2016 Hillsboro Lady Indians Preview: How will Lady Indians overcome having no seniors on roster?
Lead Summary
By
Stephen Forsha-sforsha@gmail.com
The Hillsboro Lady Indians are coming off a season where they were learning on the go, finishing with three wins a season ago. This season, there will still be a lot of learning and experience gained, with the 2016-17 roster not including a single senior.
The only good thing about having no seniors for the Lady Indians is a few years back, they went through the same thing, so this isn’t uncharted waters for a team that went 3-20 a season ago and lost a 1,000-point scorer in Madison Snyder to graduation.
Hillsboro head coach JR Moberly knows it will be a tough task not having any seniors on the roster, but he knows his team gained valuable experience last season, too.
“Maddy brought a lot to us, not just with scoring, but from a leadership standpoint and the effort she gave every day,” Moberly told The Highland County Press. “That’s the nature of high school basketball (losing top players to graduation), but you keep rolling, and new kids get a chance to step up and make their mark.
[[In-content Ad]]
“Right now, as we get ready to start the season, we are pretty even across the board. We aren’t going to ask one player to stand out and do more than she can do. We have players who are good at certain things and need to improve at other things, but right now nobody is doing everything, but everybody is contributing something.”
Moberly is optimistic about his team just growing this season, continuing to gain experience off last season, a season where they ended in the sectional quarterfinals against Logan Elm. Their three wins a season ago came against Zane Trace, Paint Valley and East Clinton.
“What we anticipate and hope for is a lot of energy and a lot of effort on defense, and rotating a lot of kids through, giving the kids a chance to grow and see what we come up with,” he said. “A lot of these kids got an opportunity to get some varsity time last year, and in the earlier practices, you can see that’s making a difference.
“They are doing the things that last year took us two or three months to do. This year, they are coming in and are doing those things right. In retrospect, you hate to throw them into the fire like we did last year, but hopefully it pays off this year and next year, since we don’t have a senior on our team.”
This season, the Lady Indians have five juniors (Natalie Sullivan, Madi Marsh, Ashleigh Baucom, Riley Moberly and Kaley Burns) and five sophomores (MacKenzie Cosby, Sydney Bobbitt, Kelsey Burns, Lana Grover and Taylor Chaney).
Hillsboro’s offseason went as planned, including getting work in following last season, plus work during the spring and summer, and for some, this past fall.
“We had a great offseason, really starting back in March. We had 13 or 14 girls in our program playing in spring select basketball at different levels,” Moberly said. “That’s a lot more than we’ve ever had, and that’s all the way throughout the program. We had girls continue to do that during the summer and into the fall. We had great turnout at our functions during the summer, and the kids have worked hard.
“A bunch of our girls are involved in different sports in the fall, so the fall is a difficult time for us, although we do have a lot of young players who just play basketball and they’ve been in the gym working hard. We are starting to get back into basketball shape.”
Playing in a league like the South Central Ohio League isn’t easy for many teams, especially teams who are trying to rebuild a program without any seniors on the roster. Though it isn’t an ideal situation to start a season, Moberly wants to see his team improve and play the game the way he knows they are capable of playing.
“Our goal is to just improve individually and collectively. I know that sounds like the same old coach speak, but our conference is tough, schedule is tough and we’ll have to come out, play hard and play well every night in order to be competitive on the floor and get some wins,” he said. “In the end, learning how to work hard and to work together, that’s what high school sports is about. Certainly, we’d like to get a bunch of wins, but early on, we are looking for growth and to build to the future.
“We’ll have to play well together. We’ll have to make defense and rebounding the basketball big keys for us. We have a lot of height and reach. Hopefully, if we can turn that into good defense and rebound, we can turn that into easy opportunities going the other way.”
The Lady Indians open their 2016-17 season on Monday, Nov. 28 on the road in a non-league game against the Fayetteville Lady Rockets.
The only good thing about having no seniors for the Lady Indians is a few years back, they went through the same thing, so this isn’t uncharted waters for a team that went 3-20 a season ago and lost a 1,000-point scorer in Madison Snyder to graduation.
Hillsboro head coach JR Moberly knows it will be a tough task not having any seniors on the roster, but he knows his team gained valuable experience last season, too.
“Maddy brought a lot to us, not just with scoring, but from a leadership standpoint and the effort she gave every day,” Moberly told The Highland County Press. “That’s the nature of high school basketball (losing top players to graduation), but you keep rolling, and new kids get a chance to step up and make their mark.
[[In-content Ad]]
“Right now, as we get ready to start the season, we are pretty even across the board. We aren’t going to ask one player to stand out and do more than she can do. We have players who are good at certain things and need to improve at other things, but right now nobody is doing everything, but everybody is contributing something.”
Moberly is optimistic about his team just growing this season, continuing to gain experience off last season, a season where they ended in the sectional quarterfinals against Logan Elm. Their three wins a season ago came against Zane Trace, Paint Valley and East Clinton.
“What we anticipate and hope for is a lot of energy and a lot of effort on defense, and rotating a lot of kids through, giving the kids a chance to grow and see what we come up with,” he said. “A lot of these kids got an opportunity to get some varsity time last year, and in the earlier practices, you can see that’s making a difference.
“They are doing the things that last year took us two or three months to do. This year, they are coming in and are doing those things right. In retrospect, you hate to throw them into the fire like we did last year, but hopefully it pays off this year and next year, since we don’t have a senior on our team.”
This season, the Lady Indians have five juniors (Natalie Sullivan, Madi Marsh, Ashleigh Baucom, Riley Moberly and Kaley Burns) and five sophomores (MacKenzie Cosby, Sydney Bobbitt, Kelsey Burns, Lana Grover and Taylor Chaney).
Hillsboro’s offseason went as planned, including getting work in following last season, plus work during the spring and summer, and for some, this past fall.
“We had a great offseason, really starting back in March. We had 13 or 14 girls in our program playing in spring select basketball at different levels,” Moberly said. “That’s a lot more than we’ve ever had, and that’s all the way throughout the program. We had girls continue to do that during the summer and into the fall. We had great turnout at our functions during the summer, and the kids have worked hard.
“A bunch of our girls are involved in different sports in the fall, so the fall is a difficult time for us, although we do have a lot of young players who just play basketball and they’ve been in the gym working hard. We are starting to get back into basketball shape.”
Playing in a league like the South Central Ohio League isn’t easy for many teams, especially teams who are trying to rebuild a program without any seniors on the roster. Though it isn’t an ideal situation to start a season, Moberly wants to see his team improve and play the game the way he knows they are capable of playing.
“Our goal is to just improve individually and collectively. I know that sounds like the same old coach speak, but our conference is tough, schedule is tough and we’ll have to come out, play hard and play well every night in order to be competitive on the floor and get some wins,” he said. “In the end, learning how to work hard and to work together, that’s what high school sports is about. Certainly, we’d like to get a bunch of wins, but early on, we are looking for growth and to build to the future.
“We’ll have to play well together. We’ll have to make defense and rebounding the basketball big keys for us. We have a lot of height and reach. Hopefully, if we can turn that into good defense and rebound, we can turn that into easy opportunities going the other way.”
The Lady Indians open their 2016-17 season on Monday, Nov. 28 on the road in a non-league game against the Fayetteville Lady Rockets.