Team Preview
Written by: Sven Alskog
Improving a basketball program that has been down for as many years as the Wendell girls one has can be quite the task.
After winning a combined eight games during the prior two seasons, with the seven win total in 2012-2013 being looked at as a success following a one win mark the year prior, the Trojans would be introduced to new Head Coach Travis Robison. The results would be seen almost immediately.
Robison, who had previously coached the Wendell boys JV team, led the Trojans to a 15-10 season last year, showing enough to earn individual players plenty of offseason accolades.
Of the talent pool, All-Conference honorees Kirstin Wert, Taylor Beebe and Lupita Vargas all return, giving plenty of optimism for another successful go of things this time around.
Wert patrols the offense in her role as point guard, with plenty of shooters surrounding her to disperse the ball around to.
Vargas was the leading scorer last season from her forward position, something which should be the case again this year with such a familiar cast coming back.
Wendell also returns leading rebounder Kassity Kelley who provides plenty of second chance opportunities on the offensive end when on the floor.
For Robison, the reasons for optimism this season are pretty simple.
“Four of five starters [are] back from the team that took the regular season conference championship,” he stated.
That team lost in the championship of the district tournament to Valley, a team which has moved down to the 1AD1 classification for all sports this academic year.
With the losses of Oakley and Valley to the lower 1AD1 level, the 2A Canyon Conference is left with just two teams, Wendell and Declo. The Hornets won just five games last season.
The transition means many games on the Trojans schedule will be against non-conference opponents, primarily schools from 1A and 3A.
Only having two conference matchups over the course of the season provides Robison with the ability to schedule a broad range of teams with a bevy of styles, better preparing his unit for potential postseason play come February.
For the Trojans, the style will again be of the run and gun variety.
“We like to go fast and put pressure on others to keep the pace we like,” said Robison.
With such an experienced group back for another year, the second year head coach should experience even more success this season.
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