CM Girls Hoops: It Should Only Get Better
BALD EAGLE TOWNSHIP – The inexperience is gone and Central Mountain girls basketball followers hope that experience gained by seven returning letter-winners will turn into wins as the 2015-16 season is about to get underway.
The group of seven has seen adversity: no wins in the 2013-14 season and only one in 2014-15. But this is 2015-16 and new head coach Terrance Green believes the Lady Wildcats are on the verge of some very good things. Green was the jayvee coach a year ago and moved up to head coach upon the retirement of Lindsay Rogers. But Green is no stranger to the CM program, starting as a volunteer coach with the girls’ junior high program in 2010 and moving up year-by-year to the current head coaching position.
20 Lady Wildcats, jayvee and varsity, are prepping for the season opener this Friday at home against Bald Eagle Area. They are led by the seven letter-winners: Emily Strouse (senior), Lydia McCaleb (senior), Grayson McCloy (senior), Mary Monoski (senior), Elaina Eckley (junior), Averie Pringle (junior) and Alexis Anastos (junior). All are going full-tilt except for last year’s leading scorer Monoski who is waiting for a final clearance as she rehabilitates from a knee injury.
Green offered his thoughts on the experience returning: “We have a nice balance of depth. Defense will be key for us this year. We have the potential to be a great defensive unit and cause a lot of problems. We have great leaders on the team that will help drive us throughout the season.”
He said team cohesion will be a strength: “It is great right now. These girls are playing together and with a purpose. As long as they keep the cohesion and play within their roles, for each other, and the team, they will be very successful this season. As I told the girls already, there is no room for excuses. They have the potential to do great things this season and are hungry to get started.”
As for goals, “Play within our roles, play together and for each other, be a great defensive unit, show improvements from last season, achieve the little things, compete within our division, compete for a division title, and participate in the postseason.
One area of concern, Green said, is learning how to finish games, another is boxing out.
He said the home opener this Friday with Bald Eagle Area is a big one in an effort to get off to a good start. Another will be a Dec. 17 date with Shamokin, a team that defeated Central Mountain at the buzzer in what would have been the Lady ‘Cats’ first win a year ago. “Let’s just say our girls remember this game very well and do not want to have that feeling again.”
Green is from Glenside, PA and a graduate of Upper Dublin High School in suburban Philadelphia and graduated from Lock Haven University in 2011, obtaining a masters degree in exercise science from Bloomsburg in 2013. He is in his third year as a district teacher, currently at Central Mountain Middle School. He also serves as Central Mountain cross country coach and is co-head coach in track and field. Assistant coaches this year are Jerrica Harvey and volunteers Mitch Christensen and Robert Dwyer.
