette girls team gained valuable experience as current seniors Kylea Hoover, Breanna Estes, and Shay McQuitty, played important minutes for last year’s squad. In addition, another senior, Abby Nation will be returning to the hardwood to add some power to the team.

And Spielbauer said he expects Jordyn Ball, Emma Chew, and Laci Fuhlage, a trio of sophomores, to be impactful players on this year’s squad. 

“There is a lot to be determined as we go forward, a lot of opportunity,” Spielbauer said. “We’ve been very happy with our seniors and juniors and their attention to detail as we’ve been going along. We’ve got a lot to figure out about ourselves as we go through this. The upcoming Glasgow tournament is going to be really fun for us to see who steps up and who performs for us.”

Fayette was dealt and early blow when the school district transitioned to online learning in mid-November. That meant that practices had to be heard virtually, during which the team focused mainly on conditioning. Spielbauer said he was appreciative of the plan the Missouri State High School Activities Association worked out to allow the team to practice virtually, rather than lose the ability to get in the required 14 practices. But he cautioned that since the team hasn’t had a lot of practice to get things up to speed, the Falcons will have to “play it by ear as we go along to see how we pick things up.”

“I like a hustling style and I like to press, both full court and half court,” he explained. “I want teams to have to be ready for a lot of things when they see us. Our girls have had to learn a lot. Everything I am doing is new and different. I’ve been very impressed with the way they have picked things up.”

While the starting lineup is still undetermined, Spielbauer said his team has solid depth. He plans to run an up tempo style with a lot of players earning minutes. 

“One person who has been the leader this entire time has been Kylea Hoover who is definitely someone who will be on the floor when the ball goes up,” said Spielbauer. “Other than her, it is still to be determined to which players will be starting.”

Fayette opens up the season today against New Franklin with a 5 p.m. tipoff in the Glasgow Tournament. “It seems like we end up playing New Franklin two to three times a year so our teams will get to know each other very well. They’ve got some upperclassmen who are pretty good. 

The winner of that contest will likely play top-seeded Otterville. “I don’t know a lot about them but I’m hoping to find out about them as the tournament goes along.

“We’ll see uncertain things, but we are just going to try to have fun every time we go out and get better quarter to quarter, half to half and game to game. I’m excited about where we can go, and hopefully we will have an entire season and be pretty good by the end.”

As for predictions, Coach Spielbauer said that while he certainly hopes to finish with more wins than losses, he said the Falcons’ chance to get better will be more than most teams. “We’ve got so many new players that are going to be asked to perform in a brand new system so we are starting at ground level and building as fast as we can,” he explained. “We just want people to support us whether in person at the games or online. They’re going to see a hardworking team that continues to get better and better as the season goes on.”

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