Published: November 10, 2009 12:33 am      

Falcons are optimistic

CAYUGA, Ind. — The North Vermilion Lady Falcons and the Seeger Lady Patriots return to action today as the girls get basketball season started across Indiana.

Coming off a 14-win season, the Falcons are looking to next the step.

“I’m very optimistic about this season,” said Falcons coach Terry Naylor. “We are returning Hillary Lively, Taylor Poynter, Bethany Chew, Kylee West and Casey West.

“New to the team this year are Taylor Turchi, Darby Martin, and Mikayla Kinneer. We will be very deep this year with a good bench.”

Naylor is expecting to see improvements in all facets of his team’s game.

“Overall we will improve both offensively and defensively,” he said. “Specifically our outside shooting and ball handling skills have improved. We will have both post and perimeter scoring and our guards will be quick enough to get into the lane. We will be very hard to match up with due to our versatility.”

The Falcons have set two main goals for the season.

“We want to win the conference and of course the sectional,” said Naylor. “I also think we will be able to compete in every game we play this year.”

The Falcons go on the road today to take on Southmont.

Led by longtime coach Brent Rademacher, the Seeger Patriots also start their season on the road today, taking on South Vermilion.

Coach Brad Odom and the Fountain Central Mustangs get things started tomorrow at the Terre Haute Classic while the Attica Ramblers will look for their first win under second year head coach Matt Harmeson on Thursday at Frontier.

The Covington Trojans will look to start life without leading scorer Whitney Allen when they face Benton Central at home on Saturday.

“Whitney is at St. Mary of the Woods College and we are a very young team this year with no seniors,” said Trojans head coach Troy Bever. “We do have a solid group of juniors who are looking to get better.

“Our junior captains are Chelsea Cates and Carley Coffman. Breanna Minick is our leading returning scorer and rebounder and she was honorable mention all conference last season.

“We are looking for a nice contribution from Miranda Conrad at forward. Katye Mailander, Abby Meyers, and Kaila Hegg are all up from the junior varsity and will help with scoring and rebounding.”

Bever felt replacing Allen and his other seniors from last season would be the key for the Trojans.

“There is an entirely new look to our team this year,” said Bever. “We lost a lot of scoring from the seniors, so we will have to have players step into scoring roles for us. If we can do that and step up our intensity on defense we will be able to compete well this season.”