Hoosier Hills Hysteria
Preseason preview of the 10th ranked NAHS Girls’ basketball season
By// Olivia Jansen
As the fall weather begins to cool down, the 2016-2017 girls’ basketball season is just beginning to heat up. With their season opener against Evansville Bosse on November 5, The Lady Bulldogs are ready for a challenge- and they’re already on fire.
“We had a great summer, we went 30-0 in games during June,” Head Coach Tammy Geron said. “We played in our summer league shootout in Salem that we won, a shootout at University of Southern Indiana, a shootout at Butler University and went to Vincennes team camp.”
With the first game of the regular season quickly approaching, Coach Geron is putting the pressure on her Lady Bulldogs to live up to their number ten preseason ranking.
“We will work extremely hard on transition offense and defense because it will be a major component of each game plan,” Coach Geron said. “We will also focus hard on game situations and taking care of the basketball.”
After losing key seniors Aaliyah Bell, Ashley Lyninger, Jenna Shine, and Megan Thevenow from last season, Geron is taking advantage of this year’s athleticism.
“This team is much more athletic,” said Geron. “We did lose four seniors that were big pieces to our puzzle last year, but we have four new pieces that have worked extremely hard and will see big improvements this season.”
Though the team is still working on piecing together the puzzle, sixth year Head Coach Geron is confident in the potential of the upcoming players.
“The girls can really get up and down the floor and be aggressive on defense, which should lead to some good offensive numbers,” Geron said. “As far as individuals, three players that will see a significant increase in playing time are Kelsy Taylor, Julyen Condra and Alayasia Douglas. All three of them have spent extra time on their individual games during the off season and it is showing in practice every day.”
Geron is confident in the leadership of this year’s team as well. Three of the returning seniors, Chyna Anthony, Earlean Davis, and Marissa Jones are in the middle of the college recruitment process.
“We hope they all have a successful senior year and continue at the next level,” Coach Geron said.
With a preseason rank of tenth in the state and a successful summer with a 30-0 record, The Lady Bulldogs are off to a hot start on their mission to win conference and sectionals this year.
More to come about NAGB coming on November 9th in the print edition of the Blotter.