sports@southwesttimes.com
DUBLIN – After a strong 2008-09 campaign for the Dublin Dukes girl’s basketball team, the team will look to once again be extremely competitive and strong, despite losing most of their roster from last season.
Coming off of an impressive 18-2 last year, second-year coach Nicholle Douglas only returns four of her players from last year’s team and is looking to build on a young base of talent.
“Last year, I had a starting five that any coach would dream to have,” Douglas said. “They were quick. They knew exactly what to do. They had been playing together forever. We just dominated every game. I was really proud of them. This year, it’s a year where I’ve started with a new team. I only had four returning. Working with them and them being young, I’m seeing my coaching coming through. That’s very exciting and they are doing well with that.”
The team this year will include 7 eighth graders, 4 seventh graders, and 3 sixth graders. With having such a young and inexperienced team, Douglas has had a few issues with trying to prepare her squad.
“Just experience and them not being afraid of going out there and playing their hardest and having pressure on them,” Douglas said. “They need to get over that and that is what we have been working on in practice. They are getting a lot better. I play with them and they practice with them every day and they scrimmage. I push them. I saw that come true in Tuesday’s game against Carroll County.”
A few names come to mind that will contribute to the Duke’s doing well for the second straight season, but overall Douglas has tried to emphasize the team working together and not trying to focus so much on the individual.
“I try to encourage them all to go out and do their best,” Douglas said. “Different people do different things very well. Meredith Mitchell is a sixth grader and is just phenomenal all around. Maegen Memitt is decent all around. Carlie Clary is just unstoppable down low. Gracie White is always everywhere. All the girls are stepping up when they need to step up and that’s what I’m working on. We don’t work on ‘hey, you are the star player, so let’s get you the ball’. We work on this as a team and we work as a team. That was a hurdle, but we’ve gotten past that now.”
That value of the team over individual has seemed to work, as the team is already off to another great start this season and will look to continue to improve on each and every aspect of their game.
“What I see from my team is that we are a young team,” Douglas said. “We are really working hard to become a unified team. This week, we had a huge win against Carroll County and I finally saw the team come together. We came from behind in the second half and won. Now I see the team working together and doing the things that they need to be doing. That’s awesome and that’s what I want to see out of them.”
(11-20-09)
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