After experiencing a .500 season in which he was only able to field nine players, Head Coach Jeff Dillon is confident that a talented recruiting class can get the Lady Pride back to their winning ways.
“We’ve got a tremendous, tremendous recruiting class coming in,” Dillon said. “I have been excited about a lot of teams, but this may truly be the deepest team, one through 12, that I have ever had.”
All together the Lady Pride will boast eight freshman and four sophomores, including guard Jana Gross who led the NCJAA in assists last year at 9.3 per game.
“Jana is important to our team because she can really dish the ball and she helps us do the things that we like to do,” Dillon said.
And what is it that the Lady Pride like to do?
Run teams to exhaustion and shoot three-pointers, according to Dillon.
“I am a very offensive oriented basketball coach,” he said. “Last year we only had nine kids, so we had to play slower and be more defensive oriented. This year we’re going to have kids that can score. We got tall kids that can shoot the three point shot and we got guards that can dribble penetrate. We have a lot of weapons.”
Those weapons will face their first test on Nov. 7 when they open their season against Rio-Grande.
However, before any games are played, there is one thing that Dillon would like to see his team do better.
“To play the way we want to play, their conditioning is going to have to improve,” he said. “But, that is something we work on every week and they are doing a great job so far.”
The Lady Pride won the OCCAC Conference Championship two years ago and they are expecting big things again this year.
“The sky is the limit for these kids,” Dillon said. “I truly think this team has the opportunity to really make some noise in the tournament.”