In her first season as head basketball coach for Macksville High School, Kathryn McAllister guided the Lady Mustangs to a 9-11 record in 2009-10, including 4-5 in the Central Prairie League.
When you consider the fact that Macksville didn’t have a single senior player on its roster. And when you consider that the Lady Mustangs won only four games during the entire 2008-09 campaign, it goes to show that McAllister has already made big strides in turning around the program.
With four seniors returning from last season, the expectation level for success has increased dramatically as the Lady ’Stangs open their season tonight at Ness City.
“All of my starters are coming back,” McAllister said. “Last year, we had no seniors. We have four this year, and they’re all varsity players.”
Jenna Clowers, a 5-foot-10 post player, along with 5-8 forward Megan Wood, Yasnaya Susoeff (5-6 guard) and Kate Hornbaker (5-6 guard-forward) are seniors after gaining valuable starting experience last season.
There are also three juniors and five sophomores in the varsity fold — all part of the rebuilding job from last season that is already in place.
“We very easily could have had a winning record, but just the inexperience and the lack of finishing … we lost quite a few close ones,” McAllister said. “Definitely, our goal is to beat those league teams we lost to last year.
“We kind of realized last season that we would have won more games if we would have played better defense. That’s one of our main focuses.”
On the other end of the floor, Macksville would like to have an uptempo pace.
“We like to run the floor, and I think we will be strong offensively,” McAllister said. “We have a lot of good shooters, and Jenna and Megan have done a better job of playing inside.
“We have high expectations and high goals. I’d say our girls are really excited for the season and I am, too.”