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The Bill
Burkett, Tri-Village 2012
Trojans take on Jets; Patriots go after A-Tigers
Arcanum Lady Trojans
Lady Trojans
look for marked improvement
By George Starks
ARCANUM- Coming off a three win season a year ago, second year Arcanum
coach Rachel Fearon is looking for bigger and better things from her
Lady Trojans.
With the 2012-13 season kicking off tonight at Tri-Village, Fearon
believes she has the team to beat at the Bill Burkett.
“I think we are strong enough to win this,” Fearon said. “We have a
good combination of talent, speed and height. I believe we can get this
done this year.”
Fearon has much to be thankful for overall but in the post, she will
see a returning player, junior Abby O’Donnell, and an equally talented
freshman in Rebecca Deo as well as Alexis Abner.
A year ago, Fearon had the young inexperienced team and dealt with some
major growing pains.
Now, most of her team has a year of experience under their belts, with
the exception of the freshman who is being guided by O’Donnell.
“From what I’ve seen, Rebecca and Abby are working well together,”
Fearon stated. “With O’Donnell, we’ve been floating her taking her to
the three and four spots (forward) and it kind of makes it nice to have
such a versatile player that way. She is gaining confidence as a
shooting forward but she’s not where we want her yet.”
While O’Donnell will float, Fearon will rely on her tall freshman to
keep thing in order under the bucket.
“Rebecca is coming on well but you have those freshman jitter you have
to work out,” said Fearon. “She is real receptive to learn and that’s
why we’ve got her there.”
Fearon also spoke of her three returning seniors, led by Morgan Buck.
“Hannah Prestel will be in a guard position,” Fearon said. “We have two
other post players in seniors Rebecca Deniston and Morgan Buck. Morgan
has the game smarts for me and I have to have her out there. She knows
where everybody needs to be and where she needs to be. It’s important
to have that kind of leadership on the floor and we need her out there
for us.”
At the point will be Abner, another freshman for the Trojans but a
young player Fearon is very high on.
“She is a good decision maker,” said Fearon. “She takes care of the
basketball and we need that. It’s nice to have someone that can take
care of the ball all the way down the floor for us. The growing pains
are there with her but we are willing to take that in exchange for the
experience. She worked a lot with us this past summer and I think that
will help her to take it to the next level for the varsity.”
With a young team, Fearon has confidence in her team and optimistic
about the upcoming season.
Arcanum will tip-off tonight against Franklin Monroe at 6 p.m.
The Trojans will go up against a Jets team that lost very little from a
year ago.
Returning Haley Gray, Michelle Heckman, Hannah Lehman, Allison Snider
and countynewsonline.org Player of the Month Taylor Robbins, the Jets
could give a lot of teams fits during the season, starting tonight with
Arcanum in the Burkett. Robbins was the second leading scorer in the
Cross County Conference a year ago averaging 16 points a game.
Gray and Lehman are facing nagging injuries that could hold them back
during the season.
Lehman’s injury occurred during the soccer season.
Coming of a 8-13 season a year ago, the Jets are looking to be at the
top of their game and hopefully at the top of the conference.
In the second
game, Tri-Village will take on Ansonia.
The Lady Patriots will be returning a ton of experience this season but
will have the misfortune in having to replace nearly 26 points and 12
rebounds a game in Kayla Linkous.
The new season brings on new responsibilities for returning players
like Shaye Thomas (point guard), Teah Richards a guard/forward are two
seniors that are four year players.
While no one can take the place of the caliber of player Linkous was,
Richards was in the top 10 in scoring a year ago (seventh with 9.8
ppg.) and has the ability to pick up some of the slack in the absence
of Linkous.
Thomas led Darke County girls in assists with 6.4, assists per game.
Add returning players like Liz Collins and Echo Brown and a host of
others, the Patriots are heavy favorites to defend the Burkett title
starting tonight against Ansonia.
The Ansonia Lady Tigers are under first year coach Amber Short; a
Greenville graduate that will lead a very young team out of the locker
room against a very experienced, senior laden Patriot team.
Short has been an assistant coach in Indiana for six years and was
coaching at a military school a year ago.
With just 16 players, eight freshmen, Short has her work cut out for
her and Short would love nothing more than to pull off a huge upset on
opening night of the Burkett.
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