Girls basketball team more athletic

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Girls basketball team more athletic

Sat, 12/19/2020 - 16:04
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“We lost a great group of seniors,” was how Ponca City Lady Cats basketball coach Jody Fincher started his description of where his team stands at the beginning of the current year.

Fincher may have been understating the situation as the seniors that left the program were a group that helped take the Lady Cats to two state tournaments in their four years at Po-Hi. Team leaders Baylee Fincher and Rylie Beard were recipients of postseason honors statewide.

“They won a lot of games and took us to the state tournament twice,” Coach Fincher said about the departed senior class.

In spite of the losses to graduation the Lady Cat coach says he likes the team that he has now. “We don’t rebuild. We have a group that have worked hard at the junior high level. We are more inexperienced, but we are more athletic than we have been.”

COVID-19 has reared its ugly head for the Lady Cats, both last spring and at the beginning of the 2020-2021 season. Last year’s squad achieved their dream of qualifying for the Class 6A State Tournament, but didn’t play in the event as it was cancelled on the day of the scheduled opening round. Ponca City’s team learned that its opening game with Deer Creek wouldn’t be played as scheduled on the bus ride to the tournament. At that time it was thought that perhaps state tournaments would be played at a later time, but that never happened.

This season, the Lady Cats had started practice sessions, and were a week away from the scheduled first game, when Ponca City School District activities and games were put on hold due to increased instances of COVID-19. A slate of games in December were not played. Those restrictions have been lifted, and practice is set to resume Saturday. The first scheduled games are in a tournament in Ada the first week of January.

When Coach Fincher starts talking about which players he can call upon this year, he first turns to senior Carlie Badley. Badley is a three-year starter and will be in the post.

“She is our senior leader,” he said. “She leads by example on and off the court. She is of high character and is a good person.”

Another three-year senior is Trinity Regnier. “She has always been very good on the defensive end. This year she was knocking down her shots before December,” Fincher said.

Junior Ashlynn Fincher is another returning starter. “She is a hard worker and has gotten faster,” Coach Fincher said. Ashlynn has been a good shooter and according to Coach Fincher is in the best physical condition she has ever been.

Sophomore Emma Gertkin saw quite a bit of action as a freshman. “She is working hard and is another person of high character,” Coach Fincher said.

Kendra Littlewalker is another player who is likely to see quite a bit of action.

Coach Fincher couldn’t refrain from mentioning three freshman players about whom he is excited-- Kyra Allison, Sarah Dingus and Lanie George.

“They have shown good athletic skills. They have shown us they have the ability to contribute well,” he said.

Not all the details about the protocols for the upcoming season are known yet, but Coach Fincher noted that things will be quite different than in the past.

“We will be heeding COVID measures. The girls will be socially distancing as much as possible. We will be sanitizing everything before and after practices and separating exits and entrances to the building. We will try to reschedule the missed games. They may be the same teams, but we might get games with different teams as well,” he said.

The Lady Cats are participating in the seven-member Big 10 Conference which also includes Enid, Putnam City North, Putnam City West, Putnam City, Midwest City and Choctaw.

While changes are likely, the schedule after the beginning of 2021 looks like this:

Jan. 7-9— Ada Tournament

Jan. 12— at Putnam City

Jan. 15— Midwest City at Ponca City

Jan. 21-23— Union/Jenks Tournament

Jan. 26— at Guthrie

Jan. 29— at Putnam West

Feb. 2— Enid at Ponca City

Feb. 5 — Putnam North at Ponca City

Feb. 9— at Choctaw

Feb. 12— Putnam City at Ponca City

Feb. 16— at Midwest City

Feb. 19 — Shawnee at Ponca City