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Panthers win summer hoops league

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By Jack Dunn/Whitman-Hanson student intern

The W-H girls’ baskeball team won their summer league, in which they recently competed at East Bridgewater High School.

They played against Archbishop Williams, Cardinal Spellman, Carver, East Bridgewater, and W-H Red.

The team was coached by Eric Nunez and led by captains Hannah Damon, Brittany Gacicia, and Olivia Martin. In the finals they competed against a well-rounded East Bridgewaterteam.

“It is good for the girls to continue playing with one another to develop that on court chemistry and to have the ball in theirs hands throughout the offseason,” said coach Michael Costa about the experience at summer league. “It is also good for our younger players to experience and compete against varsity level type talent. However, I do not put a lot of stock in the record throughout the summer.

“A lot of times teams are not at full strength and there are many teams that do not have coaches on the bench with them and it is a lot more lax than a regular season game,” Costa said. “Obviously you want to win anytime you step on the floor but I do not take a lot away from it.”

For Costa, hard-nosed basketball is fundamental

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Mike Costa with Bob Rodgers over his shoulder. / Photo by: Nate Rollins

Fundamentals are key for new girls’ basketball coach Mike Costa.

A fundamentally sound and hard-nosed team.

That’s what new Whitman-Hanson Regional High girls’ basketball head coach Mike Costa is envisioning.

“Ideally, we’ll be closing out hard, playing tough defense, sharing the ball on offense, but just really being locked in at all times and doing things the right way,” Costa said.

Costa, who was hired in May, takes over for Jenna Olem, who guided the team to the tournament in four out of her six seasons before stepping down last March.

“Obviously, Jenna and the staff before did a great job with the program,” said Costa, who is inheriting a team that went 12-9 last winter. “They were a very successful team the last couple of years making the tournament, so I just felt like it was a great situation to be in.

“Usually when you get your first head coaching job, the team is not very good, but that’s not the case with this situation I’m in right now.”

Costa comes over from the boys’ side, having spent the past five seasons assisting W-H head coach Bob Rodgers. His tenure included a pair of trips to TD Garden. Prior to that he was an assistant for the East Bridgewater boys’ team. This will be his first time working with a high school girls’ team, but he said he isn’t worried one bit.

“At the end of the day, basketball’s basketball,” Costa said. “It just depends on what your personnel is obviously. I’m just looking forward to the opportunity because we do have a lot of talent coming back. I’ve coached for and played for a ton of great coaches who have helped me prepare for this moment.”

Further preparation has already begun.

“Being new to the girls’ side, I reached out to some different coaches as for what to look for being a new coach on the girls’ side,” Costa explained. “I’ve also watched a lot of film from last year just to get familiar with our opponents in the Patriot League, what some of the tendencies are for the girls, where they like to catch the ball and where can they score from, be effective, so I’ve done a lot a lot of film sessions on them. More importantly, I’ve sat down with all the girls in the program to build that relationship and get to know them a little better and let them know the expectations moving forward.”

The expectations are pretty straightforward.

“We want to come out and we want to compete every game,” Costa said. “We want to be the better prepared team and I think having a ridiculous attention to detail in everything we do, especially what people from the outside might not see. When people watch us play, I want to them to see us really loving the game and pulling for each other. When people watch Whitman-Hanson play, I really want them to say, ‘That’s a team. They all pull for each other and they compete their butts off.’”