Lady Demons looking to improve in tough district
CCSR photo by Karen Boehler — Dexter is hoping hard work will help overcome the handicap of being a small school in a big-school district.
Karen Boehler
CCSR writer/editor
DEXTER — Ask Dexter girls basketball coach Kim Hamill if she’s happy this is the team’s last year as a AAA school, and she hesitates for a second, but eventually says, “Yeah, we are. It’s hard to compete with those schools, but we get out there every day and we give our best effort.”
And that good effort is what makes it so hard for the Demons. They play a tough pre-district schedule, then are dropped in a district with three of the top 10 teams in the state, all three of which have much bigger enrollments. So no matter how hard they play, they’re generally overmatched.
But Hamill is thinking positive this year, saying if her squad can start off with some victories they may be able to compete.
“These girls work hard, they just need game experience,” she said. “They worked hard this summer. We probably played 40 games this summer. I remind them every day what our record was last year, and it’s motivating them and they’re working very hard. I think there’s probably a pretty good chance we’ll be a little better than we were last year.”
“Better” won’t take much — the Demon’s 2008-2009 record is better left unwritten — but they have goals that could turn last year completely around.
“I let them set their own goals this year because it’s their team and I’m just their leader,” Hamill said. “But they set goals to obviously, win more than we did last year and to win some district games. To beat the teams that will be in AA and A next year. And a big goal of ours is to compete every day we get out there.”
She said the varsity squad doesn’t have much height — they’ve got some tall freshmen on the JV which bodes well for the future — and they’ve been working a lot on speed. But the big challenge is cutting down on turnovers.
“We’re working on taking care of that,” Hamill said. “Because that was a big problem last year, and I tell them every day.”
ASked to name who might stan out on the squad and Hamill can’t.
“Right now we have 12 girls on varsity and right now they’re pretty level,” she said. “They’re all pretty even, and it’s going to be a tossup. I don’t think we have an outstanding player, but we have 12 good players.”
The Demons have 25 players between the varsity and junior varsity, which are good numbers for a small squad. Sixteen are listed on the varsity roster, and of those, six are seniors, seven are juniors and three are sophomores.
That group will face a tough pre-district schedule, starting Friday in Las Cruces against Mesilla Valley Christian School, that includes AAAA Artesia at the Artesia tournament, AAA West Las Vegas and powerhouse AA schools Tularosa and Hagerman, of which Hamill said, “They’re always tough. Even though they only have seven girls, (coach Casey Crandall) always does a good job with them.
“It’s not like we have a really easy schedule. Every game that we step on the court we have to work hard at.”
But that doesn’t sound like it will be a problem for the Demons, as Hamill continuously praises their work ethic.
“They’re a great group of kids, and we work very, very hard,” she said. “They come early. They stay late. They worked hard all summer. I think it’s going to be a big improvement from last year.”
Comments
One Response to “Lady Demons looking to improve in tough district”Trackbacks
Check out what others are saying about this post...[...] Dexter Lady Demons look to improve in tough district Share Uncategorized Eldorado’s DeGarmo gives verbal BTH has new design [...]