Jason Held to take over Plainfield Central’s girls basketball program

Jason Held has been around girls basketball in Plainfield District 202 for quite a while.

He started in the Plainfield East program in 2008-09 before coming to Plainfield Central for the past six seasons.

After being a freshman, JV and varsity assistant coach for the Wildcats, he gets his chance to run a program as the varsity head coach this season, taking over for Tim Torkelson, who was the Wildcats’ coach for the past two years.

Held has been working with his team this summer, and part of that summer work included the recent Morris Ladies Shootout. While it is a new role for him in the program, Held feels he has a head start.

“It’s a lot easier for me to step in because I am familiar with all of the returning players,” Held said. “I have coached them either as freshmen, on the JV team or on the varsity, so that will help things flow a lot easier into a new season.

“We have a lot of girls coming back from last year, and there is quite a bit of talent coming up from the lower levels.”

Among those returning for Held and the Wildcats this season will be Mia White, Dee Dee Cooley and Maeve Carlton, all of whom were either starters or saw significant playing time last year. Carlton averaged 8.1 points and 5.7 rebounds per game last year as a sophomore. Held hopes that experience will help the team improve from the 4-25 record it finished with last season.

“We’re off to a good start this summer,” he said. “We have a lot of girls showing up, and it’s good for us to have that kind of competition for playing time.

“The key for the summer is to see which girls work well together on the floor. We want to see how things flow on the floor and how the girls are buying into both the system and each other.”

The Wildcats dropped their two games on the first day of the Morris Shootout, falling to eventual champion Morris and Kankakee before losing games in the Silver Bracket to bracket champion Kaneland and Hinsdale South and beating Rosary.

“We want to win some games this summer, but the most important thing is that we get better,” Held said. “We have been playing teams that will let us know where we need to improve, and that’s a good thing.

“We’ve seen some familiar opponents this summer, and some not-so-familiar. That is good, because the more different teams we see, the more we can learn about ourselves. We are excited to begin a new season. I couldn’t be happier with how the summer has gone for us so far. We are getting to know each other really well, and hopefully that will carry into the season.”