The Oroville High School girls’ junior varsity basketball team for the 2009-2010 season. Photo by Terry Mills.

OROVILLE – The Lady Hornets Basketball team has a new coach, Mike Bourn, a past Hornet himself and former winning coach of the Liberty Bell girls team.

Bourn describes his coaching style as “intense and positive.” He is assisted by Kristin Sarmiento, who also serves as the junior varsity girls’ coach. Michele Fancher is the second assistant and will coach the C-Squad.

The Hornets have 22 girls turning out which is average for the girl’s program. The team is mixed with four seniors, five juniors and two sophomores on varsity.

“We have a new system, new defense and new offense so in this way they are all inexperienced,” said Coach Bourn.

The four returning seniors are Austianna Quick, Rachel Peters, Kayla McKinney and Alex Egerton.

Last year Jayden Smith was the team’s best outside shooter, but she is out currently out with an injury until early 2010, midway through the season, according to Bourn.

Young team members that show promise are sophomores Kelsey Hughes and Naomi Peters and freshman Katie Tieje.

“We predict that we will have a good team by February,” said the head coach. “Our team’s strengths are their speed, desire and their focus on the goal.”

If the team has a weakness it is that Bourn is the third coach in four years, however a longer season means the team has more days to get better.

The Lady Hornet’s new order of priorities are number one, defense; number two, blocking out; number three, running the fast break and number four, a half court offense.

The Lady Hornet’s record last year was five wins and 15 losses.