Conference: 7A-6A East
Coach: Michelle Birdsong (seventh year at Searcy)
Assistant coach: Larry Stamps
Last season: 16-13 overall, finished fifth in conference overall.
Returning starters: Brittnee Broadway, a sophomore front guard, started last year as a freshman and averaged 10.4 points, 3.8 rebounds and 2.3 assists per game. We graduated three starting seniors, and several other players have chosen to concentrate on other sports. We have nine kids total on the team. It’s going to be a challenging year trying to replace four starters.
Other players who saw some playing time last year include Mercedes Whitney, senior, 5-9 post. She came off the bench last year and played quite a bit. McKenna Smith, a 5-5 junior, had quite a bit of playing time for us last year; she’ll play 2 guard. Two other probable starters are seniors Rhea Nicholson, 5-9, who will play some post and some guard, and Julisa Anthony, 5-5, who will play our 3 spot. Also coming off the bench will be Allie Wilbourn, a 5-9 junior who can play inside and outside, and Erin Pace, a 5-6 junior who will play a guard spot.
How will you match/exceed/fall short of your success from last year? The girls all work hard and are a lot of fun to be around. I expect this season will be pretty comparable to last year, as far as games that we win. Our finish in the conference is going to be close to the same.
Strengths: We are pretty strong in our 1 and 2 guard spots. We do have a few girls who are pretty athletic.
Weaknesses: It’s definitely going to be that we don’t have a very deep bench. We will probably play two coming off the bench. The girls are working really hard. A lot of the personnel has changed. Last year, the girls were bigger than the ones we have this year. We’ll change up our offense and defense. There is quite a bit of teaching going on, and they are picking up on that really quick.
Games to watch: We have a tournament in Searcy, and it will be pretty competitive, with Benton, Batesville and Wynne in there. That should be a pretty good tournament as far as the competition level. As for our conference games, I think Jonesboro, West Memphis and Marion ought to be some of our more competitive games.
Nutshell: I’m looking forward to just improving with every game. One drawback with only nine girls on the team is that there’s not a lot of competitive scrimmaging. Once we get into the actual games and get our top five out there playing the other team’s first five, that’ll make us better. Competition will force us to improve.