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Women's Hoops Home.

Lady Ravens hope ample experience leads to conference and region titles

 

Maybe it’s not fair to label the 2009-2010 Red Raven women’s basketball team as old.  After all, we are just talking about freshmen and sophomores.  But in relative terms for a junior college program, this year’s team has a ton of experience.

 

Five players return from last season’s 28-4 team.  Returning as sophomores are Destiny Sims, Sheay Longstaff, Kristina Smith, Arienne Smith, and Britnee’ Foster.  Head Coach Emily Washburn also has four sophomores transferring in from other programs: Erin Boyd-Redmond who played previously at Chipola, Sharnice Reed from Gulf Coast Florida, Tasha Cannon from Monroe College, and Tymeshe’ Gibson from Eastern Michigan.

 

Washburn also recruited an additional transfer student-athlete, Keshia Primo, a Canadian who red-shirted last year at the University of Buffalo.

“The transfers look at this year as an opportunity they didn’t have before,” said Washburn.

 

Only four true freshmen are on this year’s roster.  Two true freshmen are Field Kindley products, Erin Macaronas and Katlin Overton.  Caney native Morgan Rolls and Emporia forward Lexi Hileman round out the freshmen class.

 

“We have three local girls who can come in and contribute and I think that’s good,” said Washburn.

 

Success early in the season will ride on the returning sophomores’ shoulders.

“Our five returners are solid and give us a good base of understanding of what conference season is all about,” said Washburn.  “The other sophomores have to jump in and perform.”

 

“The key is getting the transfers and freshmen to understand what it takes to win at Cowley and what it takes to win in this conference,” continued Washburn.

The Ravens should be an exciting, athletic group this year, according to Washburn.

“We are very fast and have the ability to get up the floor and put points on the board,” said Washburn.  “If they buy into the defensive scheme, we can be successful.”

 

Washburn expects the same group of teams who have competed for conference titles in the past few seasons to be at the top of the league with the Ravens.

 

“Labette, Indy, Cowley, and Johnson – they all seem to have good recruiting classes and should be up there,” said Washburn.

 

One aspect of the season that will definitely be new is the start of the conference season in December.  With the Jayhawk Shoot-Out moving to January, two conference games will be played in December to accommodate the switch.

 

“I’m interested in how it goes,” said Washburn.  “We usually add stuff in January, so we may have to introduce some things earlier.”

 

It will not take long for the Ravens to find out how they stack up against some of the better teams in the country.  “Our non-conference schedule is stiff,” said Washburn.  “We start out at NEO and Carl Albert, so we get to see how we are right off the bat.”

 

It’s just one of many challenges the team intends to defeat this season.