Middle school girls kick off season with road games

By Shirley Shuman
Coach Matt Pritt and this season’s Lady Knights squad traveled to South Harrison last night and will play at Webster tonight. Before the season actually began, Coach Pritt discussed this year’s squad made up of 17 players and what he expects to see.
Although he has only two returning starters—Aubrey Mowery and Brooklyn Paletti, the coach named experience as one of the team’s strengths. That experience will come from the returning players including Jade Chapman, Makenna Robinson, Rylan Criner, Zoey Keenan, and Avah Mollohan as well as Mowery and eighth-grader Paletti. Coach Pritt did not comment on the overall shooting skills of his squad, but he did name Mowery and Chapman as his top shooters. Mowery and Molllohan are both seventh grade students.
Pritt coaches both the varsity and junior varsity teams. In addition to the returning players, he will be working with newcomers Claira Stewart, Arwen Coleman, Ava Nettles, Breanna Marsh, Rion Given, Zoey McQuain, Lydia Gerwig, Jadyn Skidmore, Carli Carte, and Micah McClain. These girls, he explained, “are relatively new to basketball” and said he will be working primarily on the basics with his jv squad.
In addition to experience, Coach Pritt considers defense as a strength of this year’s team. The team’s size, he noted, will dictate the team’s style. “We’re not big, we have only one tall player, but our players are aggressive,” he said. He commented that the Lady Knights’ goal is “to play great defense, take care of the ball, and win as many games as possible.”
Although facing each game as it comes, the Lady Knights’ coach foresees Clay as the team’s most formidable opponent primarily because Clay and Braxton have been arch rivals since the teams began.