The whirlwind of the past five months finally culminated for Darin Spence.
A first-year Barton Community College women’s head basketball coach, Spence was in Las Cruces, N.M., during the past week, finalizing the sale of his home in the midst of the holiday break.
“We’ve been busy packing, loading up the truck and getting ready to come back to Kansas,” Spence said in a cell phone interview on Wednesday evening.
Spence, formerly the women’s head coach at New Mexico State University the past eight seasons, hit the ground running after his hiring at Barton was made official on Aug. 18.
He hasn’t stopped running, either. Barton, which had a 10-4 record in the first semester, returns to action on Wednesday, Jan. 4, when they host Seward County in the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference Western Division opener at 6 p.m. at Kirkman Activity Center, preceding the men’s game at 8.
“I think we’re doing some good things, for a group that got together on Aug. 15,” Spence said. “We’ve obviously got a long ways to go, but I think our kids have done a really good job of adjusting to the new philosophy and new direction.”
Spence said his team returns the day after Christmas to begin conditioning for the conference season.
“We’ll have them back Monday night and I don’t know how much we’ll have them on the court,” he said. “We’ll probably get them into conditioning and getting them into the swimming pool and that sort of thing.”
Spence’s appointment at Barton came after former head coach Keith Ferguson, now an assistant at West rival Hutchinson, resigned. All four of the Lady Cougars freshmen from last season returned, including Dionne Harris, a 5-foot-11 sophomore forward-center, who was named the Jayhawk Conference Co-Player of the Week on Dec. 6, and NJCAA Division I Player of the Week on Dec. 7.
 “Our players have been working hard and we’ve had our share of injuries to deal with, so it hasn’t been easy by any stretch of the imagination,” Spence said. “I think we’ve done a good job of hanging in there and bonding together and trying to get to know each other each day.
“We’ve had some losses that maybe we shouldn’t have, but it’s been a good first semester.”
Barton closed the semester with a 63-61 triumph over then third-ranked and Jayhawk East power Independence during the second day of the Best Western Angus Inn Basketball Classic on Dec. 3. Indy dropped to No. 11 in the latest NJCAA D-I poll and, coincidentally, has been replaced in the No. 3 spot by unbeaten Hutchinson (12-0).
Another solid win came on Nov. 18 as Barton defeated another Jayhawk East power in Coffeyville, 60-56, as sophomore sharpshooter Shea Shoemaker came off the bench to score a career-high 18 points.
It was Shoemaker’s first game of the season after missing the first seven games with a broken left hand.
Shoemaker joins Harris as the Lady Cougars’ leading scorers through their first 14 games. Harris, who is averaging team highs of 14.3 points and 8.3 rebounds, is also shooting a team-leading 51.3 percent from the floor (78 for 152). Shoemaker, a Minneapolis native, is averaging 10.6 points while shooting 41.4 percent on 3-pointers (12 for 29).
Harris, a product of Philadelphia, Pa., has suffered through foot problems to emerge as a team leader — both on-and-off the court.
“She just has discomfort, not in any one area,” Spence said. “They really don’t know if it’s the bones or tendons or ligaments. She’s had some soreness. We’ve tried different-sized shoes and different shoes (as well as orthotics). They’ve tried everything.
“(Doctors) they thought the time off would give her a chance to heal up and I think it will. The question is going to be if she’s working out at home and staying in shape or when she gets back, it’s just going to all start again because of the pounding. We’re hoping she’s working hard over the break and when she gets back, she’s really not out of shape.”
Guard Jennifer Allende, a freshman and a 2011 graduate of Great Bend High School, suffered a knee injury during a 55-51 loss to Hesston at the Hesston Classic on Nov. 25, thus missing the final four games before the break.
The good news is that Allende’s injury is not as bad as first feared. She stretched the anterior cruciate ligament in her right knee, and could return sometime in January.
“It wasn’t as bad as what we thought it was or what it could have been,” Spence said of Allende, who has another knee appointment in January before she will be cleared to play. “She’s just got to strengthen her leg up and get her balance between her hamstrings and her quadriceps.
“She’s been playing well. She adds a lot to our team. She’s tough and works really hard and has a huge heart. We have to be careful with her. We want her back healthy.”
Freshman point guard Erin Copeland, out of Shawnee Mission West, also suffered an injury against Hesston, spraining an ankle. Moreover, Harris missed that game because of foot woes.
“We had an 11-point lead and then Erin turned her ankle and five minutes later, Jennifer got hurt, and those are our two point guards. We could feel it slipping away and then we lost in overtime.
“That was one of those losses that taught us something about ourselves.”
One of the biggest midseason acquisitions for the Lady Cougars is guard-forward Raven Anderson becoming eligible. She was a redshirt last season and was ineligible for the first semester.
“For us, she can play anywhere from the one to the four (position),” said Spence of the 5-9 East Orange, N.J., product, who attended University High School. “I think she can be an impact player, I really do. I think just because she’s a physical-type player, she’ll add a lot to us just right there.
“She’s strong and a great defender. A very aggressive player and when we need somebody to come in and take charge, she’ll do that. Raven has a long ways to go in getting back into the rhythm of playing, but she’ll help us a bunch.”