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Battlefield enters winter basketball season focused on unity
When it comes to managing expectations for the upcoming winter season, Battlefield varsity girls basketball coach Eric McCaslin isn't putting his head in the clouds.
He didn't promise championships or even mention where he would like his team to be ranked in the Cedar Run District entering the post season. Rather, he simply focused on the present.
"We're excited about what we have," said McCaslin as he girls prepared for a scrimmage against Kettle Run on Nov. 22.
What his team has is a "good, young group" featuring four veterans and a crop of new players, including a few transfers.
In a district routinely dominated by potential state contender Stonewall Jackson, the main source for bracket competition is usually for teaming vying to finish second in the district tournament. Doing so grants a berth to regions. For Battlefield to reach that mark, the team will have to improve on its sub-.500 record from the 2009-10 season, something McCaslin is well aware of entering this season.
"(We're) focused on turning around things from last year," he said, later mentioning that the 2009-10 team "never really meshed."
Now, "they're united," he added.
Four returning players will be at the "core" of the team's reinvention, McCaslin said, with first-team all-district junior Amber Lewis as the team's go-to player for just about everything.
"From a statistic standpoint, she's the one people will be looking at" as a leader, he said.
Lewis started every game for Battlefield last season and has "gotten a little bit more comfortable" with her role this year, according to the coach. "It's her team. She knows it's (time) to stand up."
That said, McCaslin stressed the idea of "team" repeatedly and the force of the players united. "The focus has been on others. The focus has been on 'group,'" said McCaslin, explaining that he wanted his players to learn about "selflessness, a willingness to look at the world beyond themselves as individuals."
Such an example of that is the basketball clinic for elementary and middle school-aged girls that six Bobcats hosted in early November. Lewis, Abby Wescott, Brianna Jones, Jessi Whaley, Maya Sivels and Ciara Williams concentrated their the fundamentals of defense, dribbling, shooting and rebounding for more than 60 girls, according to McCaslin.
Players also did favors for themselves during the off-season. Though school coaches are prohibited from organizing work out sessions with their players prior to the official start of a sports season, players can set them up themselves. McCaslin said that by partnering up with a sense of mission, the girls could work on drills and techniques more than just playing pick-up games.
"It was kid-initiated," said McCaslin.
Williams, a junior, is a "natural" vocal leader, according to McCaslin, who's been with the program since its inception. "She's confident and assertive," he said. "She was the one that really stepped up in the open gyms."
The sophomore forward Whaley extended her shooting range from last year which means she can be more of a threat from across the post this season, according to McCaslin. He mentioned her ball-handling ability is "better" and she learned "a lot about work ethic" as a freshman that he hopes will produce positive results this year.
Charmaine Price is taking a leading role down in the paint for Battlefield after playing back-up to graduated four-year varsity standout Annie Jones in the 2009-10 season along with Lewis. After studying her predecessors, McCaslin said he is confident "she can go in and do some post (work)" as a big or small forward.
As for their own skills entering the fall, "We have the ability to move around now," he said. "We're asking everyone to be more vocal in (their) desire to want to win and demand that of (their) teammates."
Newcomer Mya Sivels figures to be a big part of that attitude. A transfer student from Stonewall Jackson, Sivels is preparing to lead the team on the court as a "pure point guard."
"There a confidence that comes with being a point guard," said McCaslin.
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