Menu
2022-23 GIRLS' BASKETBALL PREVIEWS: Young Clovers looking to not get stretched too thin
Already a smaller squad than the rest of its county cohorts, Cloverdale saw five seniors graduate after an 8-16 season and 2-8 mark in WIC play.
A balancing act will be required to get through the 2022-23 season with 12 players available for both varsity and JV action.
Clover head coach James Wade said there would be a balancing act needed to get the team the experience it needed at the appropriate levels.
“We have four girls that will be full-time varsity players, four players that will be full-time JV players and four freshmen that will play both,” Wade said. “We’d like our freshmen to play JV to get acclimated to high school play but don’t have that luxury.
“With the numbers we have, a lot of these girls will certainly be getting all five quarters in every night.”
Cloverdale will rely heavily on its three most experienced members in seniors Andrea Nees and Kiersten Wade and junior Emily Mann.
“Andrea, Kiersten and Emily have all been through two years of varsity basketball with us and understand game and practice expectations as well as coaching expectations for our program,” Wade said. “We will lean on them to lead, teach and mentor our younger student-athletes.
“Those three will also have to produce some scoring for us and set the tone for our effort in games and in practice. We believe in those three and their servant leadership.
“They understand what it means to be part of a program and something bigger than themselves and have really done a great job this summer and at the start of the season showing and teaching our young group those principles,” Wade added.
Peyton Bell returns to the team as a senior along with exchange student Isabell Schmidtt while sophomore Aliyah Maldonado joins the squad. Six freshmen join the team as well in Aubrey Yoho, Sydney Bernard, Sarah Nichols, Syrie Ford, Peyton Watkins and Reagan Harrison.
“Aubrey, Sydney, Sarah and Syrie all saw extensive minutes this summer,” Wade noted. “We played 24 games this summer as we knew we needed to get our younger girls ready for the speed and physicality of a varsity game.
“Unfortunately, those four are moving from eighth grade basketball to varsity minutes. That is not to say we don’t believe in their ability but at most schools, freshmen are not playing a lot of varsity minutes.
“It is a jump just to go from eighth grade to JV, let alone skipping that step entirely,” Wade added. “They will have to be as ready as they can be and are working hard learning to play faster and more physical.”
With a lack of experience among the squad, Wade said the early practices were about getting comfortable with both the offense and defense along with a heavy dose of fundamentals each day.
“Right now, we are working on fundamentals and shooting every day and learning to play defense the way we want to,” Wade said. “There probably will not be a day we don’t do those things.
“Because we are so young and lack experience, we have to spend a lot more time teaching than the last few years. We are OK with that too; we are not playing the sectional next week, we are playing game one.
“We are taking things one step at a time and trying to concentrate on the things we can control,” Wade added. “The biggest factor we can control is effort and they have really bought into that.”
Along with getting used to new roles on both ends of the floor, Wade said the biggest thing he was drilling into the team early on was to not shy away from making mistakes as there are not options to fall back on, even early on in the season.
“It’s about effort, effort and more effort,” Wade said. “We are trying to instill in them to play without fear and to not be afraid of mistakes.
“We purposely put them in situations in practice to make them get out of their comfort zone so they grow. That is true with anything in life, so we tell them to play with effort and do things the right way, even if it is uncomfortable. That’s all we want to see.
“We will grow with mistakes made with full speed effort but we will not grow if we do things the same way we always have because it is comfortable,” Wade added. “We want that same mentality in games, home or away, regardless of score.”
With the rest of the county schools also going through some growing pains, Wade said the group would need time to get up to speed for the season but was confident the group would be in a good place by the end of the season.
“(Sectionals) seem so far away but we know it will be here before we know it,” Wade said. “Regardless of what the opponent or challenges will be when we get there, we expect to see a team on the floor that understands the game better, can play faster with less mistakes and continues to play with the effort we expect throughout the season.”