News photo by Josh Jambor Alpena Wildcats Head Coach Mark Toppi huddles with his team at the conclusion of Monday's practice. Alpena has five freshmen playing at the varsity level this season, something almost unheard of in Division-One high school girl's basketball.

ALPENA – The Alpena Wildcats varsity girl’s basketball team has five freshmen on their roster this season.

That is almost unheard of in Division-One basketball.

For Alpena Head Coach Mark Toppi, in his second year at the helm, this is not unchartered territory however and his history of success with young players bodes well for Alpena athletics.

Prior to accepting the position with the Wildcats, Toppi was the head coach of the Oscoda Owls for eight years, before that he was their junior varsity coach for five years. Additionally, Toppi has many years of experience coaching youth and Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) basketball.

Oscoda had one winning season in the 30 years prior to Toppi taking over as head coach. During his time with the Owls, they earned four district championships in five years, and five consecutive North Star League Big Dipper crowns.

Toppi has a proven track record of finding ways to win ball games but doing that with a young roster takes time. Toppi said there are challenges and hurdles that come with coaching a young team.

“We are trying to change the culture and teach them how hard they need to work to win,” Toppi said. “We try to remain positive throughout the game, and practice but hold them accountable to our expectations and standards.”

If you have seen the varsity girl’s basketball team play this season you probably noticed this team does not stop, regardless of the score, they give it their all. Toppi is appreciative of the effort his team puts forth.

“We told them the very first step is to play hard and play hard until the end, regardless of whether we are up, or down 40,” Toppi said. “I don’t want anyone to walk into the gym and know we are losing without looking at the scoreboard. If you walk into our games in the fourth quarter and we are losing, we are playing as hard if not harder than the other team. That’s the first step in turning this around.”

Regardless of their youth, the girls have talent, and Toppi is appreciative of the underclassmen’s work ethic.

“First, they are good kids with really good parents, and they want to learn, and they want to get better,” Toppi said. “I did the same thing in Oscoda, I brought up four freshmen, but it is much harder in this division.”

Typically, in Division-One basketball there is a freshman, junior varsity, and varsity team, Toppi understands it’s rare to have so many young players on the varsity level at one time.

“As far as I know It’s never been done, I believe we played two freshmen most of the season, when most teams have a freshman team,” Toppi said. “I believe it is the youngest team in the history of the Big North Conference.”

Keeping a young team focused on the standards, you hope to teach them, can be difficult. Toppi discussed the challenges of keeping his team locked in during a tough season.

“Usually, our goal is 100 percent winning, this is the first year we knew looking at the schedule we were not going to get a ton of wins,” Toppi explained. “It’s difficult for a team of 14-year-old girls with limited experience, playing against 18-year-olds with experience.”

Toppi’s has realistic expectations for his team, and although they might not win many games, they are achieving their goals.

“We pick out little things for each game that we are trying to get better at,” Toppi said. “We are trying to create good habits, when I took over last year that team had older players, and I felt we made too many mistakes based on bad habits.”

One way to measure a young team is by observing how they improve throughout the season. Regardless of the score at the end of the game, Alpena has made improvements as the season progresses.

“The big thing is getting them to believe they can do it,” Toppi said. “We lost to St. Francis by 19, and then we beat them by four, every single game we have improved.”

Although times may be tough for this youthful Wildcats squad, Toppi believes he has all the right ingredients to build Alpena into a program that can consistently compete in the Big North.

“We are going to get really good, we have really good sixth, seventh, and eighth grade players coming along with good coaches,” Toppi said. “We will add two or three players to varsity next year from those moving up to high school.”

A year’s worth of varsity level competition for his young players will make a world of difference next year, but Toppi knows they have a lot of work to do.

“All those girls will have a year of varsity experience, and we will work hard this summer on their skills and in the weight room, we will get stronger,” Toppi said. “Some of those games we lost, I looked back at the tape, and we are making a lot of mistakes out of inexperience.”

The Wildcats play their next home game on Friday against the Petoskey Northmen at Arthur Gillespie Gymnasium. Tip-off is set for 7pm.