By Ryan Davenport, WSON Sports Correspondent
The Henderson County Lady Colonel basketball team is looking to have success this season with four seniors and some young potential talent.
The Lady Colonels went 24-5 last season, going 12-0 in the 2nd region and 6-0 in the 6th district, as the Lady Colonels won in the 6th District Tournament Championship game by taking down the Webster County Lady Trojans 51-37. The Lady Colonels would face the Webster County Lady Trojans in the 2nd Region Championship game and defeated them 53-33 to advance to the KHSAA Girls Sweet 16 State Tournament. Then in the opening round of the State Tournament, the Lady Colonels suffered a 46-43 loss at Rupp Arena against the Franklin County Lady Flyers that ended their season.
I was able to sit down and interview the Head Coach of the Lady Colonels Jeff Haile and ask him a few questions about this Lady Colonel 2022-2023 team. When asked what his team is looking like this upcoming season and what players might have a big role this season, “Well hopefully our four seniors will play a big role in it. Some of them four years, some of them five years. I know they’re going to give their best effort and that’s what we’re depended on those four to kind of carry us through and lead these other kids that haven’t got as much time in the past. Try to show them the way and hopefully they will all be able to contribute for us,” Haile added.
When asked what player has shown growth and improvement from last season to now and Haile responded with this, “Well I think all of them have improved a little bit. The number one I think is Brooklyn Gibson, she will be in the starting lineup tomorrow night, out of all of them I think she has shown the most improvement. Graci Risley I think has done a better job this summer of trying to diversify her game, being able to take the ball to the basket a little bit more instead of just depending on the three point shot. Jarie (Thomas) is a little behind because she was out for almost two months with a sprained knee so she’s coming back into form now. Looking forward to having Mallorie Veal, she’s been a little sick here and there and had the flu just getting her back now. The steady one’s going to be Savannah Lacer she will be the point guard for right now. She’s the steady one we got that’s always dependable and is going to work hard all the time. A few other kids will come in, Anna Kemp, Allyson Rideout, Shaylyn Sprinkles, all of those three were here last year and we will look for them to get a lot of playing time.”
When asked what are some of the team goals and expectations for this upcoming season, “Our goal is always to try to win a state championship. When you’re in a big school like we are, that’s what everybody says we have to win, but it’s not as easy as what people think. You still (have) to have the kids to come out and play and try to make the team and so on. That’s what’s going to be our expectation every year. To get to that point you have to do well in your district, then you have to obviously come out and try to win the region. Our goal is always to try to get to the state championship game but that might not happen but that is going to be our goal. Like to try to do a good job of getting better during the season, that’s another goal of ours is to try and get better. We know our first three or four ball games we are just going to be filling ourself out, filling the other teams out, learning what we need to improve on throughout the whole year. You can’t see that in practice, you can’t see who were playing in the scrimmage games but you’re not still going to see everybody’s real game until you get to the regular season. The schedule we’re playing is probably one of the toughest one’s we’ve played since I’ve been coaching here so there is no excuse for us not to get better. We‘ll learn from our mistakes but we’re playing a good schedule so hopefully doing that and improving individually as a team that will get the job done at the end,” Haile added.
Lady Colonel senior guard Savannah Lacer was asked what she felt like she had improved on this offseason, from last season to now, and Lacer responded with this, ”I feel like I have definitely improved on my shooting a little bit and my point guard IQ, getting the ball to the right people at the right time.”
When asked what her expectations and goals for her team this upcoming season in her senior year, “This year I have really high expectations. We’ve had great success in the past and I expect the same from this year. We can definitely make another run to Rupp (Arena) if we really try hard,” Lacer responded.
When asked what some of her personal goals were in her final season as a Lady Colonel, Lacer responded with this, ”In my final season as a Lady Colonel, my personal goals would be to exceed my shooting averages from last year, assists and rebounds.”
Savannah Lacer tonight will set to become the first Lady Colonel basketball player ever to play in her 6th full season as a Lady Colonel.
The Lady Colonels open up the season by taking on the McCracken County Lady Mustangs on the road in Paducah tonight, December 2nd, with the tip-off at 6:00 P.M.
Tune into 860 AM and 96.5 FM and wsonradio.com as Greg Busbey and Scott Stone will be carrying the game.
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