Basketball Preview 2017

Bridgeport Hopes to Build Off Late-Season Surge

By KIM NORTH BRIDGEPORT — With all but one starter returning from last year’s team that finished on an 8-3 run, big things are expected out of the Bridgeport girls this season. The Bulldogs started 3-9 last year in their first season under coach Greg Harkness, who is looking forward to his second season on the bench. “Obviously, last season didn’t get started the way we wanted it to, but the girls, especially the seniors, kept leading and everybody kept working hard,” he said. “You can see by what our record ended up that we improved as the season progressed. Each ...

Cash Wants Dogs to Keep Improving

By KIM NORTH BRIDGEPORT — The transition period continues for the Bridgeport boys’ basketball team under the watch of veteran coach Donnie Cash. The Bulldogs have won only seven games since losing a huge graduation class in 2015-16. “We want to be better today than we were yesterday. That’s the motto were using,” Cash, who is entering his 14th year, said. “We must stay hungry. If we have a good day at practice, we need to put our hard hat back on and keep working. We can’t become complacent at all.” Bridgeport has seven returning lettermen from a 5-17 ...

Jarrett Thinking Breakout Year

By RICK THORP BEALLSVILLE — After a few seasons of growing pains, Tori Jarrett believes this could be a breakout season for the Beallsville’s girls’ basketball team. From three victories when she joined the program as an assistant, to seven and 13 victories, respectively, during her first two years as head coach, the former Blue Devils standout is eager to see if her squad can keep pushing forward. “I think we’ve done really well,” Jarrett, who played collegiately at Muskingum University, said. “The thing we’ve done really well is we’ve picked up our defense. We ...

Cameron Returns Seven Letterwinners

By KYLE LUTZ CAMERON — At the beginning of the 2016-17 season, the Cameron boys’ basketball team had to go through some small adjustments. With a brand new coaching staff including Coach Tom Hart at the helm for his first year, the Dragons went out and put together a solid 14-10 record. “We made some tweaks from the previous years and there was an adjustment period for all the players. But we did have some success,” Hart said. “We won some big ball games last year. But we’re definitely going to miss the three seniors that we lost.” Two of those seniors were ...

Dragons Want to Take Next Step: Charleston

By KYLE LUTZ CAMERON — Although the Cameron girls’ basketball team fell one game short of its goal from the start of the season, there are a few silver linings that can be drawn. The goal is to make it to Charleston. The Dragons fell to Ritchie County, 47-42, in a regional final game. However, that’s as far a Cameron team has been. Another silver lining, the Dragons bring back all their starters and lettermen from last year’s squad. With that being said, all hands are on deck. “We got our starting five back,” Cameron coach Roger Cain said. “And we have some girls ...

Stone Moves Up to Big Chair

By AARON PETCHAL RICHMOND — Jeff Stone gets his chance to sit in the big chair. After spending the last five seasons as an assistant coach for the Edison girls’ team, Stone is in his first season as head coach of the Wildcats. Stone replaces Ryan Powell, who spent two seasons as head coach. Stone served as an assistant coach for three years under Jason Ensinger. Edison returns four lettermen this season, and there are 16 girls in the program. The returning lettermen are seniors Kayla Huff, Sami Springer, Kierstyn Simeral and junior Lauren Ferralli. Ten of the 16 girls are ...