Winters heats up

Outside, it was the first day of summer. Temperatures climbed past the 80-degree mark even before McDonald’s stopped serving food from its breakfast menu.

But inside the Bruner Center on the campus of Illinois College Saturday morning, it was all Winters. Brittney Winters, that is. The Jacksonville High senior-to-be bombed Canton with five three-pointers and scored around 20 points as the Crimson girls rolled to a 38-29 win in their first game at the IC Lady Blues Shootout.

“I’ve been working on my outside shot this summer,” said Winters. “Because we have a lot more post players coming in.”

With junior Casey Hance established, senior Carlonda Bell working her way in — and especially with the arrival of 6-foot, 2-inch freshman Abby Heise, the post is getting a bit crowded for Jacksonville. So Winters is stepping out more, essentially going from a four to a swinging three.

“Hance and Winters both do a great job in the post for us,” said JHS fourth-year head coach Jeannette Barlow. “And Bell, she has really put her dedication into the program this summer. With Bell, we’re able to put three bigs on the floor, because Winters has been able to extend her game outside by knocking down three-pointers.”

This weekend’s girls basketball shootout at IC is just one of the events the Crimsons are hitting this summer. The team was without two of its regular starters, Brittney Burgess and Paige Loughary, on Saturday. Burgess is taking the summer off to recover from surgery, and Loughary was attending a golf camp in Georgia. But with improvement being the overarching goal, nobody was complaining or making excuses.

“We have a mixture of kids,” said Barlow. “I told the girls to keep what we’re trying to accomplish this summer in perspective. We’re mixing and matching right now, and I think that’s a positive for us. When we’re all able to come together in our season, we’re going to be that much stronger.”

Guards Nicole Garrett, a sophomore, and Dani Staples, a junior, also played key roles in Saturday morning’s win over Canton — which at the time gave JHS an estimated record of 9-15 for the summer.

Of course, none of the wins or losses will mean anything in November when JHS begins its 2008-09 campaign. What’s important right now is that the girls are putting in the work to make sure they don’t endure another 20-loss season.

“We’ve realized that we need to step up and make up for that this year,” said Staples, who had a key three-pointer of her own in the win over Canton.

When she wasn’t shooting or passing, Staples was fighting bigger, taller girls for rebounds, playing aggressive defense and generally making things happen all over the floor.

“We need to pick it up physically,” said Staples. “We’re not as big as some of the teams we play, but we try to make up for it by being scrappy.”

Actually, Barlow believes the current collection of varsity probables has more size than any JHS squad of at least the past 10 years — especially adding the 6-2 Heise, who had about four points in the win over Canton.

“Heise is getting time with our varsity squad this summer and she’s doing a nice job,” said Barlow.

The Crimsons played four games Saturday at IC, and Barlow says they will play around 20 more before the summer is over, including trips to Duke University in North Carolina (for eight or nine games) and to Chicago for a tournament at Maine West.

It would be nice to be at full strength this summer, to get a more accurate preview of the 2008-09 season ahead. But the girls believe the chemistry will click into place when all of them, including Burgess, reconvene in October to start practice.

“Not having (Burgess and Loughary) changes the chemistry a little bit,” said Staples. “We’re missing girls who we will get back for the regular season, but we’re realizing while those girls are gone, that we need to step up and get tougher.”

Don’t expect another 20-loss season from these Crimsons, Staples says. In fact, 20 wins isn’t out of the question.

“I think we’re going to have a better year,” said Staples. “A lot better year.”