Valparaiso girls basketball coach Kelly Kratz shares a bond with junior guard Bri Fincannon.
Not only has the 5-foot-4 Fincannon been a key player for the Vikings, who have won their third consecutive sectional title, but she’s also a state-level sprinter in track. Kratz, in her first season at Valparaiso after three seasons at Merrillville, starred in both sports at Chesterton.
“This is our little quick kid,” Kratz said of Fincannon. “When I took this job, I was not aware that we had a state-caliber track athlete. I have a little soft spot in my heart, like, ‘OK, we have some quicks out there.’
“Immediately in the summer, she impressed us. Just a tough-minded kid. Just like the Energizer Bunny — just never stops.”
Fincannon is averaging 2.8 points, 4.9 rebounds and 1.8 steals, ranking second on the team in the latter two categories, as the Duneland Athletic Conference champion Vikings (18-7) prepare to play Great Lakes Athletic Conference champion Hammond Central (20-3) in the Class 4A LaPorte Regional on Saturday. Valparaiso, which lost 49-46 in the teams’ regular-season matchup, won a regional title last year for the first time since 2004.
Fincannon makes her largest impact on defense. She typically guards the opponent’s top offensive player.
“We give her hard assignments, and she just lives up to whatever we give her,” Kratz said. “We’re really excited to have her as part of our starting lineup. Not only can she defend, but she can rebound. She’s made some really big shots for us this year. She’s become quite the little basketball player. We’ve very proud of her.
“We make her play a lot of full-court pressure defense. She gets hit by screens a lot. A lot of times, she’s guarding their best shooter, so she’s chasing around their best player and causing some havoc on defense.”
Fincannon welcomes the challenge.
“I’m the shortest on the team, and I’m not really an offensive threat,” she said. “On people’s scout, they’re not going to consider me a rebounder since I’m so short. But guarding the best player usually, it makes me feel put into the game. Even though I’m not scoring on offense, stopping on defense is basically scoring on offense.”
Fincannon happens to be an accomplished rebounder. She grabbed eight boards during Valparaiso’s win against Chesterton in the sectional final last week and had a career-high 14 against Hammond Central on Dec. 21.
“Coach K really emphasizes long shots, long rebounds,” Fincannon said. “When you’re a post, you’re usually getting shoved under the basket. My girls usually don’t go in to rebound, so I can use my speed to go get the rebound.”
Fincannon has used that speed to flourish in track. She was part of the Vikings’ 1,600-meter relay team that placed seventh at the state meet last year and the 400 relay team that finished 11th. She also qualified for state in the 100. Along the way, she was a sectional runner-up in both the 100 and the 200, and she won a regional title with the 1,600 relay team. As a freshman, she was on the ninth-place 1,600 relay and 10th-place 400 relay teams at state.
Fincannon views basketball and track as equals.
“Right now, I’m improving in both, so it’s hard to decide,” she said.
Kratz graduated from Chesterton in 2006 as the second-leading scorer in program history. An Indiana Junior All-Star, Kratz led the Trojans to a sectional title as a senior and played at Valparaiso University.
As part of her highly decorated track career, Kratz won three state titles with the 3,200 relay team, which set a state record each time and also placed second when she was a junior. Kratz, whose other accomplishments include placing ninth in the 400 as a junior and qualifying in that event as a senior and sophomore, coached Merrillville’s girls track team from 2015 to 2018.
But Kratz’s affinity for Fincannon stems from more than their similarities.
“Bri is the nicest, toughest and most coachable kid,” Kratz said. “She embodies what we want to do here. She will outwork you and do it with a great attitude and work ethic.
“You wish you had a thousand of her just because of the toughness and the mindset. She never complains. She just gets the job done no matter what you ask her to do. That’s why her teammates love her too.”
Junior guard Lillian Barnes, who has starred for the Vikings since the opening game of her freshman season, is among those teammates.
“She’s one of the hardest workers I’ve ever been friends with,” Barnes said of Fincannon. “She pushes us each and every single day. She’s really fast, obviously, so she can lock down any player as a defender. She’s always on their best player, and we can always trust her to lock them down.
“You never see Bri getting down on herself or other people. She always has positive energy and instills that in other people throughout the game. Even if she’s not playing good or her shots aren’t going in, it doesn’t affect how she plays defense. She couldn’t care less about her points. She only cares about defense, and that’s what helps us on defense.”
Fincannon has risen to a position of prominence after playing mostly on Valparaiso’s junior varsity team during her first two seasons. She said Kratz “saw something in me,” and her offseason work on her skills opened the door of opportunity.
“The work I put in has made me feel more confident as a player in general, which has really showcased on the court and what I can do,” Fincannon said.
Kratz believes Fincannon can continue to make strides.
“She really hasn’t played a lot of basketball,” Kratz said. “She really didn’t start playing until middle school. She’s a great dancer, and all of her friends were playing basketball, so she just started playing too. She’s an amazing athlete, and she just picked it up.
“The way you see her right now, smiling, bubbly, that’s how she is. She’s just happy to be part of anything you tell her. As tough as she is, she’s just as kind. Sometimes I tell her she needs a mean bone in her body. But she’s just a wonderful kid.”
