Women's Basketball Aims High With Young Team

The Lady Royals basketball team might be young, but they are not lacking in poise and optimism about the upcoming season despite losing their top two scorers and rebounders to graduation last year.

"I'm really confident about our upcoming season. We trust each other. People are going to be surprised at what we can do. We lost two All-Conference seniors. We have girls coming in that are stepping up," states Kathleen Steele a sophomore on this years women's basketball team. The team is ranked seventh in the preseason standings. "I think some people won't take us seriously. I know the kind of potential we have. If we put our minds to it we win ODACs," says Steele. "We all get along really well. The girls are awesome. We care about each other. We aren't always about basketball; our friendships go deeper than that."

This year's women's basketball team is composed of 14 members. The team is young having only one senior and three juniors. Steele comments, "We have a young team, but people are coming in and stepping out and playing amazing. I feel like in time it will just click."

Most athletes know the dreaded beginning of preseason. "The basketball team's preseason starts the day we get here. We have open gyms and lift and run. The season starts when we can practice with a coach. We then have about a month of straight practices before our first game."

The head coach is Kevin Griffin. This will be his second season here at EMU. Last season he led the Lady Royals to a fourth place finish in the ODAC with an overall 14-12 record. Before he began coaching here, Coach Griffin coached at a variety of levels. He has coached at the high school, college, and middle school level. Griffin is a 1993 graduate of Eastern Mennonite. He received a degree in Health and Physical Education. His senior year he started 24 games and had an average of 4.3 assists per game. Griffin has played basketball in the Philippines with Athletes in Action. He helped lead the team to a 13-2 record. The Lady Royals are the first women's team he has coached throughout his career.

The team has two assistant coaches Jennifer Thompson and Jackie Bryan. This is Thompson's third season. Thompson played collegiate basketball at JMU for four years and helped the team make three appearances in the sweet sixteen of the NCAA tournament. She graduated from JMU with a Bachelor of Science in Physical Education. Steele says about Thompson, "She's an encourager." Bryan also played at JMU. She graduated with a Bachelor in Science in Elementary Education. She later graduated with her master of science in Kinesiology in 2001 with concentrations in Athletic Administration and Coaching.

The Lady Royals will open the season on the road at Lancaster Bible, on Friday, Nov. 17 at 7 p.m. The first home game will be against archrival, Bridgewater College on Saturday, Dec. 2 at 2 p.m.