Girls' Basketball: Lady Tigers look to overcome youth with speed

The Douglas High girls' basketball program has had some young and inexperienced squads in the past, but this year's team may top them all.

The Lady Tigers come into the year with just six total years of varsity experience on the roster, split between six players, and only one returning starter. Five of the 12 players on the roster are either sophomores or freshmen and the team has only two seniors.

"Six years of experience total," Douglas coach Werner Christen said with a laugh. "We've had teams with more than that after counting just two players. "We're very young, no question about it. This is the youngest team I've ever had, both in age and experience."

What they lack in experience, though, they'll make up for in speed and athleticism.

"This may be the quickest team we've ever had," Christen said. "We would win state in track."

Truth be told, they nearly did just that last year.

The Tigers have five players on the roster who were on the 2009 Northern 4A Regional Champion girls' track & field team. They're going to need every ounce of that speed to make up for the likely end of the dominant post era at the school.

For the first time in a decade, Douglas enters the year without a physically-imposing, 6-foot-plus player roaming the paint.

The stretch started in 2000 with Emily Haas and continued through the years with Julie Gingrich, Colleen Carlson, Dana Pardee, Monica Knight and Jessica Waggoner. All but one of them went on to play at the Division I level (Haas, Carlson and Knight went in volleyball), four of them were eventual first-team All-Northern 4A honorees and two were regional players of the year.

"We have to reinvent ourselves a little bit," Christen said. "We'll run some of our old stuff, but it's no secret that Jess (Waggoner) was our scorer. We're going to have to look different places to get our scoring this year.

"We're going to have to create our offense with our defense, especially early in the season. As time goes on, I think offensively we are going to be pretty good. But the first month or so, we're going to be relying heavily on our defense to create the scoring opportunities.

"I really think we are going to be able to do that. They'll be fast and quick. We'll try to make every possession difficult for our opponents."

That being said, it's not like the Tigers will be without talent in the front court. In fact, the front court comes in with the most experience on the roster this season.

Senior forward Ne'Jae Jackson (5-8, 4.6 points per game in 2008-09) is the team's lone returning starter, but she's joined by returning lettermen junior Bri Burnside (5-9) and sophomore Cassi Uhart (5-7).

Incoming freshman Diana Regalado (5-9) will see time at the post and JV call-up junior Carly McCullough will fill in a swing type of role. Sophomore transfer Ebony Cleveland (6-1) is perhaps the group's most intriguing player, giving the Tigers some needed height inside but also displaying some of the top speed on the team.

"Overall, it's out most experienced group as far as kids who got the most minutes last year," Christen said. "Ne'Jae is probably the leader of that group right now, but Bri did some great things last year and got better as the year went on.

"Ebony will play low but she has the quickness of a guard. Defensively, she'll probably be at the front of the diamond press. We're looking for her to get a little stronger to bang around down low, but the fact is she is going to be faster than most of the people guarding her. That'll help us.

"Cassi is a kid who didn't get much time on the court during games last year, but she was going up against Jess and Bri and Ne'Jae in practice every day. She learned a lot of lessons from that. She's grown a lot and she'll be one that will really help us this year.

"We'll see how it is. We're losing a four-year starter there, and now all of the sudden the best post from the other team is guarding you compared to the second-best. We're going to be OK as long as we rebound. If we don't rebound, it'll be a long season.

"If we're giving people two or three shots per possession, it is not going to be good."

The Tigers return Jackie Harper, Katie Dry and Susie White in the backcourt.

Harper started several games at point guard last season and finished with the team lead in 3-pointers with eight.

Dry, one of the fastest players in the region, was key in the Tigers' transition defense last season and White ranks as one of the faster players in the league as well.

"Those three all had some good minutes for us last year," Christen said. "Katie came on really strong toward the end of the year. She'll be a kid that could have a great year for us. Susie has shown a lot of improvement and she'll have a good year too."

Joining the group in the backcourt will be juniors Alex Laing and Natalie Freitas and sophomore Tia Lyons.

"Tia is a tremendous athlete, another kid with great quickness and Natalie will be one of our better defenders. Alex is another really great athlete."

Christen also brought on Joe Andrews (who is an assistant coach with the Tiger football team) to be the team's strength and conditioning coach this season.

"We've lifted weights in the past before, but coach Andrews developed a six-week program for us," Christen said. "We'll have a structure to it that wasn't there before. The kids are working hard and really kind of enjoying it."

Aside from the extra work in the weight room, Christen said he is excited about the intangibles the team will bring to the floor. Eight of the 12 players on the floor played fall sports and as a group brought home league, regional and state titles.

"As a team, we just have a lot of great competitors," Christen said. "They'll do some stuff during a game that you just can't draw on a chalk board. They know about pressure situations and how to handle themselves.

"We'll be fun to watch, it should be exciting."

As far as the rest of the league goes, Galena is the early favorite, although Manogue figures to be in the mix as well.

"Damonte will have some talented kids back, Wooster has a new coaching staff," Christen said. "Todd Ackerman has an all-leaguer back for Carson and I think Tahoe will be very good.

"Galena is the favorite by far and Manogue is Manogue. You never quite know what they are going to have coming in."

The Tigers open the season Thursday at a tournament in Sacramento.