The Lady Trojans girls hoopsters return to the court “fully reloaded” for the 2017-2018 season. Pahrump Valley High School girls basketball coach Bob Hopkins, in his second year back on the court, said his team is ready for the season.
“We are not rebuilding, despite losing all the seniors last year,” he said. “We are simply reloading. This year’s team is a lot quicker than last year’s team. We also have a lot of returning lettermen from last year. It is an experienced team.”
Last year the team finished third in the Sunset League (12-14) and went to the playoffs for the first time since 2008. The team graduated nine seniors last year.
Hopkins said he has some height and a lot of girls competing for the post position, which usually goes to the tallest girls. He said girls like Samantha Runyan, Kylie Stritenberger, Katherine Daffer, Nicky Velazquez, and Savannah Fairbank are competing for this spot.
At the guard position, he has players like Sabin Chaidez, Alyvia Briscoe, Madelyn Souza, Makayla Gent, Skyler Lauver and Virginia Weir.
According to Hopkins, he has an aggressive form of offense where the girls, “take the ball to the hole,” which means they will go hard to the basket.
The offense relies on good ball-handling skills and a lot of good passing.
“We work at ball handling every practice,” Hopkins said. “If you want to be good at something, you have to work at it.”
Defensively, Hopkins is working on more pressure.
Last year, teams were able to pressure his team and basically, he is just returning the favor.
“The girls worked on pressure (defense) at the end of the season last year and this year we will continue with a more aggressive defense,” the coach said. “I tell the girls all the time when it comes to defense, think of what you hate about what other girls do to you when you are on offense and do that.”
The Trojans host Del Sol on Nov. 28 at 5 p.m. for their season opener.
Contact sports at jmeehan@pvtimes.com