By Denise Tucker (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
As Justin Gerald heads into his fourth season as the Hillcrest Lady Hornets’ head coach, he feels the future of the program is headed in the right direction, but the growing pains can make it difficult.
“Last year was an up and down year,” Gerald said. “We started off winning four games, which was as many as I had won as a head coach here at Hillcrest and more than we had won in a couple of years. We took second place in a tournament and competed for third in another but came up short.”
The Lady Hornets, who finished 4-20 overall and 0-10 in the Ozark Conference, lost three starters for the season to injury in that third-place game in early December and would not win another game the remainder of the year.
“The best thing about last year is I will return all but two players that finished the season,” Gerald said. “So, we got a number of lessons and experience in the second half of the season. That may be the highlight of the season and hopefully, that carries over to this season.”
Hillcrest returns three seniors in Natalia Barker (5-foot-4 guard), Maddison Goodwin (5-5 guard and Faith Askin (5-6 forward).
“These three ladies have played all four years, and lately, that’s something that has not been a thing here with the girls’ basketball program,” Gerald said. “It’s definitely the biggest senior class that has played all four years in the past four years. We are looking for that to change as we have 12 sophomores and 16 freshmen coming out this year. Our program is now heading in the right direction.”
And Gerald will be looking to those sophomores and freshmen to make an impact this season.
“Keep an eye on how our younger levels perform over the season,” Gerald said. “I am really excited for the whole program because we are definitely headed in the right direction.”
A productive offseason has been the key to that excitement.
“(The players) were very involved and competitive at our own level,” Gerald said. “We’ve had consistent attendance in our preseason workouts. So, I’m excited to see how that translates in the early days of practice.”
Gerald says his team’s strength will be in its depth with so many players vying for playing time. On the flip side, there isn’t a lot of experience in those numbers.
“As much as we learned last year, we did not get to play our level skill,” Gerald said. “I believe there is a process to becoming a varsity basketball player – play Freshman, play JV, compete on varsity. Some come in ready to play JV or even varsity, but this is not our case. I do believe we are starting that process. We will look back on this season as the season that started the change.”
The Lady Hornets open the season at McDonald County on Nov. 18 before hosting Carthage on Nov. 22.
“My expectations for this season are to set the standards for the future,” Gerald said. “I will look for us to compete and meet our own expectations we set for the season. With such a small junior and senior class, we will be young. So, I look forward to seeing our toughness throughout the season as we will be tested mentally and physically.”
