By Chris Parker
Clark Satterlee enters his second season as the head coach of the Clever girls basketball program having to replace a pair of decorated seniors coming off a district championship season.
The Lady Jays won the Class 3 District 12 tournament on the way to a 13-15 record last winter.
Gone from that team are all-state honoree Riah Robinson and all-conference honoree Ruthie Brown.
“Losing Riah and Ruthie from last year, we have some big scoring shoes to fill,” Satterlee said. “I think our half-court offense will be a work in progress to start the season. We will need time to figure out and work through new roles.”
A pair of juniors in Ireland Jones and Jayleign Flood will be asked to step up.
Jones averaged 12.2 points, 5 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 2.4 steals per game on her way to honorable mention all-conference honors.
“Ireland is a natural leader and good communicator,” Satterlee said. “On the court, she is a very skilled player. She has put in a ton of time working on her game and it has paid off. She was a pass first point guard last year but will be more of a scoring threat this year.”
Flood, an all-state track athlete, averaged 6.1 points, 5.1 rebounds, 2 steals and 1.8 assists per game in her sophomore season.
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“Jayleign leads by example and will be called upon to be more vocal this year,” Satterlee said. “She is a superb athlete and guarded the other team’s best player most of the time last year. This year we will ask her to have more of an offensive impact as well.”
Junior letterwinners Baillie McClanahan and Brylie Hicks also return for Clever. Both averaged about 2.5 points per game playing in all 28 games last year.
“Baillie McClanahan backed up Ruthie last year and will slide into the primary forward spot this season. Showed herself last year to be a solid defender. She has a nice jump shot and has also been working on her inside game to give us a post threat option there,” Satterlee said. “Brylie Hicks (was the) first guard off the bench last year who will be asked to expand her scoring ability this year. She has a nice shooting touch and has also worked hard defensively this summer to be a more impactful player on that side of the ball.”
Senior Rylee Lansdown along with juniors Emma Anders and Riley Britton will be newcomers to the varsity rotation. Lansdown is an athletic forward who can defend multiple positions. Britton is a versatile wing who can shoot, drive and guard multiple positions. Anders is a good shooter and tough competitor.
Transfer Madelynn Kime should offer an immediate boost to the Clever lineup. She transferred in from Naches, Washington where she had three years of varsity experience. She is a guard/forward who can shoot and defend in the post.
Sydney Bollenbach, Chandlyr Friend, Piper Steele and Addison Bateman along with freshmen Ella Newman, Mackenzie Camp and Kaylin Ziegler will compete to fill out the varsity roster.
Defense will be key to Clever’s success this year.
“Our greatest strength this year will be our defense. We are athletic and fast. We will need to pressure other teams in both the full and half court and look to turn our defense into offense,” Satterlee said. “Our identity needs to be built around our defense and competitiveness. We don’t have a lot of size, so we will have to get after other teams if we want to be successful.”
Clever opens the regular season on Nov. 21 at Marshfield.
They Lady Jays will be much better prepared heading into this season with a full year under Satterlee’s leadership.
“Taking over late in the summer last year put us behind the 8-ball a bit when the season started,” Satterlee said. “This year we had a full summer together and our overall knowledge of how I want to do things is much improved. Our schedule is tough out of the gate, but once we work through some of our offensive questions, I expect us to be competitive.”
