The Halfway girls, coming off of a season where they finished one game below .500 at 12-13, have a new head coach in Eric Ingram this season.
The Lady Cardinals lost one player to graduation in forward Samantha Mayfield.
Ingram’s transition to head coach will be made easier by the fact that he coached many of these girls in softball this fall.
“All of our players except one played softball for me in the fall. We had a great season and made a run to the state quarterfinals. These girls really came together as a team, and played with heart, determination, and have a great chemistry. We will carry over the competitiveness we had from the field to the court and compete,” Ingram said.
Seniors Nichole Hosiner and Rylee Stokes along with junior Kamyrn Voris give Halfway three returning starters. Hosiner is versatile and can play both inside and outside. She averaged 12 points per game last season. Stokes is the leading returning scorer from last year’s team after averaging 13 points per game. Voris is a strong defender who will often draw the assignment of guarding the other team’s best player. She averaged seven points per game last year.
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Senior Micheala Higginbotham will be missed this year after she tore her ACL in the summer. She was the team’s starting point guard last year.
Junior Rachel Cahoj saw some minutes last season on the varsity and will be expected to step into a larger role this year at guard. Sophomore Haley Payne also played some minutes last season. She is a quick player that will help on both ends of the floor.
The Lady Cardinals also have a large freshman contingent that will content for playing time after going 14-4 at the junior high level last year. They are: Madison Higginbotham, Hannah Farmer and Madeline Payne.
Higginbotham and Farmer will be looked to in the paint while the other three will be guards.
Two things Halfway will have to overcome are a lack of size and overall youth on the court.
“If you just look at our roster we do not have much height and size. We will work very hard on the boards in spite of this and I think we will be ok,” Ingram said. “We will also be very young with over 50% of our roster freshman and sophomores. We need to learn quick and progress quick with our young players.”
Halfway will look to improve throughout the year as they try to climb back above .500.
“We want to get better every day in all aspects of the game. We want to compete each and every day both in practice and games and when the fourth quarter rolls around we have been competitive and give ourselves a chance to win a game. So my expectation is that we compete,” Ingram said.
