Lady Cats boast experience, coachability and work ethic

The Banner County Lady Wildcats begin their second year under the guidance of head coach Chad Miller with assistant coach Jessica Oprin.

Following last year's sixth place MAC conference finish, the Lady Cats will draw on Miller's 14 years coaching experience to build on their 4-15 record last season.

"The biggest highlights from last season were not the wins and very close defeats, but bigger than that, it was the learning experiences and the, 'Aha!' moments," Miller said.

The Lady Cats face some difficulties in the coming season, as they did last year, and Miller sees that teams throughout the region are experiencing the same challenges.

"Due to some societal circumstances we have already been faced with some challenging obstacles to overcome, as well as, some other schools in this area. With the lack of participants this season we know that it will not be all that easy," Miller said. "We will need to be extra attentive and implement strategies to overcome certain obstacles that we may be faced with during this season. However, Coach Orpin and I could not be more proud and appreciative of just how well the participants that we do have already have taken the initiative to work harder and longer at overcoming certain obstacles associated with a lack of numbers."

Experience will come too from returning starters MaKenna Dahlgrin, Courtney Knisley, Emily Singleton and Jayden Cross.

"All of our girls, excluding the freshman, received significant varsity minutes last season. These girls are willing to work hard doing the little things to make progress towards doing greater things. We can see their confidence is rising and that their fundamentals are improving from a year ago. We are very humbled and blessed to be coaching such a wonderful group of student athletes and are very excited for the opportunity these young ladies have in front of them," Miller said. "Our expectation as a team is to respect all of our opponents, but to back down from no one. If we happen to be fortunate enough to win some games through a 'by product'of hard work and playing like we are not owed or guaranteed anything, we will be successful at leaving the court with no regrets. Hopefully, when the season is over, we can look back and give credit where it is due for our successes and that we realize that we made great strides of progressing forward. In other words, achieve the ultimate achievement."

Dahlgrin, a senior forward/center, earned 1st team all-conference honors, averaged 12.6 points and 11.7 rebounds per game. She is a force on the court and has been a four-year leader for the Banner County club.

Knisley, also a senior, plays in the guard/forward positions and has averaged 6.2 points and 7.3 rebounds per game.

Senior Emily Singleton will also be called on as a team leader in her final year on the Wildcat courts.

The youngest returning starter, Jadyn Cross, is a junior who earned all-conference honorable mention last year and averaged 8.1 points per game with 5.2 rebounds.

Rounding out the leaders on the Lady Cats team is returning letter winner Rylie Mason, a sophomore who has shown great potential on the court and is expected to continue improving.

Newcomers making a name for themselves for the Banner County club are freshman Cheyanne Knisley and Monica Richardson.

"Coachabilty is one of the biggest strengths of our players. They do a great job of not only listening, but paying attention to what is being taught. They are challenging themselves every practice to work on fine tuning the little things and I believe are excited to see the improvements when they accomplish something for the first time. Sometimes I believe that they surprise themselves at just how much better they are truly getting," Miller said. "Last season we worked a lot on verbal and nonverbal communication. And although that will still be a point of emphasis for us this season, we will also be working on the 3 P's; Preparation, Perspective, and Problem Solving. We believe that the better we can increase our understanding in these three areas that we will be able to progress into a team that we can be proud of and have no regrets about being a part of."

The Lady Cats began their season at home hosting, first, Garden County on Friday, Dec. 1 for a loss and a second home game on Tuesday, Dec. 5, hosting Minatare for a 55-54 loss in overtime.

They followed with two away games, first on Thursday, Dec. 7 in Bayard for a 46-32 loss and then on Saturday, Dec. 9 in Grover, Colo., for which no stats were recorded at press time.

"The ultimate goal of this season is to lay a foundation that our players can implement beyond the court and well into their futures so when they look back at this season they can include it in their one of many stepping stones to a productive life," Miller said.