Seymour senior fills variety of roles for basketball team

January 1, 2019

Megan Ritz has played different positions for the Seymour girls basketball team the past four years.

She said she doesn’t mind moving around on offense, she just wants to help the Owls win.

“I mainly play the ‘3’ (small forward),” Ritz said. “Sometimes I’ll go down as a post player, and just kind of fill the spots that need to be filled on offense.

“I’m not as much of a scoring threat as they would like me to be at this point in time, but that could change later on down the road considering we are halfway through our season, so you never know what’s going to happen at the end.”

When she’s looking to attack, Ritz likes to drive to the basket.

“I’m more comfortable taking it to the rim,” she said. “I’m stronger than what I look now. Shooting outside is not my main thing.”

The senior takes pride in her defensive presence.

“On defense I would rather play man-to-man,” Ritz said. “Zone defense, I feel like we’re all kind of just standing there. When we’re in our man-to-man we do play one-on-one, and it’s ‘guard your yard,’ so you stand up to your man and you hold your spot for the team.

“We mainly press half-court but we do have a full-court press that we can put in at times. I’m at half-court. We have ‘a taker’ and ‘a reader,’ and usually it’s the ones that can come up from behind and steal the ball or pressure them from behind.”

On the schedule, Ritz looks forward to the home games.

“I love the home games. I love when the band comes,” Ritz said. “They get the music going for us and it just has that great atmosphere from the cheer block and with all the parents there and making sure we have a crowd that we want.”

Ritz feels that playing games during the summer definitely helps prepare the Owls for the winter season.

“It lets us see where we’re at, where we can play, what we can play, what’s our limit on where we can go, who can do what,” Ritz said. “The first part of the summer we’re still in that weird stage where you’re trying to figure things out, but by the end summer you know ‘this is where we’re going to be at the beginning of the season,’ so you’re further ahead.”

Ritz said players have to give 100 percent effort from start to finish every game.

“We want to have a competitive schedule,” she said. “We don’t want to just sit around and say ‘these are the games we ought to win.’ We want to make sure we’re playing someone that is challenging that can put us to our best effort and see where we’re at.”

Ritz said the team needs to come together to post a winning record.

Megan recalled when she was in elementary school, her mother (Melanie) coached both her and her sister Morgan, and Tonya Fee also coached the girls in elementary, and that is how the Ritz sisters and Fee sisters got started in basketball.

“Tonya started a league at (Cortland) for us that we kind of stuck with over there, and once we got to middle school we could start playing for Seymour,” Megan said.

She ran a leg in the 400 relay and did high jumping on the track team last spring.

“High jump is my main focal point right now,” Ritz said. “I’m looking at going to college for track and field. Last year, I had an injury so I couldn’t jump most of the season. So this year I’m trying to come back stronger. I’ve jumped 5-1 in practice. In meets, I’ve jumped 5-feet.

“I’m hoping to get up to at least 5-3. With more coaching, I think it’s possible. You want to make sure you have your steps far enough back so you can get to your top speed at that short distance and you want to have your curves so you can get your leverage up. “

Ritz said she enjoys running the second leg in the 400 relay.

“The second leg is kind of the one where you don’t have to be the quickest runner, but you can kind of push your team ahead a little bit. I like running in one of the middle lanes,” she said.

Ritz has enjoyed attending SHS.

“I enjoy the atmosphere,” Ritz said. “You feel like you’re a family when you’re at sporting events. Everyone is cheering. The staff here, you can go to them and talk whenever you need to and get the help you need.

“Being at athlete here, on game days there teachers that you may never had have will say ‘good luck’ to you. They’re here for you even though you don’t know them. You make a lot of friends not just being at here but going here.”

[sc:pullout-title pullout-title=”Ritz file” ][sc:pullout-text-begin]

Name: Megan Ritz

High School: Seymour

Parents: Melanie and Casey Ritz

Sibling: Morgan

Sports: basketball 4 years, track and field 4 years

Athletic highlights: track-2-time regional qualifier in 4×100 relay, high jump, top jumper award

Organizations: FFA, 4H

Plans after high school: attend college study physical education, health teaching

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