Nouvel Catholic Central has a tradition of winning that can only be matched by a few schools in Michigan.
Success has been especially prevalent in girls’ basketball. State championships and Miss Basketball selections have been almost common place for the Panthers. Most recently, they were Class C state champions in 2014 and state runners-up in 2013.
This season, the Panthers have shown signs of how good the 2014-15 edition of the team could be.
Junior Laurel Jacqmain has all of the tools necessary for the guard position. She can distribute the ball and get it to the people who need it where and when they need it. She can also score, sometimes from long range and sometimes off the dribble.
Jacqmain can be a nightmare to guard, partly because of her toughness and tenacity. However, sometimes over-thinking and wanting to do too much can get her into trouble. Patience will definitely be a friend to Jacqmain during the tournament.
She can certainly make it a long evening for the person against whom she is assigned to use her ball-hawking abilities.
Maddie Graham has also raised more than a few eyebrows this season by becoming more agressive on defense and creating her own shots on offense. She has been as good as advertised.
While Graham and Jacqmain still have moments when they sometimes let the game get away from them, their skills are honed to where their basketball IQ is further along than half the teams they face.
Jacqmain is often near the front of the attacking force during fast breaks. She can also be a deadly-accurate passer over the defense when she has the ball on the wing.
Add to the mix senior Nicole Buckingham, who is doing a stellar job of rebounding and playing defense. Then when sophomore Charley Hengesbach and senior Alex Joynt hit the floor, Nouvel has a solid five players who are championship-worthy.
Hengesbach is a threat at both ends of the floor. She can score in bunches from the perimeter, and she handles the ball well enough to make penetration a threat. She also can rebound and defend and has helped Nouvel in the post this season.
Thanks to new coaches Sean Williams and Brooke Meunier, Nouvel seems to be on a solid foundation for seasons to come.
Although the team has had its share of bumps in the road this season, it has proven that the best teams in Class C will have to go through Nouvel if they plan on hoisting the championship trophy at the end of the season, and that won’t be an easy task for any team.
So is it David vs. Golaith, or in this case Nouvel vs. the rest of Class C?
In the Biblical story of David and Goliath, David initially put on a heavy coat and a brass helmet and girded himself with a sword: he prepared to wage a conventional battle of swords against Goliath. But then he stopped. “I cannot walk in these, for I am unused to it,” he said, and instead picked up five smooth stones. What happened, wondered war researcher Ivan Arreguín-Toft, when the underdogs acknowledged their weakness and chose an unconventional strategy? He went back and re-analyzed his data. In those cases, David’s winning percentage went from 28.5 to 63.6. When underdogs choose not to play by Goliath’s rules, they win, Arreguín-Toft concluded, “even when everything we think we know about power says they shouldn’t.”
Regardless of what happens along the way, Williams and Meunier will have their troops ready for whatever stands in their way.