By Ryan Davenport, WSON Sports Correspondent
The 2024-2025 Henderson County Lady Colonel basketball team is looking to have another successful season with multiple key returning players mixed with some young and up and coming talent.
The Lady Colonels went 26-8 a season ago, going 12-1 in the 2nd region and 5-0 in the 6th district, as the Lady Colonels won in the 6th District Tournament Championship game by taking down the Union County Bravettes, 55-35. The Lady Colonels would face the Hopkins County Central Lady Storm in the 2nd Region Championship game and defeated them 55-33 to advance to the KHSAA Girls Sweet 16 State Tournament. Then in the opening round of the State Tournament, the Lady Colonels defeated the Owensboro Lady Red Devils, 43-39, at Rupp Arena. Then in the quarterfinals, the Lady Colonels would suffer the season ending loss to Cooper, 47-37.
I was able to sit down and interview the new Head Coach of the Lady Colonels Stephen Haile and ask him a few questions about this Lady Colonel 2024-2025 team. When asked what his team has done in the offseason to improve coming into season, Haile responded with this, “Well one thing we made a concerted effort to is get stronger. We’ve been in the weight room quite a bit. (We are) lucky enough to have a lot of our girls in weight lifting class at the end of the day and PE. We’ve gotten quite a bit of weight lifting in there and conditioning too and have gotten stronger, in good shape so those things always help. Our girls have just gotten, everyone of them has gotten a year older and gotten a little bit more experience whether it was playing again this summer or just being around each other and getting used to playing together.”
Coach Haile discussed not losing a single player off last year’s team and the positive impact it has going into the season and Haile responded with this, “Well its kind like I said last year at state, its a blessing to get up there and get that experience and then be able to bring everybody back. One thing that I told the girls and kind of been harping on in our first three or four weeks of practice is we’re going to have more competition than we did last year at practice and for even minutes on the team. We’ve got every single kid coming back from last year and then we’ve got some good freshman too so if you want to play some minutes you know show it at practice and work hard and your gonna have to if you want get minutes on the varsity team on this team because we’re deep.”
Coach Haile talked about some of the team goals for this season, “Well it’s something I kind of talked to the girls about when we had our team meeting a few weeks ago was you know obviously we have a goal of winning a state championship but there (are) smaller goals that we need to (achieve like) benchmarks we need to hit to get there. Really we’re just looking to get better every day at practice and be competitive. We’re trying to get the girls to just love practice because if you love coming to practice every day and you love competing with your teammates then everybody is going to get better, we’re going to be a better program Freshman, JV, Varsity. That’s gonna build not only for this year but for next year and the next however many years that we’re going. ”
I was also able to interview Lady Colonel junior guard Addy Gish, in which Gish was asked what she felt like she had improved on this offseason, from last season to now, and she responded with this, ”I feel like I’ve improved on being more selfish but still continuing to like get the ball out continuous.”
Gish was asked about team goals her team has this season and she responded with this, “I feel like we’re going to build our team stronger and hopefully become closer and then get to where we want to be.”
Gish talked about what it means to play in a Lady Colonel uniform and the impact it has had on her as a player and in his life, “It means a lot because I know some people don’t get the chance to wear a uniform or anything like that and I’ve come a long way.”
Another player I was able to interview was junior forward Brooklyn Gibson and asked her a few questions. Gibson talked about some of the improvements she made in the offseason to better her play this season, “Definitely expanding my role into starting to become like a 3 or a 2 instead of just a 4 or 5.”
Gibson was asked about team goals her team has this season and she responded with this, “Definitely to win districts at first and region, then go to state and then eventually win a state championship.”
Gibson talked about what it means to play in a Lady Colonel uniform and the impact it has had on her as a player and in his life, “Its gave me a lot of discipline to like get stuff done. Coach Haile and all the coaches have been like family to me.”
Another player I was able to interview was senior forward Anna Kemp and asked her a few questions. Kemp talked about some of the improvements she made in the offseason to better her play this season, “I feel like in this off-season I’ve gotten a lot better in all areas, finishing around the basket, shooting better on the perimeter but also hopefully getting back to being in basketball shape as I was out for a while so just getting back to where I was before offensively and defensively to help contribute wherever I need to.”
Kemp was asked about team goals her team has this season and she responded with this, “Definitely second region championship. I think a lot of teams are underestimating us, they’ve all gotten better but we know that we feel really confident about us also being better this year and looking for a state title. I know me especially (since) I got one in softball so I want to try to get one in basketball too now.”
Kemp talked about what it means to play in a Lady Colonel uniform and the impact it has had on her as a player and in his life, “I mean its everything, I mean it holds you to such a high standard and knowing that every person that comes through this program is such a great leader and basketball player. Just going out there and you know that when the Lady Colonels step on the court they’re going to give you 110 percent and just beat you down on defense and run you to death on offense so that’s what we’re hoping to do this year.”
The final player I was able to interview was junior guard Allyson Rideout and asked her a few questions. Rideout talked about some of the improvements she made in the off-season to better her play this season, “I feel like I’ve definitely gotten stronger and faster is something I’ve been really hitting the weight room hard this off-season and I’ve put up a ton of shots so looking for those field goal percentages to go up which I think they will.”
Rideout was asked what she might need to improve on going into the season to better help her game, “Definitely just speed and strength. Been with the trainer, been just in the weight room a lot, just something that was my main goal this off-season to improve on and I think I’ve improved on it pretty well and still got to continue to improve on it.”
Rideout talked about what it means to play in a Lady Colonel uniform and the impact it has had on her as a player and in his life, “Its meant so much to me, been here five years so its really meant a lot I’ve grown personally on the court, off the court. All the relationships with coaches and teammates I’ve gotten its one of the most meaningful things in my life so very happy to have had this opportunity.”
The Lady Colonels open up the season with Owensboro tonight, December 2nd, at home at 7:00 P.M at Colonel Gym.
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