Xavier’s Lilly hope for good ‘stew’

CEDAR RAPIDS - Tom Lilly has been coaching girls' basketball for 30 years, but this year is a new flavor and a new type of stew.

'The biggest obstacle is getting kids to learn their roles, accept their roles and bring what they can bring to the soup, so that by the end it comes out tasting pretty good,” said Lilly, who has coached at Xavier since it opened in 1988 and spent 13 years at Regis High School before that.

Xavier's last state championship was in 2013. Lilly's goal for this season is straightforward.

'My goals have always been very simple,” he said. 'It's to, first of all, compete and be competitive and make the other team work as hard as they possibly can in order to be successful and win.”

Members of the team agree with Lilly's goals. Senior guard Erin Drahozal wants to reach her goals for her teammates as well as for Lilly.

'My one goal for the season is to get to state,” she said. 'It's always been my goal for my teammates, and I would love to reach that goal for ourselves, but also for Coach Lilly.”

Xavier faces West Des Moines Valley on Jan. 10. The Tigers made it to the Class 5A semifinals last year before falling to Southeast Polk. On Jan. 17, the Saints face the defending 5A state champions, West Des Moines Dowling.

In the Mississippi Valley Conference, there will be no easy games, either.

Lilly said he hopes he can find at least 10 girls who can play on the floor and not have a lot of drop-off in terms of skill set.

'The strategy is to try to be as up-tempo as we possibly can, and we will see about being a pressing team which we have gotten away with for the past couple years,” Lilly said.

Xavier lost three seniors - Maddie Bertsch, Hayley Deutmeyer and Abby Watson after last season - but seniors Morgan Breitbach, Elizabeth Bailey and Drahozal as well as junior Jenny Dickes.