For Maureen Schick, the timing was finally right.

The current volleyball coach at Lake Linden-Hubbell is now the LL-H girls varsity basketball coach after Timm Gast stepped down. With her kids out of school, Schick now has the time to commit to two varsity sports.

“My youngest daughter graduates, so I thought that I’ll take it and maybe fill the void for a few years,” Schick said. “I thought about it a few years back, but my kids were still young enough that I didn’t want to get into that while already coaching one varsity sport.”

Schick played basketball in high school at Class B Ogemaw Heights down in West Branch, Mich. In 1988, she started coaching at the junior high basketball level at LL-H and coached for nine years.

“There were two solid varsity and JV (basketball) coaches, so I never really had a desire,” Schick said of coaching high school basketball. “and volleyball kind of took off, so once I had my first kid, it was like, OK something has to give, and it was going to be that, so I never went back to it because I had volleyball.”

For now, Schick has been watching game film and organizing an offseason schedule. And while the identity of her team will take shape, for now, she would like her squad to play aggressively and push the pace.

“There are a really good core of other coaches here that I can lean and depend on,” Schick said. “They’ll definitely help out with that.”

One thing Schick won’t need help with: getting to know her players. The familiarity with the girls from volleyball should create a smooth transition into basketball.

“They’re really a good group of girls,” Schick said. “They want to work for you. They want to do things and want to please, so I think it will be fun.”