What’s it like with a new coach and no Brynna Maxwell? Everything is new for Gig Harbor girls basketball

The Gig Harbor Tides are without their star player and have a new coach as they look to do a lot of rebuilding of their program in an attempt to match the high bar of winning the class 3A state title in 2018.



With all of that as the backdrop for this season, the team is taking to the court for summer ball. Here are some of the things on their minds.

WHAT’S LIFE LIKE WITHOUT BRYNNA MAXWELL?

Maxwell, who was named the The Gateway’s Gig Harbor High School female athlete of the year, left the program as the all-time leading scorer with 1,968 points and the school’s all-time record for points in a game (48 vs. Hudson’s Bay on Feb. 19). She was named to both the AP and USA Today All-State first team in both 2018 and 2019. She now is playing for the Utah Utes in the Pac-12.

“I mean they’re definitely impossible shoes to fill but we’re just kind of working as a team playing more spread out basketball and just working around with it. Obviously we need leaders to step up because she was such a big leader role,” senior Tate McReynolds said. “We’re just working on that. We’ve only been playing for like three weeks together without her so it’s kind of different. But we’re really just regluing ourselves back together.”

“I feel like if we all work together and be confident within ourselves, we can all contribute and just fill in her spot,” Meghan Edwards said. “With her, it’s kind of hard to replace that but I think as a team we can just contribute with each other and just come as one and I think we’ll be okay without her.”

With all that being said, new Coach Michael Guinasso shared this confidence and optimism about the direction the team is headed having put in a lot of thought about what the character of the team will be like without their best player of recent memory.

“I’ve watched a lot of film from last year and the year before from Hudl. We’re going to do a lot of team basketball, move the ball, get everyone involved, get a lot of shots up. Our goal, we’ve kind of done it now with summer ball, we’re going to kind of do it moving forward is we’re going to start playing fast,” Guinasso said. “I love fast basketball but also under control. So that’s the goal is you get everyone involved and play like we are the deepest team around because I think we will be one of the deepest teams around when the season comes.”

WHAT IS NEW COACH MIKE GUINASSO BRINGING TO THE TABLE?

Guinasso has a lot to live up to himself, following in the footsteps of Megan Murray who accrued an impressive 91-28 record at Gig Harbor and was named coach of the year in the Class 3A South Sound Conference in 2017 as well as the 3A state coach of the year in 2018 by the Washington State Girls Basketball Association.

For the last two years prior to taking over at Gig Harbor, Michael coached the JV girls basketball team at Lake Washington. He brings a different style of play and coaching that the team has acknowledged might take some getting used to.

“I mean, he’s doing the best he can,” McReynolds said. “We’re all working with him. It’s definitely a lot of change but we’re embracing it. We’re ready. We’re excited. I think time is all it’s going to take. Once we get ready and we’re all on the same page then it’s going to be successful. We’re wiping out everything like new offense, new defense which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. We’re all just kind of working and getting used to our chemistry together with the new offense.”

The name of the game for that new offense continues to be all about speed and pushing the team to move quickly to maximize the number of opportunities as well as turnovers they hope to get.

“We run a type of fast break offense and then we get into our offense right away,” Guinasso said. “Once the season hits and we get a shot clock going, our goal is to get a shot up within 15 seconds of the shot clock going. Just double our shots that we’ll get and double the amount of defense we’ll get to play and turnovers we’ll get. We’ll live a lot off of the turnovers.”

WHAT’S THE PLAN TO REPLACE MAXWELL’S SCORING PRODUCTION?

Maxwell was a force to be reckoned with and put together her best season yet last year. She averaged 26.8 points per game, scoring 671 points, shooting 50 percent from the field and 43 percent from 3-point range and making 91 percent of her free-throw attempts. She also had her best rebounding season, averaging nine boards per game.

Filling that big scoring void is something the Tides are hoping will be a team effort and that they’ll all be able to contribute points to what they’re hoping will be high scoring wins.

“I’m hoping this year when you look at box scores you’ll see numbers next to everybody’s names for points which again, if we get ten kids scoring four points each, that’s forty points,” Guinasso said. “And you got a kid having a big game, you know, put up 50, 60 points a game, we’ll win a lot of games.”

This sentiment was echoed by the leadership of the team as well as they had confidence they would grow together to putting up big points to win by dipping into their strong talent pool.

“I’ll just do what my team needs me to do but we got players who are capable of scoring. Once you have that big of a talent leave, it’s kind of hard,” McReynolds said. “You never really know what’s going to happen when the season comes but I think we’re all just working on our shot, working to be comfortable and trusting each other. So by the time the season comes around, we’ll be all good.”

WHO COULD STEP UP THIS UPCOMING SEASON FOR THE TIDES?

The consensus amongst the team had largely been that it would take a team effort, but they still looked to certain leaders that they will need to help set the tone for the upcoming season.

“Tate has really stepped up, defensively and even offensively handling the ball, getting people involved. Meghan is starting to knock down some shots which is awesome,” Guinasso said. “We have a good freshmen coming in, Bailey, who is also going to be a big key to our offense this year. You know those three are going to be the big scorers.”

This sentiment was echoed by Edwards as well who felt she was getting to expand her play and push herself to build new strengths.

“I’m starting to feel more confident within my offense. I wasn’t really more of an offensive player last year. I didn’t have as much confidence. I was more of a defensive player,” Edwards said. “I really want to step into a bigger role for my team and not just be a side person. I really want to be someone you can rely on and be comfortable with when I have the ball in my hands.”

This story was originally published July 1, 2019 at 11:47 AM.