2023-24 Whiteoak Lady Wildcats Basketball Preview

Coming off a season where the Whiteoak Lady Wildcats were co-champions in Division II of the Southern Hills Athletic Conference, even more success is the goal as they enter the 2023-24 season not only looking to defend their title, but they want to achieve even more success in the postseason.

Led by head coach Ron Harris — who is entering his third season at the helm of the Lady ’Cats — Whiteoak had a winning record last season at 14-10, were 7-6 in the SHAC as they tied with Peebles in the Div. II conference standings and won a tournament game by defeating Western Latham by a 47-30 score.

This season, the Lady ’Cats have seven seniors, along with five juniors, two sophomores and three freshmen.

Seniors are guard Keira Campbell, guard Molly McMullen, guard Kelsey Monteith, guard Bri Hill, guard Lydia Carr, guard Jaylie Parr and forward Madison Thompson.

Juniors this season include guard Kylee Hamm, guard Lexi Kennedy, guard Elly McMullen, guard Addison Roberts and forward Torie Potts. The sophomore class consists of forward Marley Gobin and guard Lexi Taylor. The freshmen for WHS are guard Charli Hauke, guard Zoey Bailey and guard Addy Hauke.

Returning to the team as a senior is Parr, who averaged 12.3 ppg — having 17 games of 10-plus points and scoring 296 points as a junior — plus 5.4 rpg, and collected 130 total rebounds for the 2022-23 season. Parr’s top game a season ago was a 13-rebound performance against West Union.

Parr also made 98 field goals (49 3-pointers) and shot 59.3 percent from the free-throw line (51-of-86). Also last season as a junior, Parr collected 1.9 steals per game (46 steals), 1.3 assists per game and had a total of six blocks. She was voted All-SHAC, first-team Coaches All-District, second-team OPSWA All-District and honorable mention All-Ohio as a junior.

Carr returns for her final season, as she averaged 6.1 ppg during the ’22-23 season. Carr made 12 3-pointers last season, as she was also 36-of-61 from the free-throw line. Carr also averaged 5.8 rpg (139 rebounds) and 1.7 assists per game. She totaled seven games of double-figure scoring as a junior, finishing last season with 146 points.

The ’22-23 season also included Hamm playing in 11 games as a sophomore, averaging 8.5 ppg and 6.2 rpg. Roberts for the ’22-23 season averaged 4.8 ppg (114 points scored), and 3.4 rpg, and on defense averaged one steal per game.

Hill is coming off a season where she averaged 4.2 ppg, 6.1 rpg, 1.9 apg and 1.7 spg, finishing with 100 points scored and 146 rebounds, and she led WHS last season with 45 assists and was second in steals with 41.

“Jaylie is looking better than ever, two-time all-league with many other honors. This year she will hit her 1,000th point,” Harris said. “Lydia Carr has been our No. 2 or No. 3 in every category, she is very important and often overlooked by outsiders. Addison Roberts is our heart and soul on defense. She is a coach's dream player.

“Kylee Hamm had a great season last year until she had to sit for the transfer rule. She will turn some heads this year. Torie Potts will fill [Darby] Yeager’s spot very well for us. She is a competitor and never stops.

“Molly McMullen, Kelsey Monteith, Bri Hill, Madison Thompson ... these are girls who could start on many teams in our league,” Harris continued. “They are role players for us and do a great job at it. Every winning team needs them.”

The Lady ’Cats are coming off a season where in 13 SHAC games they had a .538 winning percentage, averaging 44.5 points per game, while allowing 43.4 ppg. In 24 total games, Whiteoak had a .583 winning percentage with an average of 44.5 ppg, and allowed 41.0 ppg.

Gone from last season is Darby Yeager, who averaged 6.7 ppg., and 9.5 rpg as a sophomore, where she was All--SHAC, honorable mention Coaches All-District and third-team OPSWA All-District. Also gone is Brooklynne Campbell due to graduation, as she averaged 2.3 ppg in 2022-23, along with nearly two blocks per game.

Getting prepared for the season hasn’t been easy for Whiteoak as their scrimmage schedule has been a gauntlet that must be second to none in the area. The Division IV Lady ’Cats have faced high-level Division I, II and III teams to help them improve during the scrimmage season, which is why Coach Harris created the very tough scrimmage schedule to prepare his team for their regular-season slate.

“After a good year last year, knowing we would have the main girls being seniors, I amped up our summer and preseason schedule a lot,” Harris said. “We went to a beach tournament in Destin, Florida this summer, stayed for a week and played very good teams from several states. We played very well, in my opinion. Then this preseason, I managed to get all five of our scrimmages versus Division I schools, and they were against Sycamore, Monroe (with Bishop Fenwick), Fairfield Cincinnati, Turpin, and the biggest one at Princeton.

“The Princeton scrimmage had the Division I state champions (Princeton), Division II state  champions (Purcell with the No. 2 player in the country) and Division III state champions (Africentric). We ended up playing two other Division I teams and a Division II team there. We were one shot away from walking out of there 3-0.

“Princeton is my high school,” Harris added. “I went there every year of grade school. Played for them and then started coaching there (boys) for six years. It was great to be able to take this team back to where I started and show them off.”

This year, Division II of the SHAC will look a little different as Fairfield is returning to Div. II and Peebles jumps back to Division I of the conference, meaning the two Highland County rivals will face each other twice this upcoming season.  

Whiteoak has shown improvement this offseason, and Harris has high expectations for his team, as he’s seen improvement, but wants his team to continue that improvement as the season is set to start.

“We are playing faster, stronger, more aggressive,” Harris said. “More importantly, we are loving each other. The chemistry is really coming along. We need to be more consistent mentally. Physically, we are there. We could end up being one of the better teams to have walked the halls of Whiteoak.”

What will the 2023-24 season hold for Whiteoak?

“We were voted preseason No. 1 in the SHAC, but this league is tough,” Harris said. “You have to be ready for the underdogs, so we will see how we prepare, then respond.

“We know people are coming for us. Whiteoak was the easy win on teams’ schedules for the last 15 years or so. Not anymore."

As for the upcoming 2023-24 non-conference schedule for Whiteoak, games include: vs. Minford (at Manchester Girls Shootout), at Zane Trace, at Clinton-Massie, at Bethel-Tate, vs. Clermont Northeastern, at Washington, vs. Huntington, vs. East Clinton and at Hillsboro.

“It has taken all two and a half years, but you will see what Whiteoak basketball is this year. This will be the standard moving forward,” Harris said. “I’ve been lucky enough to coach some pretty good boys teams, with amazing talent. Coached on ESPN. Coached an NBA player. Coached Division I, being No. 2 in the state at times and have been a part of lots of AAU teams that did very well.

“However, this year is already my favorite team I've ever been a part of. I'm so proud of how far these girls have come since walking through the doors two years ago. Not just on the court either. These three years coaching at Whiteoak will be more meaningful to me than the 10 years prior, and that is very difficult for me to say.”

Whiteoak opens their 2023-24 season on Saturday, Nov. 25 at the Manchester Girls Shootout against Minford.