APPLETON – Just two years removed from playing for a state championship, the Appleton East girls basketball team has its third coach in three years.

But don’t expect these Patriots to go from the top of the Fox Valley Association to the bottom anytime soon.

That’s because coach Brian Paschen and his staff have hit the ground running. After being hired prior to the summer, he wasted little time sharing his vision with his new team.

“A lot of times, when these programs switch over or transition, it comes in late, so people don’t know what to expect,” Paschen said. “We didn’t put a lot of X’s and O’s in in the summer, but I think from a cultural and philosophical standpoint they know what we’re looking for and I think we got them to all buy in. I think it kind of helped with the chemistry of the team for each other. I think once practice started in the fall, we were ready to go.”

For senior Lindsey Gerard, she has seen the best of the Patriots and the not-so-good times in her short career.

In 2022, Appleton East played for the WIAA Division 1 state championship after a 25-5 regular season. Last year, however, the Patriots dipped to 11-14 and never did find their stride.

“This is my senior season, so I’m just looking to have a positive experience and I’m really excited to play with this team,” Gerard said. “We’ve built super good team chemistry at the end of last year and it’s carried over to this year. I’m just super excited to have a positive experience and be a leader for this team.

“You can’t really control what happens when it comes to coaching as a player, but I think as a team we can easily adapt to change and that’s something we’re super good at it. I think we’re looking forward to a positive experience and working together and obviously control what we can control, which is how we bond on and off the court and how that translates into a game. It was super nice to have our coach in some of our summer practices and like open gyms. He gave us lots of opportunities to get better, which is nice.”

Junior Torie Neubauer said getting an early start with the new coaching staff has already paid big dividends.

“I just think being there for each other is huge for us, playing together as a family,” Neubauer said. “It’s one thing we’ve always went with and I think this summer was huge for us. We really felt connected as a team and the preseason going into the season I felt was very beneficial to all of us. We felt connected that way. Once we got into season, we’re already connected and playing together.”

The Patriots started the season with a pair of dominant performances with an 82-37 win over Sheboygan North and a 70-28 thrashing of Green Bay Preble, then beat Menomonee Falls 88-81 and Sun Prairie East 62-34 at the Kettle Moraine Thanksgiving Classic to improve their record to 4-0.

“I love this team,” Gerard said. “I see leaders at every single level from freshman to senior. Everyone has a way that they lead, whether it’s by example on and off the court and I think we all have something to learn from each player. No matter how that leadership role is, I think it’s important to have leaders on this team. And I think we all do a good job holding each other accountable and it definitely translates on the court.”

Neubauer said she liked the fire her entire team brought in the opener against Sheboygan North.

“That game showed us that we played together,” Neubauer said. “Every single player on the team scored, which is huge. You don’t see that on a varsity team. Just that, playing together, playing as a team, getting one more pass for our teammates is huge for us.”

The team appears to be adjusting well to the new staff, after a down year in 2022-23.

“I think it was all God’s plan,” Neubauer said. “It definitely was a struggle trying to adjust, but with coach Paschen coming in at the beginning of the summer, being able to adjust to what he wanted during our leagues in the summer, really was beneficial. We knew what to expect so that once we got into season, we could execute to what he wanted.”

Team chemistry has also been important.

“From last year to this year, we have a very similar team,” Neubauer said. “Everybody is so close. There’s no one-sided person. Everybody gets along, everybody plays together, which I think is huge. And that’s how our chemistry builds up.”

Paschen, who came over to East after spending nearly a decade on the Lawrence University staff, said the players aren’t the only ones growing.

“I’m kind of learning with them,” Paschen said. “When I came in, I kind of heard all kinds of different this, that and the other thing and where we are. You see everyone has a different projection of who we are and what we are. That’s all done before we ever dribbled one basketball during a game.

“My expectation is that they get better as we go along. We have a very young team. We have some seniors. A lot of the minutes are played by underclassmen. The first practice, the first game we got off to a really nice start, obviously. But we’re seeing improvement every day and that’s kind of my expectation. I don’t know where that puts us in the Ws and Ls, and I really don’t care at this point, but as they get along as a team and build for the future of the program, that’s kind of my expectation.”

Although he didn’t know much about his players prior to taking over, he likes what he sees.

“I didn’t know where the bar was set for individual players,” Paschen said. “But I’ve seen players have a real willingness to try some things that maybe weren’t in the program in the last few years, so it was different. But they’ve tried it and we’ve seen vast improvement out of a lot of them just already, so very encouraging sign there.”

Paschen said playing in the rugged Fox Valley Association is also a benefit.  

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“On a nightly basis maybe not, but from a year-long standpoint you want to play the best,” Paschen said. “Some people call it the toughest conference in the state and it very well may be. There’s some very talented teams on the high end of the conference. I don’t know where we slot in there right now, but I wouldn’t be surprised if we don’t scare a few of them a couple times during the year.

“And just playing against them as we get into late January and February has got to help us, too. And for future years, not to write this season off, but just getting all the kids experience against it. It’s certainly got to be a benefit. My main goal on that is to be better in February than we are now and I think the kids understand that and know it will be a little bit of a growing process, and everyone is buying into that. They are a fun group to be around. They’re good kids, too, and that always helps.”