Youth will be a common theme for lady’s high school basketball in Stokes County this season. North Stokes has four seniors, but two didn’t play last year, the Sauras two, and the Wildcats have none on their roster after losing five in 2017-18.
West Stokes
The Wildcats ended last season 12-9 and 5-7 in the Western Piedmont Athletic 2A Conference behind Forbush and Atkins who both finished 11-1 in the league and made it to the third run of the NCHSAA state playoffs.
Coach Dillon Bobbitt will hold the reigns of the Lady Cats for a second year with the help of Justin Hollman, along with Megan Russell and Kandi Ledford, both first year assistants and graduates of West Stokes.
West returns all-conference and all-district runner up Hannah Spainhour to the lineup and honorable mention all-conference and fellow sophomore Emma Santoro. Spainhour averaged 10.2 points a game and four rebounds. Santoro shot 45 percent from the floor and tallied seven points and six rebounds. Also, returning to the team with valuable minutes last season is sophomore Sydney Cockerham and juniors Sydney Cromer and Shaylee Montgomery.
“We want to pride ourselves on putting multiple good days together, and then multiple weeks, and then collectively putting good months together,” Bobbitt said. “We have had good energy and are buying into the things we are doing defensively. The girls are jumping to the ball, crashing the boards and offensive guards are getting rebounds. We need to be a team and stay true to the system.”
The Wildcats played in their first scrimmage since the summer and fared well against good competition last week at Mount Airy. West defeated Starmount 59-27 and East Wilkes 44-38, but then lost to Mount Airy 53-42.
“We played well for the most part, but our main focus was to see how we have come from the fall until now and can that energy and momentum carry into the season,” Bobbitt said. “What we want to do is be resilient when bad things happen and not have the deer in the headlights look. I believe this is a strength of this team to be able to roll with it and push through.”
Members of the team are: Hannah Spainhour, Emma Santoro, Sydney Cockerham, Sydney Cromer, Emily Boles, Shaylee Montgomery, Caiya Huling, Sheridan Kraft, Haley Brewster, Bree Spainhour, Hannah Davis and Allie Slate.
South Stokes
Rodney Matthews is entering his seventh year on staff at South Stokes and his second as head coach. Scott Joyce will be back assisting Matthews and overseeing the JV program.
The Sauras will return Northwest 1A honorable mention athletes Tatyana Childress and Maddie Shore. They finished 7-18 overall last season and 3-7 in conference play. Childress averaged 7.8 points a game and three assists and Shore added 6.3 points and two rebounds. Ashley Brown returns to the lineup after recovering from multiple injuries.
“We are younger than last year, but we have good speed, lots of energy and play really aggressive,” Matthews said. “We need development in multiple areas, but we want to be conditioned and play some full court man and be able to run the floor. The girls must compete with effort.”
South hosted scrimmages with North Forsyth and Walkertown last week and finished 1-1.
“We mixed and matched and were looking to find what our strengths are. We missed some layups, but I liked our aggression.”
Members of the team are: McKinley Barczy, Kalaysia Fulp, Kaelyn Lash, Serenity Hughes, Taylor Landereth, Ryley Lawson, Tatyana Childress, Maddie Shore, Cassie Helmandollar, Ashley Cleghorn and Ashley Brown.
North Stokes
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The Vikings are coming off a 9-16 season and 3-7 in the Northwest 1A. Scott Smith is leading North Stokes for a second year and Barry West will be assisting for the first time this season.
North has two players coming back from last year’s 10 man roster that graduated eight seniors. Leann Sessoms will return as a Northwest honorable mention player and Addie Bryant was considered the best defender on the team by Smith. They add fellow seniors Meredith Rasey and Lauren Collins to help with leadership on the floor and bench. The Vikings will be missing 91 percent of their scoring and 70 percent of rebounding from last year’s graduating class.
“The girls have great work ethic and are very coachable young ladies,” Smith said. “We want to be competitive and try and build from last year. We need to have some stability in the program with coaches and players. We want to help them understand their roles on the team and that will translate into college or work.”
Members of the team are: Addie Bryant, Hannah Hicks, Lauren Collins, Morgan Hairston, Elizabeth McBride, Madey Briggs, Morgan Mabe, Leann Sessoms, Cynthia Collins and Meredith Rasey.
Both the Sauras and Vikings play in arguably one of the toughest conferences in the state, which include Mount Airy, back-to-back state champions, Bishop McGuinness and East Surry.
Robert Money can be reached at 336-749-1193.