Lady Vikings Basketball Stays Sharp with Summer Hoops

Nine members of the Avery Lady Vikings varsity basketball squad spent three days in early June in hot and humid Charleston, South Carolina for a week of top-level camp basketball action.

During the camp the Big Red played a grand total of eight games against competition from both North and South Carolina. By camp’s end the Lady Vikings stood tall with a final record of seven victories and only one loss.

Avery defeated Charleston Math and Science by a final score of 51-12, Brookland Cayce by a 79-19 final score, as well as Mount Holly by a final score of 47-41 and Woodland High School by a 43-35 final score.

The Lady Vikings reeled off two additional victories, a 46-14 drubbing of Goose Creek and a 52-39 win over Wando before suffering its lone loss of the camp, a 36-35 loss to Northwest Guilford on a heartbreaking buzzer-beater shot. Avery bounced back and defeated Goose Creek a second time by a 34-29 final score.

“The girls did a really great job down in Charleston,” Coach Lyons stated last week. “There is nothing like that trip. We played basketball, but were also able to have some fun. We got out and rode bikes early on the beach and we had devotions on the beach. We had a lot of good time to bond together, and on the court we just played fantastic.”

Despite the loss of a number of seniors, including the entire starting backcourt, Coach Lyons was quick to praise the efforts of the group, efforts that exceeded even her own expectations for the week.

“Coming into the camp I was kind of thinking this might be somewhat of a rebuilding time, and in the three times I’ve brought teams to Charleston, this is the best team I’ve ever had down there,” Coach Lyons stated. “I was really happy to see it turn out that way because I knew we’d be losing a lot of talent, but these girls have worked and they just immediately started playing well together. They passed the ball well and bought into the whole team concept. Everything there really went smoothly, and it gives me a good feeling about where we’re at and how we’ll be this season.”

In addition to the success the team had, Avery was able to experience some unique experiences as a group during its trip, one of which occurred as the air conditioning unit in the bus they traveled in stopped working as the team began its return home from camp.

“Looking back on it we’re able to laugh at the air conditioning going out. Coach Young measured the bus temperature as over 100 degrees on the way back home,” Coach Lyons said. “A lot of that became a teaching moment as we talked about shared suffering, and we’re able to look back on it and have fun.”

The Lady Vikings will continue to be busy through the summer as it looks for its third sectional championship in four seasons. The team travels this week for summer league games at Wilkes Central and go to Patton the week of June 28^th for a total of ten games. The competition will be fierce, but Coach Lyons feels the team will be up to the task.

“We’ll be playing some really good team. We’ll see Ashe, Watauga, Hibriten, Davie County, Lexington, Wilkes Central, Patton, Draughn. We’ll be seeing different teams each time we take the floor, and we hope that will be a good second step in helping us to get ready for the fall,” the coach shared. “Because of the work we’re doing now, we will come in ready to start. We have the team dynamic and discipline issues taken care of, and the girls know the expectations. Our preseason is really short, so having the summer camps and the leagues do a lot to help us be ready to go once fall practice starts.”