By Denise Tucker (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
Expectations at all times are excessive for the Hartville Woman Eagles.
So, even with final season’s loss within the Class 2 District 10 championship and the commencement of two all-conference gamers, the Woman Eagles are poised for an additional profitable season.
“We had an amazing season when it comes to wins and losses,” head coach Steven Sanders stated of his group, which completed 23-5 total. “All of us had been nonetheless very disillusioned to return up quick within the district championship recreation. I actually hope the ladies which might be coming back from final 12 months have used that as motivation for this season.”
Hartville was the No. 1 seed in its district, however suffered a two-point loss (52-50) to second-seeded Mansfield within the district last. Simply two years in the past, the Woman Eagles completed third in Class 2.
Key losses to commencement the Woman Eagles will look to beat are Grace Culver and Katie Nonetheless.
• Grace Culver, who averaged 24.7 factors per recreation, was an All-Summit Convention first-team decide and a Class 2 All-District 10 and All-State choice. “I feel Grace was in all probability one of many space’s finest gamers folks didn’t learn about except they performed us. She will probably be powerful to interchange as our main scorer.”
• Katie Nonetheless was an all-conference honorable point out honoree. “Katie was a child we at all times wished on the ground. She was an amazing teammate, one in all our greatest rebounders, and would fill any position we requested her to tackle to win video games.”
“We graduated 4 of our prime seven, so we don’t have numerous expertise returning this season,” Sanders stated. “We’re going to must have some women step up early within the season to provide us extra depth.”
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The Woman Eagles do have some expertise returning in Jadalyn Keith and McKinley Sanders, in addition to Molly Brown, Kylie Harris, Kaylee Ferguson and Breyanna Flachsman.
• Jadalyn Keith, a senior guard, averaged 13 factors, 2.8 rebounds, 2.7 assists and 1.2 steals per recreation final season. She additionally was an all-conference first-team and all-district choice, and is roughly 250 factors away from 1,000 for her profession. “Jadalyn is a extremely good shooter, handles the ball properly and is our greatest on-the-ball defender. She has began since her sophomore 12 months and has performed on some good groups. We all know what she is able to doing and suppose everybody else will see it this 12 months as she takes on extra of a scoring position for us.”
• McKinley Sanders, a junior ahead, averaged 10 ppg, 5 rpg, 2 apg and 1.7 spg, and earned all-conference first-team and all-district honors. “McKinley is able to enjoying any place on the ground, which we predict makes her a troublesome matchup for lots of groups. We hope she is extra constant this 12 months taking pictures the ball, however will nonetheless depend on her to provide us scoring and rebounding. We predict she could have an amazing junior season.”
• Molly Brown, sophomore guard. “Molly could have a a lot larger position as a varsity participant. She was in a position to cut up minutes on JV and varsity final season. She began a number of video games for us once we had been coping with accidents and did an amazing job. We’re assured she is able to be a varsity participant.”
• Kylie Harris, junior guard. “Kylie continues to enhance annually. We predict that she’s going to be capable to assist fill in a number of the spots that we misplaced to commencement from final 12 months. We all know that she’s going to do an amazing job filling her position on this group.”
• Kaylee Ferguson, junior guard. “Kaylee missed her sophomore 12 months with a knee harm. We’re glad to have her again this season and hope she may give us some depth.”
• Breyanna Flachsman, sophomore ahead. “We are going to search for Brey to provide us depth within the submit.”
“We’ve a number of women who can rating for us, so we received’t need to depend on only one individual to hold us,” Sanders stated. “We all know that to ensure that us to turn out to be a contender this season, we must get higher defensively and rebound the ball higher than we did final season.”
And, Sanders hopes freshman ahead Jenna Kelley will be capable to make an influence within the paint this season.
“Jenna is almost certainly going to be thrown within the hearth, so to talk,” Sanders stated. “She might be as near a real submit participant that we’ve had in a number of years, however she additionally has some guard abilities that we predict will assist her transition to varsity as a freshman.”
Hartville is scheduled to open the season with back-to-back tournaments at Blue Eye and Norwood, respectively.
“We predict we could have a great group this season, even after we’ve graduated numerous actually good gamers over the previous few years,” Sanders stated. “Basketball is necessary right here in Hartville and these youngsters don’t need to be the ‘rebuilding’ group, and we positively don’t really feel like they’re.
“We really feel like we’ve some key items returning this season. It’s at all times our objective to compete at a excessive stage and contend for a convention and district championship. We all know it’s by no means straightforward, however these women are arduous staff and can do all the things they’ll to have a great 12 months.”
