The East Newton girls have a new head coach in Clayton Bagby this year. Bagby served as an assistant within the program for the last three seasons.
He will be working to turn around a program that won just three games last year and graduated its only all-conference selection in Kinsey Sorrell.
Seniors Robin Hussong and Kendra Hickman will be the leaders for the Patriots this year. Both are four-year players and returning starters who averaged four and three points per game, respectively.
East Newton had a strong summer, but Hickman has stood out to Bagby for her offseason improvement.
“Kendra Hickman is not involved in a fall sport and has been putting in work to come prepared for her senior season and looking to improve on the offensive side,” Bagby said. “Overall we had a pretty good summer with good numbers and were able to get quite a bit of work in to improve overall as a team.”
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Six-foot junior center Madison McDermott gives East Newton a third returning starter. She averaged 3.9 points and 6.6 rebounds per game last year. Laney Jackson is back for her senior year after earning the most improved player award last season after not playing her sophomore season.
Kaitlyn Hailey is the leading returning scorer after averaging 5.3 points per game as a sophomore. Kaytin Brown is a sophomore forward who will compete for varsity minutes after lettering as a freshman.
Two new players for the Patriots will be sophomore forward Katie Kester and freshman point guard Makenna Brasier. Kester is a transfer from McDonald County who lettered there as a freshman. Brasier saw time with the varsity over the summer.
Bagby is hoping having six players with varsity experience will pay off in the form of more wins this season.
“Last year we were very inexperienced at the varsity level but we have three returning starters and two or three others that received decent varsity playing time last year. This year we will look to build on that experience and continue working to improve offensively. We have an athletic class of freshman coming in and numbers look to be good so we will look to keep practices competitive and continue working to improve and compete in every game,” Bagby said.
East Newton opens the season on Nov. 19 at home against Aurora.
