‘Tough’ Lady M’ team willing to take some hard knocks

• Deb Lowney returns to lead young squad through 2010

By Sean Pearson
Homer Tribune

Despite giving up some serious senior talent from last year’s program, a young Lady Mariner basketball team is ready to step up and fill some challenging roles for the upcoming season.
And this Saturday, they plan to show just how serious they are in their season-opening home game against the Nikiski Bulldogs.
“We may have to use some of our younger players at the varsity level, but we are going to try and minimize that as much as possible,” said Homer Head Coach Deb Lowney. “These younger kids deserve the opportunity to develop their skills at the C-team and JV level, and we want to give them that opportunity.”
According to Lowney, the Lady M’s only returning senior this year is Caryn Cordova.
“Caryn offers a tremendous amount of leadership and composure,” Lowney said. “And first-year senior Jessie Erickson should offer some good relief in the post position.”
Lowney said she will look to Ashley Ketelle to run things on the court from the point guard position, while Alecia Stafford will play the “two position” and lead the team on the fast break. Melissa Wood will step up as shooting guard.
“Liz Needham has worked really hard on her personal game and will definitely raise some eyebrows this year,” Lowney explained. “And Krystal Edens brings some tenacious defense to the court.”
Lowney said she is most excited about the great group of 20-some young ladies who turned out for this season.
“They love this game, they love working hard,” she said. “We may have some skill level weaknesses, but we never rollover and say ‘I can’t.’ This group’s response is ‘show me how.’ They are awesome.”
With things still fairly early in the season, Lowney said her team shows a strong work ethic, and continues to work on communication on the court.
“We are getting better, but it is something that I am going to be pushing to improve upon every practice,” she said. “I push these kids hard and they respond incredibly well. They want to play this game to the best of their ability, and spent the month of November conditioning every night after school, and two mornings a week in the pool. They have shown their dedication.”
And with Lowney, that’s no small feat, as she expects as much from her team as she does from herself.
“Philosophically, I guess I would like to challenge myself and others to exceed expectations, to always be pushing the bar a bit higher,” she explained. “This team right now is demonstrating a strong positive response to that philosophy, and I’m hoping that will translate into some wins for us. I have to believe that we are going to be able to take care of the ball when we are on offense, and that we are going to sink our shots.”
Lowney said her players are developing their ability and confidence to attack, noting that it will make a huge difference in their game.
“Can we play defense? Yes. Can we do it without fouling? I don’t know,” she questioned. “We are going to be physical, because we have to be in this league.”
Lowney said she thinks her young squad can play the team defense necessary to stop our opponents, but that communication will continue to be the key.
“If we learn how to communicate effectively, we build trust in each other, we believe in ourselves and our teammates, we know that our teammate has our back, and consequently, we will get the job done,” she said. “There is not doubt in my mind that we can do this. This is a team that will take risks, make sacrifices, and take those hard hits and bounce right back up. They are tough.”
The Lady M’s will host a team dinner and fundraiser tomorrow night at the Elks Lodge as a chance for the community to “Meet the Lady Mariners.” The dinner starts at 6 p.m., and everyone is invited.
Homer hosts Nikiski at 3:30 p.m. Saturday at Alice Witte Gymnasium.

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Posted by Newsroom on Dec 9th, 2009 and filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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