BLACKSVILLE, W.Va. – David Joyce has seen a lot come and go within the Clay-Battelle girls’ basketball program, but the upcoming season he’s facing is a new one for the books.
The goals for this season look a little different, too. Overall, Joyce wants to contend with conference opponents and the new teams in his section, albeit C-B was unable to find a day to play Tyler Consolidated. Further, Clay-Battelle will be staying a single-A team while other historic opponents are moving up to Class AA, like rival Trinity.
“We’re far enough rural, and it’s weird, schools like Trinity have far less students than we do but because they’re in the middle of Morgantown, their draw is higher,” Joyce said. “We’re going to play Trinity this year, and hopefully that gives us each a feel for one another. Going to different classes this year with someone that close to us is going to be weird because you’re competing with each other there to see if you make each other better. So, coach [Mike] Baldy and I have agreed to both scrimmage and play although we’re not the same class anymore.”
Keeping the Warriors on the schedule is a point of excitement and happiness for Joyce. The rivalry has heated up over the last few years, and to keep a competitive, in-county opponent in the mix will be beneficial for both teams.
“We’ve had a great relationship with Trinity over the years,” Joyce said. “When Trinity first came into being, we played them regularly. They were as any new team would be – they were struggling – but we got a good relationship going and the relationship morphed into a far more competitive, I think, in terms of rivalries that you would get sometimes.
“But because of the same section, same conference, same county – that’s sports in general between Clay-Battelle and Trinity; they’ve got some awfully nice athletes in there – but because of that. I say this, they know us well enough that they know our people out here. no matter whether we have spats and friendly rivalries, that are people are good people and we know they’re the same way. I absolutely love the kids in there, and it was something I was not looking forward to losing. I’m glad we were able to work the schedule to where we’re able to play them.”
Leading his team this year are junior Liv Ammons and seniors Camren Watson and Sydney Wilson.
“I think Liv is probably on the top of our list. She’s probably the best scoring threat, she plays great defense, you don’t ever think about that, but to me, if she wasn’t out there to play defense we’d struggle,” Joyce said. “Sydney is real confident in her game and we need to get her more involved in the system.”
Watson will be at center this season, the tallest girl on the team and, according to Joyce is “steady.”
“It’s one of those kids where matchups will be difficult for her because we don’t have stellar ball-handling, so what we do is we’ll bring some reliable kids out, and most of the time it’s Camren,” Joyce said. “She’s being guarded by taller kids and when you bring her out and guard her with a shorter kid, she’s not a dribbling threat but she certainly towers over a lot of those kids.”
As for being a small school and being thrust into a compacted season, Joyce notes the biggest thing that’s going to take a hit are practices and gameplay.
“What we’re going to miss out on is that extra practice time in the middle of those games,” he said. “Because of that, there’s a good chance that gameplay for us will be experiments. We’re not going to be able to do everything in a practice session that we’re going to want to do. The girls may enjoy the fact that, ‘Hey, we’re playing every other night,’ if they don’t get worn out from it, but we’re going to have to knock down those practice times. You keep girls four nights out a week and then on the off days when you practice, you can’t butcher them with a tough practice.”
Clay-Battelle’s season begins March 3 with a road game at Cameron. Tip is set for 7 p.m.
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