Although basketball season concluded well before leaves appeared on area trees, the Avery Lady Vikings basketball team continues to work on improving for the upcoming season.In mid-June the Lady Vikings took five junior varsity players and eight varsity players to the Battle of the Border Team Basketball Camp at Pfeiffer University. Avery played a number of top-notch opponents and more than held their own against them.
“The Pfeiffer camp was great for us. We had went there several years ago and decided to go back. We have a new group of girls playing together, including three players we’ve added to our varsity including Mercedes Bentley, Logan Johnson, and Savannah Dellinger. Putting those girls with our returning players was a good combination,” Lady Vikings varsity head coach Missy Lyons. “I asked for us to be put with the 3A and 4A teams at the camp to challenge us and get the toughest competition we could. There were about 35 teams at the camp.”
During the event Avery had the opportunity to tangle with a host of squads from North and South Carolina, including North Stokes, North Stanly, Lee County (SC), Marlboro (SC), Carrboro, North Surry, Union Pines, and Eastern Alamance, finishing 6-4 over the course of ten games played at camp. The squad lost no game by greater than three points.
“Our close games all seemed to come down to the wire. The game was played where fouls counted for points so it wasn’t completely a real-life game situation, but I think the girls handled themselves well. Every team we played was excellent competition,” Coach Lyons added.
From the camp and summer work, the Lady Vikings are establishing an identity and character which will carry them into the 2009-10 campaign with the hopes of exceeding the successes of the previous seasons that have most recently included a regional appearance, a conference tournament title, and multiple district finals appearances.“I think an area of strength for this team is their passing. They set each other up well and work as a team to get good shots” Coach Lyons said. “If there is something we will need to work on, it will be running the ball. The girls played great help defense, and I believe our defense will be a strong point for this team as well. Our junior varsity team also was 8-2 during the camp and looked extremely well.”
The Lady Vikings will miss the recent graduation of seniors from the squad, but Coach Lyons hopes that the remaining varsity players can step up their level of play and that the players who are new to the squad can make positive contributions to help the club.
“We’ll definitely miss Katie Ellis down on the post. We’ll be counting on our returning players like Katelynn (Eudy) to take up some of the hustle and hard rebounding and getting to the basketball off the glass. Sara Wiseman has come along really well in the post,” Coach Lyons stated. “Having Lauren Avery in the backcourt and adding Mercedes to the varsity will give us someone to go to with a consistent perimeter jumper to hurt defenses when they pack in the zone on us. That will help open it up for our big girls inside.”
For the past few weeks the Lady Vikings have been participating in summer leagues featuring teams from Watauga, Wilkes, Ashe, and beyond. Avery performed well during the summer league play and has logged many games on the floor.
“The summer leagues have been great. We traveled to Wilkes Central a couple of Saturdays ago and played Ashe, Watauga, Forbush, and Wilkes Central. We played all day long, back-to-back-to-back-to-back,” Coach Lyons elaborated. “We went one evening to play at Watauga and played Watauga and Ashe in both JV and varsity games. Ashe and Watauga will both be really strong teams next year, so that gave us a good indication of where we were before we went to team camp.”
Throughout the summer the Lady Vikings have been holding open gym, holding clinics on Monday evenings at Viking Gym for middle school players as varsity players work with the younger ladies to help them improve their game.
“We’ve been letting our older girls do a clinic with the middle school players, going over some drills and helping them see and go through what a high school practice looks and feels like,” the coach said. “We’ve done the clinics throughout May and June, and in those times we’ve had anywhere from 15 to 30 girls in 7th through rising 9th grade. We have some really good younger talent, so we’ve been really excited about having them join us and working out with us.”
