Heritage Looking To Continue Progress

By Paul Barton

Posted: November 9, 2009 at 5:13 a.m.

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ROGERS — Kevin Ramey believes his Rogers Heritage Lady War Eagles have taken steps in the right direction during the offseason, but they still have some things to prove.

“We’re better than we’ve been,” Ramey said. “Are we good enough to accomplish some of the goals we’ve set for ourselves? Time will tell.”

Heritage finished 2-25 and 0-16 in the 7A-West in its inaugural season a year ago with no seniors on the roster.

Despite not losing anyone to graduation, the Lady War Eagles lost their leading scorer, rebounder and assist person when point guard Autumn Rogers moved to Florida over the summer. In addition, junior Maddie Weller, who started every game a year ago, tore her anterior cruciate ligament in mid-September and will be out for the season.

Ramey is looking for good things from senior wing player Hannah Hickman.

“We really hope she’ll blossom,” Ramey said. “We’re looking for increased production from everybody. But we’re hoping she’ll (Hickman) take some ownership and lead us in the right direction.”

Ramey said perimeter play should be a strength with the three-guard lineup of Hickman, junior Yalile Johnson and sophomore Lindsey Wood.

“Our kids have great resolve,” Ramey said. “We played 27 times last year and got beat 25, and I wouldn’t say that we ever didn’t give great effort.”

Seniors Kelsey Layton and Danielle Schillinger round out the projected starting lineup.

The Lady War Eagles will not have much size since Layton and Schillinger will be the tallest starters at 5-foot-8, but Ramey said he will try to turn that to Heritage’s advantage.

Offensively, the Lady War Eagles will try to pull bigger opponents away from the basket.

“We’ll try to play higher up on the floor, almost without a post player,” Ramey said. “We want to try to keep the lane fairly open and spread the floor. We want your 6-footer to have to guard us on the perimeter. We want to see if she can or not.”

Reba Johnson, a 6-foot junior, along with sophomores Larissa Portillo and Chloe Zedlitz should round out Heritage’s top eight.

Ramey said his team “lived in the gym” over the summer and he’s already seen some benefits from that experience.

“Our kids are so much more sure of themselves and of what we’re doing,” Ramey said. “By the time it was all said and done, we practiced or played 48 or 49 times.”

“We were like a team that all we could was screen pass last year,” he added. “We were cautious of putting too much on them. But at the end of the season last year we made tremendous progress.”

Enjoying some success at team camps in the summer gave the Lady War Eagles more confidence, Ramey said. But he also said they have questions left to answer.

“They needed to see some fruits of their labor,” Ramey said. “It was huge for us. But we’ve got to prove that we can win that two-point game, that we can beat somebody in our conference ... we haven’t done that yet.”

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