2023-24 GIRLS' BASKETBALL PREVIEWS: Cloverdale Clovers

After an eight-win 2021-22 season, Cloverdale struggled heavily with a team that was plagued by a combo of a lack of experience, numbers and injuries, picking up only two wins in the 2022-23 season.

The trifecta is still doing a number on the Clovers, with one returning senior and no juniors on the roster, though a large sophomore group will help anchor the squad with several freshmen joining the team ahead of the 2023-24 season.

With only 13 girls out, Cloverdale will still be juggling minutes with limited JV availability, but head coach James Wade said the group that was out was doing well to start the year.

“It’s been a good first week of practice,” Wade said. “The energy is really good.

“We’ll be more competitive than we were last year. I’m really excited for the season and where we can go, hopefully up from two wins last year.”

Emily Mann (11 ppg, 4.7 rpg) will be the anchor of the team once healthy from an ankle injury suffered during volleyball season.

Joining Mann will be senior sisters Amilia and Gracie Haga, both of whom moved into Cloverdale late in the year.

Several sophomores will serve as the depth of the squad with Sydney Bernard, Sarah Nichols, Aubrey Yoho, Syrie Ford, Payton Watkins and Reagan Harrison returning from last year while freshmen Meghan Halloran, Keely McSwine, Gracie Lee and Haley Patton join the ranks.

“We really just have Emily returning,” Wade said in terms of upperclassmen experience. “Amilia and Gracie moved in around the end of the season.

“Sydney, Sarah, Syrie, Payton, Aubrey and Reagan are all sophomores while we have four freshmen out. We’re going to be fighting numbers as we go through out this season but we do have some new faces, so we have a lot to learn and teach.”

Mann has been a constant in the Clover lineup since her freshman season and her floor experience would be vital not only while playing but also bringing the underclassmen further along this season according to Wade.

“Emily, hands down, is our most versatile player,” Wade said. “She can shoot, put it on the floor, is strong underneath, can finish with both hands and she’s been able to do that for quite some time.

“She’s worked on that for quite some time as she was thrust into varsity as a freshman and gets it. She knows the coaching staff’s expectations, has bought into that and, as a result, has basically become a coach on the floor and outside of school.

“She’s taken on that responsibility which, while sometimes it’s unfair, if there is a girl that can do it, it’s her,” Wade added.

Wade added the Haga sisters would provide some help, particularly Amilia, in ball handling duties, taking some of the stress off of the sophomore group.

“Amilia is going to fill a big void for us by handling the ball,” Wade said. “We had her in the summer and while she did some things differently than we do here, nothing that was wrong, it took that time to get her into the mode that we wanted to be in.

“She is so coachable, a kid that wants to do the right thing and does anything you give her to do with a smile. She is such a joy to have on the team and while I wish I had her for more than one year, I’m happy we’ll get to work with her this year.

“Gracie is the same way, though newer to basketball and doesn’t have the same experience,” Wade added. “They’re both great kids to have around and are very coachable.”

The sophomore group will take on a more prominent role with Bernard, Yoho and Nichols having been in the starting lineup last year while Ford and Watkins got in several varsity contests.

“It’s going to help for sure,” Wade said about the group having several members with sizable amounts of varsity experience. “It’s never a good situation to put them in the way we had to but it made them tougher. They didn’t sulk or complain; they did what they had to do.

“Execution was an issue because of the physicality but they’ve worked hard to get stronger, they have a better understanding of what’s going on. Sarah and Sydney, specifically, you can really tell there’s a difference in their game from last year to this year, which is nice to see.

“Syrie and Payton are still working to get better and improve,” Wade added. “While the experience wasn’t always pleasant last year, that will pay off this year hopefully.”

The newcomers to the squad may not be thrown in quite as quickly as the sophomore group was but Wade said there would still likely be times some of the freshmen would see varsity action, adding the group got a small taste of it during the summer.

“The summer that we had was an eye-opening experience for a lot of them,” Wade said. “We went to Vincennes Camp and a lot of them were thrust in, playing varsity time.

“Summer basketball is different than regular season ball but they were baptized by fire and will have to go through some of the same growing pains that the sophomore girls had to go through. Gracie is showing she can shoot it and if she can get stronger with the basketball while moving quicker on the floor, we might have a chance to throw her in.

“The freshman group is a fun group that enjoys basketball and wants to be here,” Wade added. “I’m excited to work with them and get them up to speed where we want to be.”

While a young group in general, Wade said the lessons from the 2022-23 season were important learning tools and expected the experience to help fix some of last year’s most pressing issues.

“We’re better than we were last year in terms of experience and strength,” Wade said. “Everybody else probably is, too, so I don’t expect us to run the table on anyone.

“We’re looking to fix some of our execution problems from last year, like having less turnovers, rebounding better and if we can fix some things of our own, that will translate into more victories than last season.”

Wade added the benefit of having a more experienced group overall was that the team wouldn’t be limited to the most basic of concepts and could add some plays and sets to challenge opposing teams.

“We’re kind of up in the air with where were at to start the year,” Wade said. “Varsity-wise, we’re going to be OK and might even be able to add some things we wanted to try last year now that we have more experience.

“The idea, as with any coach, is to put your girls in the best possible position for each girl. If you have girls that have strengths, you want to put them in that particular spot. We can tweak some of our offense and add some wrinkles that we couldn’t last year.”

Despite the challenges, Wade said the players were ready and willing to work toward improving on last year’s efforts and was eager to see what they could do as a group.

“It’s early and we have some unknown pieces, but we’re going to be competitive,” Wade said. “This is a group that works hard for each other.

“As inexperienced as we are as a group, it’s a family. The girls really mesh well, so if we can shore up some of our faults and find what works for us, we can be competitive and our girls are going to work hard to get there.”