With the departure of the recent coaches at the end of last season, the Girls Varsity Basketball team has gained two new coaches. Head coach Scott Kato and assistant coach Lindsay Bettke both joined the team with experience, but with varying degrees of previous involvement at Hackley.
Scott Kato first joined the Hackley community as the girls Junior Varsity basketball coach at the beginning of the winter season in 2023, when previous coach Jeffrey Ferreiras was promoted to assistant coach of the varsity team. Scott coached the JV team for two seasons before becoming the coach of the varsity team.
“I have enjoyed my time so far at Hackley, building the program starting at the JV level, and now at the varsity level. Our season started off a little slow, but we’ve picked it up, and we’ve kind of found our balance as a team,” said coach Scott Kato.
After playing college basketball at Hawaii Pacific University, Scott got into coaching. He is the director for the 6th Borough Hoops Girls program and has also coached in Irvington. Assistant coach Lindsay Bettke played college basketball at SUNY New Paltz before becoming a student assistant coach there. She has not had previous experience at Hackley, but she has coached at 6th Borough Hoops and was brought to Hackley by Scott.
Coaches Lindsay and Scott have dedicated their efforts this season to rebuilding team culture and love for the game. At the termination of last season, spirits were low because of performance and lack of team connection, so the new coaches have tried to focus their first season on rebuilding these important aspects of team sports.
“These coaches are great. They both really care about our well-being, which is different from what we’ve had in the past, and they really take our opinions into account when we say we had a rough day yesterday with the game, and we all feel super tired. They’ll take that into account on what we’ll do in practice the next day, and when we tell them about team bonding activities, they’re really all for it and a lot more understanding,” said senior captain Angelina Hummel.
Players have enjoyed the change in pace this season from the previous season, and believe that the current coaches are aligned in their goals and motivations with those of the players.
“As the season’s gone on, we’ve really grown closer, and that’s helped us have more communication and work together during games as a team,” said Angelina.
The team has seen a positive impact from this approach to coaching, and many players applaud the new coaching staff for encouraging connection and chemistry between teammates.