By Denise Tucker (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
The Blue Eye Lady Bulldogs will have a different look this season.
One difference will be the coach patrolling the sidelines; the other will be the starting lineup.
Coach Jeff Dishman will take over the reins for the Lady Bulldogs, replacing Ken Elfrink, Class 2 District 7 Coach of the Year, who retired after 29 years of coaching at Blue Eye. Dishman, who coached at Hollister last season, enters his 17th year in coaching and his fifth year as a head coach.
Dishman spent 13 years as an assistant to Rory Henry at Walnut Grove, including 12 trips to the final four and five state championships. He also has coached girls’ softball and boys’ basketball.
Gone from a team that won four-straight district titles and captured three-straight third-place trophies in the Class 2 state tournament are Riley Arnold, Avery Arnold, Kyla Warren, Gracyn Fairchild and MaKayla Johnson.
• Riley Arnold – Earned Class 2 All-State honors, was the Class 2 District 11 Player of the Year and a Southwest Central League first-team selection. Now running cross country and track and field at Southwest Baptist University.
• Avery Arnold – An all-state, all-district and all-conference pick. Now playing basketball at College of the Ozarks.
• Kyla Warren – Named all-district and second-team all-conference. Running track and field at the University of Central Missouri.
• MaKayla Johnson – Earned all-conference second-team honors.
“All of them were starters for multiple years, all of them had great basketball knowledge and played hard every night,” Dishman said. “These young ladies not only represented this school on the court but were great people as well. They could be the best single class to ever play at Blue Eye.”
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The six returning Lady Bulldogs have big shoes to fill this season.
“We had a good summer and at the end, we were playing well,” Dishman said. “Our kids haven’t had to play meaningful minutes yet and that will be the test early on, but all of them have guarded and played against great players for the past few years, so they will need to make the adjustments needed to make plays when called upon.”
• Lily Feagans, 5-foot-9 senior. “Plays bigger than she is,” Dishman said. “She can be a huge part of our success this year. Lily is undoubtedly the team leader; we need her to bring that every day.”
• Samantha George, 5-11 senior. “Sam played valuable minutes last season in big games. She needs to play well for us on both ends of the floor for us to be successful this season. She is very capable of having a breakout year.”
• Hailey Hobbs, 5-11 junior. “Can play inside and outside. If we can keep Hailey healthy and she continues to work hard, she could be a key factor in our season on both ends of the floor. She has the ability to take over a game.”
• Kieryn Fairchild, 5-6 junior. “Will primarily run the offense for us. She has great ability to get to the basket and will be counted on to lead us on both ends of the floor. She had a great summer and showed improvement as the summer went on. We need Kieryn to play well for us this year.”
• Angelina Bettlach, 5-6 sophomore. “Another player that had a great summer. ‘Lina’ will only get better as she plays more. She can be very good on both ends of the floor.”
• Emmelee Litel, 5-8 sophomore. “Emmelee is very athletic and does some good things on both ends of the floor as well. She is very good at attacking the basket and will only get better with playing time.”
Dishman will look to his newcomers to help contribute to Blue Eye’s success this season.
• Emma Forester, 5-11 senior. “We might call Emma a newcomer, but she has battled some injuries and after taking a few years off, comes back for her senior year. Emma had a really good summer and started playing very well at the end of the summer for us. She can bring some physical presence inside for us this year.”
• Olivia Cardenzana, 5-8 sophomore. “Olivia just needs to play. She had a good summer and we look forward to her getting better each day in practice.”
• Kaylee Wilson, 5-8 sophomore. “Kaylee came from Ozark after playing her freshman year there. She brings a tough-minded attitude on both ends of the floor. We will need Kaylee to step up early in the season for us to be successful. Kaylee will only get better, and I look for her to have a breakout year.”
• Karlee Goldsmith, 5-8 freshman. “Another player that brings it every day in practice. She will only get better and could do some really good things for us in the future.”
• Chloe Kilgore, 5-8 freshman. “A very tough young lady that I think, in time, could be really good.”
Dishman said he is excited about building on the progress the team made during the summer.
“(That starts) with that confidence in November and seeing where we will be at in mid-February,” Dishman said. “We have to stay healthy and make progress each day in practice and the weight room to be successful in the end. I want us to play great defense and make it hard on the other team. We need to be mentally tough and playing at a high level each possession.
“This team is hungry to prove that they can go out each night and play to the best of their ability. We use the term often ‘86,400;’ what will we do in that amount of time to get better!”
The Lady Bulldogs open the season in the Verona Wildcat Classic on Nov. 19-23 and will then host the Blue Eye Invitational on Nov. 28-Dec. 3.
“Our biggest challenge is that our kids, for the most part, have not played the meaningful minutes of games,” Dishman said. “That could be a good thing, though. They have been very receptive to the new things thrown at them.
“Our team motto this year is ‘#ourturn.’ I think the girls are excited to prove that they can continue the tradition and what it means to be a ‘Lady Bulldog.’ They have something to prove each night. We look forward to the challenge.”
