The 2008-2009 Oroville Lady Hornet Varsity Basketball Team is: (front row, L-R) Lacy Johnson, Chrissy Sadler, Emily Graham (back row) Coach Rick Mead, Austi Quick, Rachel Peters, Catie Arrigoni, Alex Egerton, Taylor Sarmiento, Kayla McKinney, Jayden Smith
OROVILLE – The Oroville Lady Hornets basketball team hopes to go even further in league play this year than they did last.
Coach Rick Mead is in his second year of coaching the team. He is assisted by Kristin Sarmiento.
The Hornets have three returning seniors for the 2008-2009 season. They are Chrissy Sadler, a guard; Emily Graham, a guard/forward and Lacy Johnson, a guard.
They are joined by three juniors, Alex Egerton, Kaylah McKinney and Rachel Peters. Rounding out the varsity squad are three sophomores, all of whom use their height in post positions – Catie Arrigoni; Taylor Sarmiento, the team’s top scorer last year; and Jayden Smith.
Austianna and Reina Quick, a junior and sophomore, respectively, are in swing positions playing both varsity and junior varsity. Austianna Quick is a guard/forward and her sister, a guard, is one of the team’s best outside shots, Mead said
“Emily (Graham) is the team captain and leader,” said Coach Mead. “We have a really good team and we will use our speed to our advantage again this year.”
The team has been struggling in the pre-league, early season games. In their first game they lost to Republic by eleven points. However, Mead said the girls improved on last year where the score was more lopsided with a 28 point difference.
Then at Okanogan the girls could not capitalize on the opportunities that presented themselves, according to their coach.
“We just didn’t shoot well… we got some good looks but missed and we missed seven lay-ups,” he said.
Mead is not discouraged as he feels the girls are just getting to the hump and he’s hoping they’ll get over it.
“I think we will be competitative in our league. We lost to Tonasket, but we played three great quarters, then just ran out of gas and got too many fouls,” he said.
