New faces for a new season

Published 9:00 pm Saturday, November 19, 2016

As the new high school girls basketball season gets ready to tip off in Whitfield and Murray Counties, there will be a bit of a new look in the gyms this season for area teams. The offseason saw a great bit of turnaround in the area as four programs have new head coaches for the 2016-17 season.

Jim Case takes over the Dalton girls program, Jody Bacchus was hired at Coahulla Creek and Maggie Peeples returns to her alma mater to coach at Christian Heritage. Also, Hannah Mayo, who served most of last season as Murray County’s interim coach, was elevated to the full-time position over the offseason.

The model for success will be able to be found in the other area programs that have built solid teams year after year.

The goal for the new bosses will be to try and get their teams where Greg Brown at Northwest Whitfield and Mike Durham at Southeast Whitfield took theirs last year, the state playoffs. They were the second and third seeds respectively out of their region.

Durham’s Lady Raiders narrowly lost its first round game to Redan while Brown’s Lady Bruins made it to the Sweet 16 before bowing out in Wayne County.

North Murray has also been a perennial playoff team, but narrowly missed out on a trip to the playoffs last year. However, the Lady Mountaineers return the bulk of their team ready to make a run this season.

While there was a bit of turnover on the benches, a lot of familiar faces will be on the floor leading their teams. Four of last year’s five All-Area first teamers are back this season, and two named to the All-Area second team also return.

Included in the returnees is last year’s All-Area player of the year in Northwest’s Bria Clemmons. But she’ll be challenged to repeat that honor this year as first team selections Emileigh Earley (Southeast), Madison Pearson (Southeast) and Kailee Tipton (North Murray) are all back. Several others who fell short of last year’s first team list have the ability and capability to make that level this year.

Here is a rundown of each local team and their prospects for this season:

CHRISTIAN HERITAGE

Peeples was a 2012 Christian Heritage graduate, and after following a successful playing career at Shorter University, she’s returned home to help bring the program back to prominence.

“We just built an awesome facility and it’s an exciting time here,” she said. “Christian Heritage has really meant a lot to me. It’s a great opportunity to give back and get this program fired up again.”

Peeples takes over a team that finished last year 9-17, but returns nine players as the Lady Lions look to improve on that mark.

“We have a pretty good senior class,” Peeples said. “I’m really looking for Ashlyn Clements, she comes back, we’re looking for her leadership. (Kelsey and Meghan Schneller) started as freshmen last year and their really working hard. They come back as sophomores, more experienced. Their mental game has improved and they’re more prepared for the varsity level.”

Pepples also pointed to senior Pressley Poag and junior Olivia Idom as two players that have worked hard in the offseason and should make great contributions to the team. Peeples is also looking for some of her underclassmen to step into key roles.

“What’s exciting is all the younger people coming up,” Peeples said. “We got some really good freshman. Madison Brown is one that should help us out a lot. It’s just exciting. Yes we do have four seniors, but we also have a pretty young team. I’m excited for the future.”

One of the strengths of her team according to Peeples is they way all her players have been pulling together among other things

“I would say we’re just all in for each other,” she said. “They’ve really been working hard together and communicating. It’s really fun to see. We do have some great shooters, they really been working on their shot. I can see that being a strength and a threat to have so many good shooters.”

Watching the Lady Lions this year, you can expect to see a team going fast and playing at a high-energy level.

“We just really want to get after it this year,” Peeples said. “We want to work hard and work together, get in each others face on defense, run and gun it, but were also focused on our half-court offense too. I tell the girls, you can always control how hard you go, you’re hustle and the energy you provide. When you watch us, you’ll see a different energy level.”

COAHULLA CREEK

After six seasons coaching at the middle school level and two as a Northwest Whitfield assistant, all on the boys side, Bacchus switches gears to take over the Lady Colt program. He admitted it will be a bit of a change.

“To be quite honest it’s definitely new to me,” he said. “It’s a challenge I’m looking forward to. The time I’ve spent with the girls has been great. I know a lot of the girls because they came through the middle school where I currently teach. I know them, know their families so that made it easier.”

Bacchus’ team is dominated by underclassmen, but they come with experience after playing a lot a year ago.

“We’ve got a young team,” he said. “We start five sophomores technically — one is a junior but she skipped a grade. Lily Snyder will be a leader for us. We’ll look for her to lead us getting us up and down the floor and getting us set up in our offensive sets. Chloe Barger will be one of our guards, Mallory Poe is another that will be a key player for us. Most of the sophomores we have played varsity time as freshmen. It’s a young group but the future’s bright.

“Being baptized by fire, being throwing to the wolves as freshmen really helps with the experience.”

Bacchus said he’s studied the team’s game films from last year to get a better idea of the players and their capabilities. One change he said to expect is a move to a faster pace.

We’ll definitely play faster than they have played in the past,” he said. “I believe we can create good offensive opportunities by playing a faster place. Defensively as well, we want to create a lot of turnovers with a pressure defensive in the full court and turn those into points offensively.”

DALTON

Dalton High School’s girls basketball team will have a new, but familiar face on the sidelines this season as Case, a former boys assistant coach, will take the helm of the girls program this season. The Lady Cats won eight games last season and haven’t made the playoffs in three consecutive seasons.

But Case isn’t focused on wins and losses or setting milestone expectations. Instead, he’s focused on getting the team understand the way he wants them to play.

“Our style is to try to outwork the other team, everybody, all the time,” Case said. “We will press and we will get after it, bucket to bucket, sideline to sideline. Playing hard will always be a barometer for us. Secondly, we want to be competitive in every game possible no matter who we are playing.”

The Lady Cats are led by three seniors in Bowen Land, Gabby Wright and Aubrey Young. Two sophomores, McCall Maret and Lauren Parker, are expected to be the other two starters after playing extensively as freshman. Providing a boost for Dalton off the bench will be Precious Sims, Anna Wright, McCord Land, Laken Land and La’Ryan Nance.

Coach Case emphasized that the lineup will be interchangeable and that the team won’t rely on production from one player.

“The star of our team us the team,” Case said. “We worked hard this summer to establish the intensity we want to play with. We are calling it “Dalton hard”. They may have been hesitant to me at first but they really jumped into it and understand that we will play hard and play together and for each other. It’s a little abstract but I hope you will be able to see those things on the floor.”

MURRAY COUNTY

Mayo starts her first full season in charge of the Lady Indians program, and said the biggest change she’s seen hasn’t been with her new role, but has been within her players.

“I think what’s changed with the program has been the girls, not even so much me,” Mayo said. “Their commitment and their effort and their work ethic. They have fully bought into what we’re trying to do. The biggest change is with the girls themselves and their approach to everything.”

A good reason for that has been the leadership of the team’s upperclassmen.

“I have a lot of players I can count on as leaders,” Mayo said. “I have three seniors in Ciarra Hatton, Jordan Wilson and Victoria Gamboa. They have stepped in and set the pace as senior leaders with their work ethic and their desire.”

In addition, there’s also what Mayo termed “a good core group of juniors,” including returning starting point guard Katie Ashe.

But despite a lot of upperclassmen, the team is still relatively inexperienced and Mayo wants to see her team grow and mature as the season progresses.

“I have a lot of young girls, and even girls that are seniors, some have not played much up until this year,” Mayo said. “I got really four girls that are returners that saw significant varsity minutes so there’s a lot of room to grow and mature.”

Mayo also said she hopes that increased experience will help with the team’s offensive execution. But until then, she said the team will rely on its defense.

“One of our main strengths is our athleticism,” she said. “We can run up and down the floor. We trying to play pretty fast and their defense has been really strong. They take pride in holding teams under 40 points. That’s one of our goals and they take a lot of pride in it.”

NORTH MURRAY

The Lady Mountaineers’ streak of three consecutive trips to the postseason was snapped last season despite them finishing with a winning record at 15-11. The good news for North Murray is that it returns two tremendous weapons at the guard positions in first team all-area selection Kailee Tipton and second-team selection Sarah Plemons.

Tipton hit 75 3-pointers last season and led the team in scoring, averaging 12 points per game. Plemons was one of the most talented freshman in the area last year as she averaged 10 points, four rebounds and three assists per game while also leading the team in blocked shots.

North Murray coach Keith Robinette said the team will lean on those two players a lot once again this season, but the team has the benefit have returning all but one player from last year’s team.

“We have two all-region kids in Sarah Kailee and they have both seen their game develop even more from last year,” Robinette said. “We enjoyed our summer stuff and we really learned a lot and grew. We talked about having a different mindset this year and talked about how at times the urgency wasn’t there. I think that was a product of having only one senior on the team, but these girls understand that a little better now and are working hard.”

He also said that he hopes to see increased scoring production from Plemons.

“Sarah’s a kid that has been around the program for several years with her sister Jordan and honestly, she could have started at point guard in seventh grade,” Robinette. We will ask her to do more and will look for her to understand things more this year. We want her to shoot the ball. She’s aggressive but she tries to be unselfish, and what that looks like is she will split a gap and get into the paint and try to pass. We want her to shoot that shot.”

Other key returning players for the Lady Mountaineers include seniors Kelli Barnes, Jordan Plemons and Tyree Walker. Katelyn Crumbley is another senior who Robinette said he would put up against any one in the area as a defender.

There are also a couple of younger players who could see playing time throughout the season if they continue to develop, including Corbin Tipton, Kailee’s younger sister.

The Lady Mountaineers will open their season at Thanksgiving tournament this week and thus will begin the journey towards accomplishing what Robinette said he believes are clear goals for every player on his team.

“I think every one of them will tell you that they want to make the playoffs and be the region champions,” Robinette said. “We have yet to do that (win a region championship). Our region is going to be interesting. Haralson County was 27-2 and Bremen is sold. No one expected much from Sonoraville and they won the region and there are several teams that were young that have a lot coming back. So we will see how it plays out.”

NORTHWEST WHITFIELD

Brown has been a busy man at Northwest Whitfield. In addition to getting his Lady Bruins ready for the season, he also was an assistant on the Bruins football team that advanced to the second round of the state playoffs.

“I’ve been pulling double duty, but we’ve been working hard these past few weeks.”

Northwest lost four seniors that all made significant contributions to last year’s region runner-up finish and Sweet 16 run. But the cupboard is far from bare in Tunnel Hill.

“We played a lot of underclassmen, 10 to 12 kids all the time,” Brown said. “We got a really veteran group coming back even though we lost a lot of those seniors. These kids played a lot of minutes.”

Leading the group coming back is last year’s All-Area player of the year, Bria Clemmons. Brown said he’s not necessarily looking to her to take up for the lost scoring, but simply keep doing what was so successful for her last year.

“I think she’s got to take on more of a role, but at the same time she’s got to do what she does best,” Brown said. “She handles the ball real well, is good passer, makes good decisions. We got other people capable of handling the scoring load. I think she’ll need to lead vocally a little more than she has in the past now that she’s a senior. We need to lean on her leadership.”

Brown said his other two seniors, Chandler Hiland and Henley Brueckner will also provide leadership and some underclassmen should step in as scorers.

“Holly Heath was our leading scorer last year, a lot of people tend to forget that,” Brown said. “She led us as a sophomore, so that’s her job. She’s a scorer, that’s her job. We hope she’ll continue where she left off last year and provide points for us. Nicole bates and M.E. Capehart are post players. They were good role players last year and will play more minutes and should provide more scoring.

SOUTHEAST WHITFIELD

The Lady Raiders made the playoffs for the first time since 2010 last season, falling 61-54 to Redan to finish the season 19-10. But Southeast returns just four girls this year who played extended minutes from that team, meaning that coach Mike Durham still has plenty of questions that need answers.

“We have four girls that have a lot of experience and now we’re just trying to find girls to fill in around them,” Durham said. “We have a couple but they just haven’t played much varsity games, and there’s a big difference between freshman and JV and varsity. This is kind of new because the last couple years we’ve had seven or eight girls returning that had played. So we will have to try some new things and see what works.”

Leading that group of returners is senior first team all-area selections Maddie Pearson and Emileigh Earley. Durham said that Pearson led the state in three-point shots made last season as she knocked in 97 from beyond the arc. She was one of the most prolific scorers in the area, averaging 16.6 points per game. Earley was a double-double machine as she averaged 11.9 points and nine rebounds per game.

Other key returners include senior Sarah Sullivan and sophomore McKenna Lentych. Sullivan came on strong towards the end of last season, while Lentych was a contributor off the bench as a freshman.

As the team looks to build chemistry and find where all the pieces fit, Durham said what won’t change is that the team is built around playing good defense and being solid on the boards.

“They know that’s where it starts,” Durham said. “You can’t control what the other team does and you’re going to miss shots now and then. But what you can control is your effort and that’s what defense and rebounding is. McKenna and Maddie can both shoot the ball really well and Emileigh and Sarah are both capable of getting a double-double. And we have several other players that we think will help us. But that’s where it all begins is rebounding and defense.”

After breaking through the playoff ceiling for the first time under Durham in 2016, he said the Lady Raiders aren’t eager to take a step back by not making the playoffs this season.

“We talked about it all summer that we want to get back,” Durham said. “It was an amazing experience and we thought we should have won that game against Redan, but we just got cold at the wrong time. This group of girls have won a lot of games and they understand what it takes to get back there.”