MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The Morgantown girls’ basketball team was in an interesting position last year. Some could argue it worked against them, not having any seniors on the team, but in coach Jason White’s mind, he was playing with house money.
Turns out, it worked out pretty great. For the first time in a few years, the Mohigans secured a spot in the state playoff race after upsetting No. 1 Wheeling Park on the road. Unfortunately, their season ended shortly after in the first round of the playoffs. Still, it was progress, and he wasn’t losing anyone. Then, the pandemic hit, and over the last year, it has taken a toll on high school athletes. Despite the adversity, his girls have come out on the other side, excited and ready to face the future.
“I think our expectations are very high,” White said. “We said last year we were playing with house money, I think this year it’s kind of like our chips are on the table. We said last year our goal was to improve, this is a trial run for next year. Then the pandemic hits.
“We were playing our best basketball when it all ended. So, we were leaving the season feeling good about where we were. This pandemic has certainly put a damper on that because you get cranked up for a few days, then it gets pulled away from you and you get delayed, and it’s the season everyone was looking forward to with what we had returning.”
Now he has a solid senior corps with DePaul commit, forward Kaitlyn Ammons and guards Berit Johnson, Cat Wassick and Reece Moore. White will be looking for their continued leadership through what will be a tight, compressed season.
“We’ve got really, really good kids,” White said. “They’re not only great basketball players; they’re great kids, great people. They are the type of kids other parents would want their kids to hang around with. They’re good examples of what to do, how to act, very humble kids that work hard and love the sport.”
White is also lucky to have a deep roster. Because of the age vacuum last season, many freshmen and sophomores got a lot of varsity experience. This also allows him to rotate in the new classes, or girls who may not have gotten that playtime last year, to maintain a healthy starting group should the wear and tear of the tight season begin to take its toll. He saw this on Monday when teams were able to return to conditioning.
“It was really good, lots of happy people to be back in the gym, coaches and athletes,” White said. “A smile on everybody’s’ face. Even though it’s the least favorite part of any athletes’ practice is the conditioning, we tried to be creative. We didn’t just line up and run.
“We’ve got 21 kids in our program that can really play basketball and, honestly, this season they better be ready to play. You’re just a contact trace away from some kid you never imagined playing varsity basketball having to be in a game.”
The returning underclassmen are Kerrington Peasak, Kate Hawkins, Revaya Sweeney, Lindsay Bechtel, Mia Henkins and Kolie Anderson. With them and the seniors, this team’s makeup and depth remind White of his first few years with the program.
“All those kids, on a given night, have an opportunity to be the best player on the floor. They really do,” White said. “I think that’s the beauty of this team, is our depth. Thinking back to my first three seasons here, we could run kids in and out of games and we didn’t lose anything. Matter of fact, at times, when we brought kids off the bench we even got better. I think back to kids like Shelby Boyle that came off our bench junior year, Paige Poffenberger that came in for [Olivia] Seggie – you’re talking about Paige Poffenberger that went to the University of Kentucky and played and was coming off our bench as a junior. That’s what this sophomore class reminds me of. We’ve got a wealth of talent in that freshman-sophomore class, and they’re going to get opportunities. I think that’s going to be our strength is running kids in and out of a game on a given night, and try to ride that hot hand.”
One of White’s goals is familiar, be better at the end of the season than the start. He also sees the strength and opportunity the team has to lock down opposing offenses and also wants the offensive efficiency to increase. The latter plays into opening up second halves better than last year, too.
“I think that’s every coach’s [goal]. You don’t want to regress, you want to get better every day,” White said. “I want to be playing that best basketball at the end of April. I think this team has a chance to be a really good defensive team. We set some pretty lofty goals defensively, and I think this group has an opportunity to improve from where we were a year ago. And, obviously, be more efficient offensively. I thought at times last year we got sloppy. We tried to run our conditioning like a game would be: Breaking things up into four quarters, we’re taking a halftime and we’re talking about things.
“I’d like to see us start second halves better. One of the things I’ve been able to do over this extended break is go back and break down film again from last year, and I thought our starts to third quarters weren’t particularly great. It’s going to be a point of emphasis to start quicker in second halves.”
Overall, White noted he’d be remiss to not set a goal to “just have fun.”
“This is a season that, at times, looked like it might not happen,” he said. “Cherish each individual day, don’t take things for granted and enjoy these games that we’re going to get because you don’t know when it’s going to all end.”
Morgantown opens its season at 1:45 p.m. on March 6, hosting George Washington. The team follows with four more home games before its first road match at rival University on March 16. The first scheduled day of practice is Monday. Monongalia County is currently orange with a 5.56 percent positivity rate per Saturday morning numbers and has been steadily climbing since Feb. 7.
TWEET @andrewspellman_
