A blend of youth and experience has Eagles soaring into the postseason

For the fifth time in a row, coach Nate Irwin and the Liberty-Benton girls basketball team are BVC champions. After beating Leipsic 61-33 last Tuesday, the Eagles (16-4, 9-0 BVC) clinched the outright title and will look to wrap up a perfect BVC conference slate today against Riverdale. For senior guard Taylor Ward, this is her fourth BVC championship, and she said a league title is always a goal o the team. But this one feels a little more special. "It always feels good to win the BVC, maybe a little bit more with such a young team," she said. "We do have a young team, but it shows that it doesn't matter who we have." The Eagles are a rather inexperienced team this season, starting three underclassmen, including freshman and BVC leading-scorer Lauren Gerken (16.5 ppg). But with a perfect blend of youth and experience, Irwin has the Eagles primed for yet another deep run. "We're a very young team, but they've responded very well to the minutes they've been given," Irwin said. "We still have a fair amount of experience to and it helps with the younger kids. They play as a team and there is no drama. They want what's best for everyone else. "But along with that, this is a team that is deep with talent and there are plenty of players who would be starters at many schools across the BVC," Irwin said. "That's been huge for us when you can have someone come off the bench and provide valuable minutes without much drop-off." The youthful exuberance is evident on this team, with sophomores Riley Irwin and Kylie Recker contributing to the success of the team, alongside Gerken. But the way the underclassmen act, you'd think they've been playing varsity-level time for years. "Right from the get-go, the underclassmen knew what they had to do," Ward said. "They knew what they had to do they knew, and that high school basketball was different from middle school or anything they've been a part off. They were all prepared for the challenge." A reason the Eagle underclassmen might be so skilled and ready for any challenge thrown at them could be because of a daunting out-of-conference schedule. With games against Ottawa-Glandorf, Fort Loramie and Hopewell-Loudon in the rearview mirror, coach Irwin knows if they want to do well in the postseason, they have to be able to compete against that caliber of teams. "We know that's who we need to beat in order to do something special," coach Irwin said. "Some of those teams we will be down at times in the game, but how we respond to being down is what is important because when the tournament rolls around, there won't be that next game to count on." Winning a BVC title is always one of the goals of the Eagles' season, but those games against the teams like O-G or Hopewell-Louden helps the team figure out what needs to be done to succeed in the postseason, and it serves as a warm-up against some of these teams. "Our non-conference schedule will help us in the postseason because our BVC games, yeah they're tough and exciting, but our out-of-conference games are just as if not more important because we play some very good teams that throw different types of things at us," Senior forward Lauren Smith said. "It gives us those experiences where our adrenaline's rushing and it makes stay calm even in those situations." The tough schedule and the team's construction of veterans and newcomers have been strengths of the team. But so has the team's willingness to put their individual goals aside to achieve the team's goals. "This is a very close-knit team that wants everyone to succeed. They don't care about how many points they score; they don't care about stats or anything like that," coach Irwin said. "As long as the team is doing well, then the players are doing well. No one complains about their minutes, they go out and give their best effort for however long they are on the court." As the regular season winds down, the Eagles have to keep doing what they're doing as well as clean a few things up for the postseason run. "We just need to play within ourselves, play smart, and limit turnovers," coach Irwin said. "We have two goals every season and we've accomplished one already. We have won the BVC regular season again and that's No. 1 one. But No. 2 is to make a run in the postseason. We've had a great season so far, but if want to do something truly special, we have to remember to play smart." The Eagles will open up their 2021 postseason campaign Feb.18 when they face off against Fostoria at home.