Blazers set for major changes this season

GREEN BAY – The Green Bay NEW Lutheran Blazers girls basketball program is getting into one of their most tumultuous seasons yet.

According to Blazers Head Coach Nicki Natzke, the girls program has made the decision this season to play only half a varsity schedule due to a lack of roster depth.

“We’re getting back to basics. What do we really need to focus on and what do we really need to work on? I think we have to work on our defense a little more to get better at that and get better at the little things and to take a step back and look at the big picture,” said Natzke.

Although the Blazers are coming off a decent season ending 2024-25 with a record of 13-14 overall and 7-9 in the Packerland Conference taking fifth in the standings, the Blazers have lost several of their leading scorers.

Emma Laatsch (6.4 ppg), Lexie Meerstein (11.6 ppg) and Ingrid Beaumont (18.1 ppg) were all lost to graduation.

Beaumont was a key contributor for the Blazers hitting her 1,000th career point late in the season for the Blazers last year.

The change to their roster is especially disappointing after the program experienced a huge shift in momentum towards the end of their season after pulling off a 56-48 upset over Lena (22-3 overall, 15-1 conf.) who was leading the Marinette & Oconto Conference, in their WIAA Regional game.

Despite the loss of much of their core talent, Natzke said she has a lot of faith in her few returners to step up as leaders this season.

“I’m looking forward to seeing their progress. Every game and every practice, I’m looking for some leadership from some of my older girls. I think it will be a little tougher, but I think it’s going to be a good year for them to start becoming leaders and becoming those girls on the court that they want to be. I’m looking forward to seeing who is going to show up and be our scorer,” said Natzke.

As for the younger players, Natzke said that she is hopeful this opportunity will ultimately help them develop in the long run by forcing them to step up and take on bigger roles both on and off the court.

“They’ll be ready for it. I know they are excited about the opportunity to show me what they can do. They’ll play some JV to get them some more experience, but they are going to have to grow up really fast. This year will be good for them for next year,” said Natzke.
Some of the main players Natzke said the team has come to rely on are juniors Meredith Lemke-Scott and Addison Bruley.

“I think Lemke-Scott is going to be our point guard and I think she’s ready and looking forward to being that leader. She’s shown some things in practice. Addison Bruley is the other junior and she’s ready to be our shooter. We’ve got to get her to put in a little more time in the shooting realm, but she’s ready to take that challenge on,” said Natzke.

According to Lemke-Scott, the Blazers are ready to capitalize on some of their weak points from last season in order to find some more notches in the win column in 2025.

“Last season at the beginning of the year I would say we struggled with connecting both halves of the game, but towards the end of the season we definitely got better at that. I would like to say we could keep that up this year, but we have had a lot of changes to our roster, so I feel like that may be a bit of a struggle for us again this year, but I’m hoping that by the end of the season we can also put two halves together,” said Lemke-Scott.

“We are all friends off the court and communicate well with each other most of the time, and that really plays a role in how we communicate on the court. We are also all willing to play and hustle down the court, so I feel like our speed will also be a good aspect of our game.”

Natzke echoed these sentiments stating that she hopes hustle and fitness will become a major strength for the program.

“We are going to work a lot on defense. That is going to be a huge thing. We are going to work on pushing the ball up and down the court and being in shape to get up and down the court. These are all things we’ve done in the past, it just may take a little bit of time to get there,” said Natzke.

Despite having to minimize their varsity schedule, Lemke-Scott said that she thinks it will be a good chance for some of the fresh talent on their squad this year to get used to the higher level of competition in the Packerland Conference.

“I’m really looking forward to the competition and the level of play this season because in our conference, there are definitely some teams that are more advanced than us in certain aspects, so I’m looking forward to seeing more competition and seeing everybody grow in their own ways,” said Lemke-Scott.

The Blazers will travel to Kewaunee on Friday, Dec. 5, as they get further into their season after facing Gillett, Lena and Gibraltar earlier in their schedule.