Brandon varsity girls basketball coach Bryan Ray hopes a combination of youth and experience will be a winning formula for the Blackhawks this season.
The Blackhawks return six players from a team that went 14-6 last year and finished in a tie for third in the Flint Metro League. Among those returning are two starters, senior Savannah Stedman and junior Mikki Nuccio.
Ray said Stedman, a four-year starter, has a chance to become the leading scorer in Flint Metro League history and become the first 1,000 point scorer in Brandon history. Last year, Stedman was the team’s Most Valuable Player and a first team All-League selection.
Also returning are seniors Meg Donnay, Katie Haas, Lauren Ross and Maria Schmidtke.
Joining the Blackhawks are seven newcomers ? juniors Ashlyn Skornicki, Sherri Lawrence and Jolene Back, sophomores Kim Michal and Danielle Kwasiborski, and freshmen Heather Lauwers and Vanessa Bailey.
In addition, sophomore Courtney Snow, a transfer student who is ineligible to play this semester, is on this year’s year’s team as the student manager.
Although Stedman is the anchor of this year’s team, Ray said there are plenty of other players who should help make the Blackhawks a solid team.
‘Meg and Mikki have improved greatly and give us a pair of good guards, while Sherri, Danielle and Maria will help out in the interior and give us a good post presence,? he said.
On the flip side, there are a couple of areas in which Ray said the Blackhawks still need work.
‘We need to establish our outside shooting ? that’s been our Achilles? heel the past couple of years,? he said. ‘Our passing also needs to be much better for us to do what we want to this year.?
As far as the Flint Metro League race is concerned, Ray said the Blackhawks should be in the upper tier of teams contending for the league championship, along with Fenton, Lapeer West, and league newcomer Swartz Creek, a team that Ray said was in the upper tier of teams in their former conference, the Big Nine.
The Blackhawks are scheduled to open their 2006 season with two nonleague contests. Their first one is slated for Wednesday, Aug. 30, when they travel to Port Huron Northern, while their first scheduled home game is Tuesday, Sept. 5 against neighboring Goodrich.
Ray said the Martians, an annual contender for the Genesee Area Conference Red Division championship, will provide ‘a good test? for the Blackhawks.