Birch’s goal for Hanover girls is a sustained winner for years to come
By Mike Moore
Staff Writer
Horton – The loss Tuesday night was convincing, a 33-point setback on the road against Grass Lake.
After starting the season 6-1, the Hanover-Horton girls basketball team is 6-4.
And this, if you look back on the past handful of years, is a gigantic step in the right direction.
“If you would have asked me in our first 10 games to be 6-4, I’d take it,” coach Andrew Birch said. “I think we were capable of this, but not too many people expected it.”
Birch is in his second season as the sideline general at Hanover, and to put into even further perspective as to how far the Comets have come, the six wins so far equal the most a single team has had since the 2010-11 team finished 6-14.
“Right now, the focus is on establishing a winning mentality,” Birch said when asked how he hopes to transform the program. “All these girls are competitive and play competitive sports. That’s what you have to instill in them. Having the heart. Playing feisty defense. They are learning you don’t play jerseys, you play the other girls on the other team and every game is winnable.”
Birch, a 2004 Hanover grad, played under current boys coach Chad Mortimer and was a junior on the team that reached the state semifinals.
He spent six years on Mortimer’s staff as an assistant before taking over the girls job last winter.
And what he inherited was nothing short of a disaster.
In the two years prior to Birch taking over, Hanover went a combined 3-39, including a winless winter in 2012-13.
He guided the girls to a 5-15 record last year and entered this winter with much higher expectations.
“The goal was to win the conference,” Birch said. “We’re behind that now, so now the focus has to be preparing for and competing for a district title. I was part of so many with the boys program, and that’s something you want to do. We want to be in a position to make a run, and the key is, I think this team is very capable of doing just that.”
Of course, getting to that point will certainly require many more steps of the learning process Birch is in the midst of instituting.
His roster of 13 girls has just five seniors. Every game, every day, is a new lesson, a new chance to change the mindset of a program that hasn’t finished with a winning record since 2008.
“Sports is an environment where you have to move on from one game to the next, and we still have some young girls trying to understand that,” Birch said. “That’s kind of where the losing streak comes from.”
The Comets will eventually snap out of it, especially with the some “very winnable games coming up,” as Birch said.
Another win or two, and this season could already be considered a success.
But there’s also the tool in place to make sure future seasons are characterized the same way.
“We’re working with the younger kids now. We have coaches in the younger schools coaching, not just letting kids play,” Birch explained. “We have good coaches with the seventh and eight graders. It has to start down the line. … We’ve really had a boost in the youth programs. The younger girls see us starting 6-1, and people want to be a part of that.”
Mike Moore is a play-by-play commentator and Sports Writer for JTV Sports. You can reach him at mjm12@albion.edu. He’s also the author of ‘Love, Defined; A Dedication to the Love, Sacrifice, and Magic of Motherhood.’
Love, Defined is available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Tate Publishing or by contacting Mike directly.