English Valleys Win First Game of Season, 50-10

Published by editor on Thu, 12/17/2020 - 10:59am

Carly Stanerson (12) closely guards Tri-County’s Grace Randall (1).

Kaden Hall (41) sees one of his six successful free throws go through the hoop against Tri-County on Dec. 11, 2020. The junior finished with 26 points, 14 rebounds, four blocks, three steals and one assist in the 63-30 win over the Trojans

What stuck out to you as positives in the 50-10 win over the Trojans?

I was happy with the way we pressed and our transition offense. Obviously it still needs some work, but coming off of quarantine with minimal practice before this game, it was definitely a positive. Defensively, we were ok. We kept the pace up and didn't let Tri-County slow it down. Offensively, we became a little stagnant, especially when they made a couple defensive adjustments. Part of that is just needing to knock the rust off in a competitive way.

Your team's press and flying to the ball on defense proved to be effective, how do you practice that kind of pressure?

We press with 5 against the 6 and sometimes the rest of the team to work on getting to the ball and communication. We also have 3-4 different options out of our press than we will utilize. We aren't a team that likes to just run a half-court defense, so we put some type of pressure on as much as we can.

What sticks out to you as far as places of improvement go?

We need to be aware of other teams adjustments and make no assumptions on what will be open. A few more shot fakes, knowing what we will do with the ball in the paint before it gets there, little things on offense. On defense, rotation was pretty good, but needs to be shored up. That will come with practice and film. Sometimes it is just better to actually see what needs to be done.

Any other comments about how this season is different? (like you said, practicing on Zoom?)

We have had a crazy start - that's for sure. I coached via FaceTime and a bluetooth speaker for the first week and then came back and the team was quarantined on Thanksgiving Day. When I coached virtually, one of the upperclassmen stayed next to the tripod so they could issue instructions. My assistant coach was GREAT! When the team was out, we set up practices via GoogleMeets every day just like if we were in the gym. We just shortened the time to an hour and fifteen minutes. They were required just like normal and we included weightlifting and circuit training in addition to what we could do with a basketball. Anyone that had access to a hoop was also given shooting workouts. Not one player missed a practice. . After the first day, one of the girls was dubbed the DJ so everyone could have music. It was really neat to see them all there.