Sports
Lady Bulldogs Want To Build On Success
By: Jenna Stenger
Posted on:
Expectations are on the rise for the Athens High School girls varsity basketball team. For the past six years, the Lady Bulldogs experienced growing pains as they focused on improving their program. They consistently increased their number of wins each year and finished first in the TVC-Ohio League last season with a 15-5 record.
Although they have lost five seniors, the underclassmen are stepping up for the team. Sophomore Dominique Doseck is an especially promising player for the Lady Bulldogs. After making a strong imprint on the team and fans her freshman year, she has proved her exceptional skills as well as her fierce passion for the game. As for the other underclassmen, the Lady Bulldogs head coach Wayne Horsley has a lot of faith in them already.
“We’ve got a lot of room to grow, but I’m extremely happy with where they’ve come so far,” Horsley said.
Even with Doseck and the rest of the crew, many fans are wondering where the team will go without Elena Lein. Lein was the team’s most valuable player last year and was a major part of the team’s success.
“You don’t fill a player’s shoes like Elena Lein,” Horsley said. “Just the fact that she blocked 410 shots in her career I don’t have anybody out there that can do that or replicate that.”
Lein is one of three starters that graduated from the Lady Bulldogs. Their missing spots are causing them to focus on tightening up their defense. In order to continue the great strides of improvement the team took last year, boxing out and applying a considerable amount of pressure will be key to their strategy.
“We don’t have a human eraser, you know, underneath the basket just to take care of mistakes,” Horsley said.
Although their defense is getting some fine tuning, they have other strengths that will help them both on and off the court. Horsley stresses how important being a team is for the Lady Bulldogs.
“I think our advantage that we have is, you know, we’re great kids we get along well with each other, we play well together,” Horsley said. “You can never underestimate those characteristics cause it goes a long way in tough games and tight situations.”
With the strong foundation the team built and their willingness to succeed, the Lady Bulldogs should be in for a season full of nothing but net.