Meyer gearing Lady Purple Tigers to ‘strengths as much as possible’

A special thank you goes to Visions Federal Credit Union for partnering with us to provide the greater Cortland County community with additional sports coverage

Cortland Varsity Girls Basketball Head Coach Janice Meyer.

Janice Meyer is taking the Cortland varsity girls basketball team to new heights.

Meyer recently entered her third season at the helm of the Lady Purple Tigers, her sixth season overall between the junior varsity and varsity programs.

So far, Cortland is 3-1 in the early going of the 2022-23 season. The squad is coming off a 2021-22 campaign in which they went 14-8.

Meyer’s first season with the varsity squad was in the COVID-shortened one in 2021. For Meyer and the Lady Purple Tigers, the season “was pretty difficult,” finishing with a mark under .500.

“I didn’t have any kids who had the opportunity to have an offseason,” she said. “I also had kids on that team that had no varsity experience.”

Cortland’s players together in 2021 “basically had a brand-new team,” Meyer said, noting her upperclassmen didn’t have substantial varsity minutes in previous seasons.

“Most of the younger kids had (no varsity experience),” Meyer added.

Meyer noted her Lady Purple Tigers stepped into a “pretty established schedule,” with a plethora of returning teams and talent embedded into Section III.

“I definitely learned that season how important it is to have an offseason,” Meyer said. “To have that full year off really hurt the development and them having any success.”

One positive taken out of the 2021 season, Meyer said, was the experience her younger players absorbed.

“They got (that season) under their wing,” she added. “They learned what they needed to then hit the ground running when they came back that next year.”

The success of the 2021-22 season has spilled over into this season, with Meyer noting the shortened 2021 campaign helped her players to “make their mistakes and feel their pace of the game.”

“They felt pretty comfortable coming back (and beyond),” she added. “Overtime, I’ve learned to know my players, to keep things simple, don’t change what’s not broken and try to gear to strengths as much as possible.”

ABOUT COACH MEYER

Meyer was born and raised in Poughkeepsie.

She has played basketball her whole life, including in high school and two years with the SUNY Cortland women’s basketball team.

Meyer graduated from SUNY Cortland with a bachelor’s degree in physical education in 2008 and a master’s degree in adapted physical education in 2011. Shortly after graduating, she became an assistant coach at Homer and started a local AAU travel program.

She worked at the YWCA in the city of Cortland for 17 years. More recently, she became a physical education teacher at Cortland High School.

Meyer noted the transition from the YWCA to Cortland High School has “been amazing.”

“Being at the YW for so many years I see so many kids that I saw grow up,” she said. “There’s so many parallels and similarities between an 8-year old and some of these high school kids. They need the same support and structure.”

Life for Meyer is now “pretty flawless” since she not only coaches at Cortland HS, but also teaches physical education.

Meyer mentioned she’s “very involved” in all of Cortland’s basketball programs “from the ground up.”

“It’s been nice to have more family time and it’s been nice to be at the school where I coach,’ she said. “I’m able to focus more on what needs to be done in the basketball world.”

 

A special thank you goes to Visions Federal Credit Union for partnering with us to provide the greater Cortland County community with additional sports coverage