Moving forward

The Greenfield girls’ basketball is looking forward, not back — and the Lady Tigers have a lot to look forward to.

It’s been four months since Greenfield lost to Routt in the Virginia Sectional title game on Melissa Nichols’ late 3-pointer. But if the Lady Tigers happen to find themselves needing a little motivation come next December, that loss is still somewhere in the back of their minds.

“I put it behind me a long time ago,” coach Kristen Theivagt said Friday at the Lady Blues Shootout at Illinois College. “We’re just moving on to this year.”

Star guard Leah Pembrook says she still thinks about it sometimes.

“It’s been hard, but hopefully we’ll just look past it and work even harder this year,” Pembrook said. “I haven’t really been thinking about it lately. I don’t really like to think about it that much.”

The Lady Tigers, who return three starters from last year’s squad — Olivia Walker, Kate Mansfield and Pembrook — promise to be one of the area’s best teams for a third straight season. The team has set school records for wins and postseason advancement in each of the past two seasons.

The departure of Jessica Bowman (11.9 points per game in 2007-08) and Lindsay Gruen (4.6 ppg) will hurt, but Theivagt is hoping the maturation of players like Walker (8.0 ppg), Mansfield (8.7 ppg) and Pembrook (15.5 ppg) will compensate.

“Each year we just keep wanting to go one more step,” the Greenfield coach said after a 50-30 loss to Prairie Central Friday. “So each year we break more records and do more things. Hopefully next year we do the same thing.”

Theivagt is counting on some new blood to help the team. Julie Dennis (2.2 ppg), who played for the Waverly-Franklin-New Berlin-Northwestern co-op last season, will join the Lady Tigers thanks to a first-year co-op agreement with Northwestern in girls’ basketball.

The Greenfield coach expects Paige Vinyard, who didn’t play last season, to assume the point guard role. She also plans on increased roles for players like Megan Plogger and Walker.

“(Walker) did a nice job and she’s really going to have to step up this year,” Theivagt said. “She’s going to be my main big girl this year.”

Despite a loss to Prairie Central — a school with an enrollment nearly five times that of Greenfield — the Lady Tigers were beginning to look like a team by the end of the day.

“We’re playing bigger schools and schools that we haven’t seen before,” said Pembrook. “And that’s good, I think, (to play) against better competition and stuff like that, and to build more chemistry.”

Greenfield was joined at Friday’s shootout by conference rival Calhoun, which is looking to improve on a breakout 2007-08 season as well.

Kyle Thomas’ Lady Warriors posted an 18-11 record last season before falling to Greenfield in a regional championship game. Calhoun returns most of last season’s roster, including Lisa Eilerman (12.1 ppg) and Erica Lorton (12.2 ppg).

“Our post play has been pretty good. We’ve got Lisa Eilerman returning and Erica Lorton returning, so we should be solid in the post,” Thomas said after a 41-21 loss to Alton. “I’ve seen a lot of things we need to work on, though, but that’s why we’re here.”

Two losses at a summer shootout did little to dampen the Calhoun coach’s optimism about the upcoming season, however. Thomas expects his team to surpass last year’s success.

“I told the girls, we’re looking to go higher. We’re looking for 20 wins, a regional championship, and who knows how far? I want to push it as far as we can go,” he said. “I hope expectations are high, and I think they should be. I want the girls to know that they’re high for me.”

The Lady Blues Shootout continues today at Illinois College’s Bruner Fitness Center. Local teams from Calhoun, Greenfield, Jacksonville, Waverly and West Central are all slated to compete.

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