Conference: 6A-7A Central
Coach: Carla Crowder, 11th season at Cabot
Assistant coach: Charles Ruple
2013-2013 record: 14-13 overall and 6-8 conference
Returning starters: Alyssa Hamilton, 5-11 junior post; and Danielle McWilliams, 5-8 junior point guard
Best outside players: Leighton Taylor, 5-6 sophomore shooting guard; Coco Calhoon, 5-9 sophomore point guard; and Rachel Allgood, 5-7 junior point guard
Best inside players: Kirston Jones, 5-9 junior post; Maddie Willhite, 5-11 junior post; and Chloe Bean, 5-10 sophomore post. “These players right now, they’re getting the majority of the playing time,” assistant coach Charles Ruple said. “We’ve still got about a month to go.”
How will you match/exceed/fall short of your success from last year?: “Two years ago, we won state, and last year we barely had a winning season,” Ruple said. “We’re going to be young and inexperienced, but we’ll show improvement from the past.”
Team strengths: “We run multiple offenses and defenses. We modify to suit the personnel we’re playing,” Ruple said. “We’re changing the way we play, and we’re going to do a lot of different things on offense.”
Team weaknesses: Inexperience
Games to watch: Little Rock Central, North Little Rock and Mountain Home
Toughest opponent: Little Rock Central, North Little Rock and Mountain Home
In a nutshell: “We will hopefully get over our inexperience after we play the nonconference games,” Ruple said. “We have three tournaments under our belt by then. We play some good teams in those, and the more games we play, the better off we will be.”