The South Whidbey High School girls basketball team has a new look this season.
Andy Davis takes the reins after Henry Pope was hired to helm the boys program. Davis’ arrival brought in some new players, too.
“He wants us to work as hard as we can,” said junior co-captain Makenzie Peterson of Davis.
His co-captains, both juniors — Peterson and Brittany Wood — didn’t play last season. Peterson played select soccer and Wood played select volleyball on the mainland during last year’s winter sports season.
Wood, in fact, has not played organized basketball since middle school. Their appointment to team leadership wasn’t expected.
“I was very surprised,” Peterson said.
Even so, the pair hope they can help the Falcons send a shock through the conference this year. They want to help improve the team’s record, and they’ll be taking the court with their friends and classmates Linden Firethorne and Jessica Manca.
With all the new players on the varsity squad, the burden to help Davis lead the team on and off the floor resides with Peterson and Wood. They know what it takes to lead a team — both were captains of their fall sports teams.
“[I] try to keep communication open on the court,” Wood said. “And make sure everyone knows where they’re supposed to be.”
The Falcons finished last season 3-13 in league, 3-16 overall, and ended the campaign in seventh place among the eight teams in the Cascade Conference. (The three wins were against Coupeville, Lakewood and Granite Falls.)
Last season the Falcons averaged 38.3 points and allowed 50.9 points per game.
“I kind of figured we had a chance to be better than last year,” Wood said. “So might as well do it while I can.”
Davis had 33 girls try out for the basketball teams. The influx allowed Davis to have three teams this season, and he brought in Chad Felgar to coach the junior varsity squad and Tom Felgar to helm the C-team.
Chad Felgar is Tom’s son. He coached the Langley Middle School girls basketball team last year, and joked that he wouldn’t coach again. Then Davis called and asked him to coach, and he couldn’t say no.
Davis will need both Felgars to manage these girls. Davis and Chad Felgar are both teachers at South Whidbey High School, and by all the questions and hands raised during practice, you might confuse the court for a classroom.
That’s a good thing for Davis, because he’d rather take the time in practice to explain a play or a drill so as not to have confusion on the court during a game.
Together, the three coaches set the pace during practice. As soon as the girls are dressed for practice and on the court, Davis and his coaching staff have them shoot and practice lay-ins with the Mikan Drill.
The Mikan Drill has the player practice lay-ins with both hands and conditions the player to jump off the opposite leg of the hand closest to the basket.
He practiced inbounds plays to prepare his team for a trap or press defense, and showed them how to run the lanes once the ball is in. To simulate the challenge of a talented defense, Davis had 12 players on the court: seven for defense, five for offense. Quality possessions and sharp passes were essential, Davis explained.
No one expected an easy start to the season, and it hasn’t turned out that way. The Falcons started this week with losses to Mariner at home and Darrington on the road.
A loss is a loss, but sometimes it can serve to bolster a team’s confidence. Mariner, a WESCO 4A school, defeated the Falcons 44-35 on Wednesday.
“It just gives us kind of a boost because we know we can, like, fight through,” Wood said. “We kind of had a rough start and then we ended it out fighting for it.”
Manca led the team with nine points and Lacy Williams added seven points. Peterson made the only three-point goal for the Falcons and finished with five points in her first basketball game in more than a year.
“I was very amazed,” Peterson said. “I surprised myself.”
Don’t expect to see a perimeter or wing-oriented offense from the Falcons.
“We’re pretty aggressive,” Peterson said. “We’d rather drive to the basket and get a foul.”
The girls had less than
24 hours to recover before they traveled to play Darrington High School. Darrington won 53-19 in a contest in which South Whidbey struggled to score.
Peterson said that the team, with a new coach and a handful of new players, has not worked extensively on offensive sets and drills like other teams with more continuity have, and offensive roles still need to be learned and defined.
Offense isn’t the team’s strength anyway, according to Peterson.
“We’re more comfortable playing defense than offense,” she said.
Both co-captains are playing catch-up while trying to lead the team, since they didn’t play last season.
Wood’s two-year absence from organized basketball and her new leadership role led her to set an individual goal to do her best to relearn quickly the skills and plays.
This season, the team’s goal is to have a better record than last season.
“With the amount of talent we have this year, we can do that easily,” Wood said. “The team chemistry is pretty good so far.”
The team gets its first conference challenge on Tuesday, Dec. 7 at Lakewood High School.
