Kendall Sterling holds the ball as a play develops for the Owls during their game against Bloomington North on Wednesday during the Seymour Shootout. By Dylan Wallace | The Tribune

The Trinity Lutheran girls basketball team lost two seniors and the Seymour girls team lost three seniors from last winter, leaving some big shoes to fill.

For coaches Jason Longmeier at Seymour and Mike Lang at Trinity Lutheran, the summer schedule is a good place to find replacements for those departing players.

The Owls and Cougars were among 12 teams, from Bloomington to Lawrenceburg to New Albany, that played in the Seymour Shootout on Wednesday. The varsity teams each played three games in the Lloyd E. Scott Gymnasium and auxiliary gym at the high school, while the junior varsity teams played three games each at Seymour Middle School.

The coaches said they are playing different offensive sets and experimenting with zone and man on defenses this summer.

“We’re replacing three starters, and with a lot of those, it’s youthful bodies,” Longmeier said. “You’re looking not only at starters, but multi-year starters. We’re trying to figure out a mix. We’re a little bit bigger than we’ve been in the past, so we’re looking at playing a bigger team, so offensively, we’re looking at a team that can give us an advantage in that.”

When the season arrives, he said the Owls are going to be a 75% zone team just because of the personnel.

“It’s not what we’ve done around here in the past, so it’s going to take some getting used to,” he said. “We’ve got to get better in our rotations out of it. The lineup we started here in the first two games today were 6-1 (Cali Cummings), 6-1 (Journee Brown), 6-foot (Grace Schrader). I think that gives us an advantage from a defensive standpoint.”

Offensively, he said it’s going to take some time to get used to, but he thinks he’s got a team that runs the floor really well.

“Cali is a really good athlete, a good jumper and it allows her to get out and run,” Longmeier said. “We’re going to look at some 1-3-1 and 2-3 zone. Those are two things we’re really going to focus on defensively.”

The Owls play in the Lady Mac Summer League on Tuesdays and Thursdays at Indianapolis area high schools in June.

“Our individual player development has to get better,” Longmeier said. “We’ve got to be better shooters, better ball handlers and have better footwork. We’re really trying to figure out what we can do to score.”

Lang said he doesn’t think scoring is going to be an issue for the Cougars this year.

“What we’ve got to do is have a focus defensively and just be stronger on the boards. That is where we’ve got to be better,” he said. “Everything is going to come down to rebounding. We’re going to spend a lot of focus on the defensive end this year.”

In some aspects, he said he has a young team even though there are four returning starters.

“We’ll expect a lot out of Kailene (Cockerham) and Liza (Froedge) from a scoring standpoint, and of course BT (Bailey Tabeling) will be out there scoring for us, as well,” he said. “The wildcard will be what we get out of the Schepmans (Emma and Katelyn). I think they can both produce a lot for us. The one thing we’re going to have this year that we haven’t had in the past is we’ll have more depth.”

The Cougars will play at Salem on Friday, at Triton Central on June 19 and at Charlestown on June 25.

“We need to spend time filling a void with Syd (Jaynes, an Indiana All-Star), not so much from a scoring standpoint but from a rebounding standpoint and a defensive standpoint,” Lang said. “The one thing we can’t have is three people standing around watching BT do her thing. We’ll be fine.”

Defensively, he said the Cougars will mix it up.

“This first game against Charlestown, we had to go all zone just to combat their speed. There are going to be teams that we can man up with, and when we can, that’s what we’ll run,” he said. “This is a completely different team. We’ve got to learn to play with one another.”

Emma Schepman started at Trinity last winter, while Schrader has been a varsity starter at Seymour the past two seasons. Both senior post players said they are working hard to improve their interior moves this summer.

“I need to rebound and block out,” Schrader said. “We need to get 50-50 balls. That’s what we need to work on right now and just ball movement to work the post and get the ball outside. I like to drive, so it’s nice to catch the ball on the high post and move and drive, but I can also catch it in the low post and make a move to score.”

She said rebounding will be key for the Owls.

“We have to make sure we always find somebody because when we play zone, we have to block out and go after the ball as hard as we can,” she said. “We have to experience the new players to new things and keep involving them in all that we’re doing so we get used to how each other plays. It’s going to take a lot of teamwork, a lot of time practicing.”

Schepman said she prefers playing on the block.

“I’m working on my post moves and moving the ball around the perimeter to not clutter the lane and keep the offense spread,” she said. “I enjoy my teammates and getting closer to people. We need to work hard this summer and carry it into the season.”