By Chris Parker
Marion C. Early girls basketball has been on the rise the last few years going from seven to eight to 12 wins over the past three seasons.
A group of four juniors will hope to lead the team to its first winning season since 2015. That group includes: Libby Painter, Karley Painter, Olivia Blehm and Taylor Thompson.
“Our team will be led by these four juniors this year. This is our third year together and each one of them has improved and worked very hard to improve their skills,” head coach Dustin Gerleman said. “This should be a year where the hard work should start paying off for them. They all have played varsity basketball since they were freshmen so they have lots of experience.”
Libby Painter led that group in scoring at 11 ppg last year to go with 6.3 rebounds, 3.2 steals and 1.7 assists per game. Karley Painter averaged 7 ppg and led the group in rebounding at 6.5 rpg. Thompson added in 5 ppg while Thompson scored 2 ppg.
Sophomores Kirsten McGinnis and Lauren Taylor will look to increase their production this year.
“These two saw the most time as freshmen on the varsity team. During the summer they got more experience with the varsity and built some confidence,” Gerleman said. “As sophomores they have improved their skills and put on some muscle which should help them this winter.”
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A trio of freshmen in Maggie Painter, Taylor Blehm and Hailey Presley will look to make an immediate varsity impact.
“I’ve coached these three in junior high the last two years and they have shown a lot of improvement and potential that should help us a lot on the varsity level this season,” Gerleman said. “They got some experience this summer playing with the varsity team and they should make an immediate impact going forward.”
MCE will rely on its speed this year.
“We are going to use our speed to apply a lot of pressure on defense and hopefully force turnovers that will lead to easy baskets,” Gerleman said. “We have a quick team with some added size and length this year which should give us a post presence.”
MCE opens the season on Nov. 23-25 at the Fair Play Tournament.
