Aidan Forget

Seneca Heller and Ryleigh Hicks battle to the basket.

After last year’s defeat in the State Championship against Morgantown, 50-54, the Girl’s Basketball Team is more motivated than ever to lift the state championship. They are led by last year’s 4A First-Team All-State members Alexis Bordas and Lala Woods who are both entering their junior year. Alongside is senior Natalie Daugherty, who finished last year as Honorable-Mention for 4A, and sophomore Seneca Heller, who had an impressive freshman year.

Their schedule this year doesn’t allow them to take a single game off with teams such as Norwin, who lost in the semi-final in PA 6A, or MD 3A runner-up Poly. That doesn’t even mention the in-state teams such as Morgantown, University, Parkersburg, and Parkersburg South, all seen as some of the best teams in WV 4A. Head Coach Ryan Young enters his 10th season at the helm of what is arguably one of his most talented teams.

The Girl’s team started their season at with a tough loss 66-68 to the PA 5A runners-up South Fayette. Since then, they have won both of their games with a combined score of 164-64.

“I think it is just trying to focus on each game individually and knowing that playing these difficult teams are going to make us better in the long run. So, just focusing on the end goal and being consistent and disciplined every single game,” said Bordas, regarding how they need to enter each game with how competitive their schedule is.

“If you look at the last couple of years we really were pretty young, still. I think this year we have a pretty good combination of juniors and seniors that have a lot of experience which we haven’t had,” said Coach Young, on how this team has taken the loss last season. “So, I think they are mature enough to take that loss and realize how they felt after that game and use it as motivation to work all offseason, which they did, and they look very focused early on at practice and we will just see how it goes.”

“Last year we did lose 1 starter in Sophie Abraham, who was a good scorer and good energy for our team, so we are definitely missing her. But we have everyone else back so I think we will be better and everyone worked over the summer,” said Woods, with how she feels this team is different compared to her first couple of years.

“Last year we were fortunate enough to start 6 different players so I think Seneca [Heller] and Jillian [Huffman] gained a lot of experience starting so it was an easy transition to fill that void. Sophie’s a big loss though, her athleticism is hard to replace, but we feel like we have some depth with Ryleigh Hicks and Merritt [Delk] that are very athletic kids and can fill that void,” said Coach Young.

Home Games:

12/14 – University

12/16 – Spring Valley

12/21 – Brooke

1/11 – Parkersburg South (Senior Night)

1/23 – Morgantown

1/26 – Cameron