Girls basketball: Brooke Heiman leads talented and young Indian Creek Timberwolves

Junior Brooke Heiman is ready to lead the Indian Creek Timberwolves to the top of the Little Ten Conference this year.

“I expect us to win conference and just really improve,” Heiman said. "I expect us to play good and win every game that we can.”

After earning honorable mention all-state honors last year, Heiman has worked hard to improve her game over the offseason.

“I’ve just been doing a lot of weight training, and I’ve been practicing a lot on my own time, just improving my skills,” she said.

Timberwolves coach Paul Muchmore has taken notice of her improvement to start the season.

“[Brooke’s] really worked hard in the offseason,” Muchmore said. “You can tell she’s a lot stronger. She’s able to go to the basket more and not just rely on her outside shooting. She’s really going to take a leap. That’s quite impressive from where she was last year.”

The Timberwolves will need all of her offseason improvement to succeed as they transition to a younger core. The Timberwolves will have as many as four freshmen in the regular rotation this year.

“The nice thing is that we have to rely on [the freshmen] for certain things, but we don’t have to rely on them for scoring and ball handling, which Brooke takes care of,” Muchmore said. “They’ll have to score some, but not having to rely on an underclassman for ball handling is huge. I think with [Brooke] it makes it easier to rely on freshman.”

It’s up to Heiman and the upperclassmen to get the young team up and running at the varsity pace.

“I think we’ve all just been pushing each other in practice,” senior Katie Cassidy said. “We all just try and play physical. We all go for the ball, hustle after the ball. We all just try to be as physical as possible so that we push each other to do that in games.”

With a more well-rounded roster, Muchmore hopes to be able to get up the floor quickly and play at a fast pace despite their youth.

“I think we’ll be able to play faster,” Muchmore said. “I see us have the ability to rebound and have girls that get the rebound be able to start the break, which we haven’t had in a while.”

The team is looking forward to running up and down the court.

“Honestly, I love a fast paced game,” Heiman said. “I think that’s a big key to winning a game. The more fast players you have, the more you can break down a team.”