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by
Lloyd Combs
Sports Reporter
A
lot of teams say they’re young.
This team is really young.
Council has the youngest
basketball team in the BDD.
It’s probably the same in
Region D and it may be the
youngest girls squad in the state.
The Lady Cobras have four
freshmen and three
sophomores and not a single junior
or senior. Council
is young, and thin with just seven
players, but it
should eventually match up well,
talent-wise, with any
team in the area.
All seven players have some
skill, if not much varsity
experience. The three sophomores
are the sole
returnees from last year’s 10-13
club, and they’re all
critical to the Lady Cobras’
success, especially while
the freshmen learn the varsity
ropes.
Haley Arrington (5-2) and
Stephanie Cornett (5-7) are
two of the better all-around
players in the Black
Diamond District, while 5-10
Allison Presley continues
to improve in the post.
Each saw significant action
last year and all three,
especially the guards, have been
thrust into
leadership roles this season.
“We have to have somebody
be a leader,” Council coach
Dave Rasnake says. “We really
need more than one to
step up. They’re still young,
but the sophomores have
got some experience. Someone’s
got to take over and
show leadership.”
A critical area where
leadership can help, Rasnake
says, is patience on offense.
It’s not usually a
strength for a young team, but
it’s one area, he says,
where the Lady Cobras need to
improve in fairly short
order.
“We need that, especially
against a zone,” Rasnake
said. “Against a team that plays
zone you have to show
a lot of patience and that’s
something we need.
“Those three sophomores,
at least they’ve been with me
one year. I think they’ll step
up. There are a lot of
little things you need to do to
possibly to win games
against equally talented or
slightly better teams.
That’s where leadership comes
in.”
All four freshmen must
contribute, says Rasnake, and
each of them has already, to one
degree or another.
They got a sink-or-swim
introduction to varsity play
with four games in the first four
days of the season.
Kelsey Geary (5-10) joins
Presley in the post, while
Dakota Bostic (5-7), Katie Thomas
(5-6) and Kylee
Austin (5-3) can all play multiple
positions, a
necessity on a seven-player team.
The talent is there, if not
the depth. That doesn’t
mean the Lady Cobras can’t play
for this year as much
as the next two or three. This
club should one of the
favorites in the Black Diamond
District the next
couple of season, if not this one.
“We want to play for
right now,” Rasnake said.
“But,
in the back of their minds and
others you have to be
looking to the future, even as we
get that experience
we need. Young talent can win, but
it’ll be a
challenge for us to stay healthy
without a lot of
depth.
“All these girls played
AAU, which is a great
experience. I feel like we can
compete with anybody in
the district. There will be nights
we won’t play well
because we’re so young, but we
can match up with
everybody.”
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