MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – High school coaches all have the same end-season goal: Win a state championship.
It’s not new, nor a very nuanced point. But alongside that goal is always secondary milestones coaches push their athletes to achieve. For Trinity Christian girls’ basketball coach Mike Baldy, in his seventh year, he wants the team to understand the team identity.
“In the past, it’s been more we try to implement that stuff mentality wise, but this year we want them to fully understand why we do things that way and how we’ll accomplish what we’ll accomplish,” he said. “We have a team identity and gave them a sheet with what our desired team identity would be. The three main points on it are: Play as hard, smart and under control as we possibly can, focus on getting better every day so we’re playing our best ball at the end of the season and focus on ourselves and not the opponents.”
Defensively, the Warriors play the pack line man-to-man, which floods the paint and attempts to stop penetration. It’s a high-pressure defense that tries to stymie ball handlers and force deep shots. Baldy notes he wants to mix in presses, playing the pack line 85% of the game and press 15% of the time.
“Where some of the goals come into that, in our pressure possessions out of that 15% we want to press, we want to score nine points off of turnovers every game,” he said. “Offensively, we want to push the ball up the court and flow directly into our offense. We don’t want to walk the ball up the court and call it a play.
“Overall, the goals are, like I said earlier, the nine points off turnovers, we want to take at least one charge a game, we have an added focus on baseline inbounds – we want to score at least six points on baseline inbounds plays – and we want to shoot 65% at least as a team from the foul line. All really reasonable goals and difference makers. I couldn’t tell you how many times we shoot 52% from the line and loss by three points, or we have three block calls that we could have drawn charges and they score four points off of those foul shots when really we could have gotten three turnovers and scored two points off that and we lose by three.”
Attention to detail is huge, and with a great leader base this year with Jaclyn Smith and Maggie Mercure, as well as a group of freshmen that gives Baldy confidence, he sees this year being quite successful.
Smith, a senior, has been pivotal for Trinity since her freshman year. She’s an all-around threat, which opposing teams picked up on last year. Eventually, Mercure, now a junior, developed into another player to watch, in turn freeing up both girls to keep the momentum moving.
“They’re working their butts off,” Baldy said. “Right now we’re doing a point system – I give them stuff every night, they have to send me a video of them doing it and they get points for that. Jaclyn and Maggie are two of the four or five girls tied for 1st place, so it’s always the best when your best players are doing the most work. It’s great to see players that aren’t necessarily as skilled work hard to break into the lineup, that’s awesome, too. I’m really excited about the work those two [Mercure and Smith] have put in.
“Jaclyn has been a leader since she was a freshman; Maggie stepped into a leadership role this offseason and I think she feels more comfortable with the girls looking to her for advice or just shooting texts saying, ‘Hey we have lifting tonight,’ so she’s stepped into that leadership role,” Baldy said. “Which is exciting, because when we lose Jaclyn, we’ll lose a lot of leadership.”
Both excelling in skill development, Baldy also noted Smith’s strength has increased.
“I think you’re going to see how physically strong Jaclyn is. Jac would beat the crap out of me if I saw her in a dark alley,” Baldy joked. “She’s just a strong kid now. Maggie is, too, but Jaclyn can play down low a lot for us. I think you’ll see Maggie play a lot outside more this season than she has last year. When she came to us, we kind of thought of her as a 3 or 4, and last year she had to play 5 because her and Jaclyn were the tallest, strongest girls we had.”
As far as personal goals for Smith, Baldy wants her to join the 1,000-point club. She’s close and should make it even with a shortened season.
The addition of freshmen Paige Smith, Ruby Smith and Jenna Barnette, should prove vital for the team’s goals, too. Baldy noted it’s the best freshmen class he has seen in his time with the Warriors.
Ruby brings good height to the team standing at 6-foot-2 with a great finishing touch around the hoop. Reminiscent of Rachel Rosen, Baldy separated the two noting he’s not sure if Ruby gets down the court the way Rosen could but certainly outcompetes the former-Warrior in that finishing touch.
“One you’re going to see being one of our leading scorers for the next four years is Jenna Barnette,” Baldy said. “She’s just a really good scorer, I think we’re going to start her at point guard. There’s going to be a lot on those three freshmen, but there are other freshmen we’re excited about, too. There are three or four other freshmen we’re excited about. So time will tell who’s going to crack into that starting lineup and who is going to be our role players.”
Basketball practices are currently scheduled to begin on Feb. 15, and games are set to kick off on March 3. Trinity’s schedule has not been released yet.
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