Journee Brown, a member of the Seymour Lady Owls basketball team, says playing games in the summer goes a long way to preparing for the high school season in the winter.

“It really helps,” Brown said Thursday after the Owls defeated Jennings County in the Seymour Shootout at Seymour Middle School. “It really brings us together as a team. It helps the team value.”

All the girls who will see a majority of the varsity playing time next winter are involved in the summer program except Greer Henry, who is recovering from surgery from a torn ACL.

“We’re working on a new offense this summer,” Brown said. “Claire (Marshall) and I are the ‘bigs’ (post players). It’s really fun playing with the team, building on what we already have.”

After the winter season was over, Brown played a lot of AAU basketball in the spring, which she said was fun.

After the high school summer season, Brown said she will play more AAU games in July, then in August will begin her senior season of volleyball at Seymour.

The Owls played in two games at East Central on Tuesday and will play two more games at East Central next Tuesday. The Owls will also play in the Hanover Shootout at Hanover College later in June, and will also play in the Indiana Team Camp later on.

The Owls also defeated Bloomington North and Bloomington South on Thursday.

“Offensively, we’re just trying to get more consistent, making sure we have multiple players on the floor that are (scoring) threats. I thought there were times last year that a lot of teams could play off of us and dare kids to shoot, and that made it tough to play,” Owls’ coach Jason Longmeier said. “I think right now we’re trying to create so that you can’t do that. Our kids have really put the time in shooting to become a better shooting team. That’s what we’re working on offensively.”

Longmeier said this summer he is “trying some new wrinkles on offense with our five-out. We’re trying to get the ball to Kendall (Sterling) sooner. We’re trying to put her on the same side with some double action, a little bit more two-man game with her. I think offensively, we’re ahead of where we were last year by a bunch. You’re expected to do that when you bring a lot of kids back.”

On the defensive side, Longmeier expects to be to be 50-50 man and zone.

“Defensively, we’re trying to figure out who we are,” he said. “I’m a ‘man’ guy and at this time I think we’re going to be 50-50 with man and zone, maybe even more toward the zone because we have a little bit of length that we can really stretch some things and cause some problems.If we don’t create some of the depth we need, it makes it hard to play the defensive intensity you need to play with for 32 minutes.”

Emmy Munson, an incoming sophomore, says she is going to battle for playing time with the varsity.

“I hope to be playing varsity,” she said after the Bloomington South game. “I enjoy playing with all of them and I think it’s very fun. I’m excited. I like to play wing and sometimes if Kendall needs a break, I’ll get in there and help with the point guard position.”

Munson said she played guard on the junior varsity last winter.

“I like handling the ball,” she said. “We’re getting better as a team, growing together, all of us working together, getting to know each other, and enjoying it while doing that. I’m working on everything, but definitely my shot. I’ve got to get my shot down and be consistent. I usually like to shoot a three, but I’ve got to get my shot consistent.”

Munson said she also needs to work on dribbling left-handed.

“I just want to improve my overall game and just get the best I can for the team,” she said.

The junior varsity lost to Silver Creek and Jennings County Thursday and are 1-4 for the summer.

“The (JV) is young. That is a lot of freshmen that we’re counting on. They’re all freshmen and sophomores,” Longmeier said. “The thing is they’re going to get an opportunity to play there. There are a couple kids down there right now that are trying to take leaps over the other and put them in the mix to have the opportunity to come up and help us.”