JV Girls End the Season.

Hi Girls,

We always want to win but sometimes it is just not in the cards. St. Davids is an excellent team with just one loss this entire year. We gave it all the fight we had, we played every player as a reward for their hard work during the year and we represented our school and our team well. Be proud. 13 wins is a great accomplishment, especially in this conference and having to make the adjustments we made right before the conference season began. You are a great group of girls. I have been proud to be your coach both during the season and now that the season has ended.

Some Notes:

1- We lost the game 43 to 23.

2- Leading Scorers: K. Kessinger 8, A. Bradley 7, J.Harris 5, K. May 3 and Lindy Clark 1.

3- Leading Rebounders: A. Bradley 10, K. Kessinger 5, J. Harvell 2, M. Stephenson 2,
K. May 1, L. Clark 1, J. Harris 1, K. Dickens 1.

4- Steals: K. May 2, J. Harris 1, K. Dickens 1

5- Assists: K. May 2, J. Harvell 1, K. Kessinger 1

6- FT %: Team; 6/11 56% Individual: A. Bradley 3/4 75%, K. Kessinger 2/4 50% ,
J. Harris 1/2 50%, L. Clark 1/2 50%

7- FG%- 27.5% Individual leaders: K. Kessinger 3/4 75%, J. Harris 2/3 66.6%,
K. May 1/3 33.3% (a 3 pointer)

8- St. Davids Leading Scorers: #22 Taylor Dickens 20, #30 Katlin Dunston 9,
#14 Katherine Boliek 6, #25 Jamie Parks 4, #15 Caroline Garrett 4

9- Score by Quarters: 1st. 7 to 14, 2nd 4 to 10, 3rd 6 to 10, 4th 6 to 9

10- Some thoughts: If we had not started off so slow spotting them 10 points out of the box
on their first 5 or 6 possessions it would have been a different game.

11- Even with a bad start we still stayed closer than all but about 3 other teams that have
played St Davids this year. We were one of the other three losing by 17 one time.

12- A terrible downer for me as your Coach is to have to lose Ashton, Kaela and Destiny our 3
seniors. As a group you have been great leaders on and off the court and great
contributors to our team. I am going to miss having you with me but expect you to have
great careers on the varsity next season and I plan to return as your assistant coach so I
will be seeing you there.

13- I will be posting a suggested summer workout program for the different positions for you
girls that want something to work on for next years team. It will be easy and will give
those that put some time into it a chance to be much better players for next years team. I
expect us to have another good team next year and hopefully some of the really good jv girls
like #22 of St. Davids will have moved on to the Varsity Level.


Play Hard, Play Smart and Play Together, Go Vikings.

Coach May

New JV Tournament Game Date @ St. Davids!

Hi Girls,

Just got word from the conference meeting that our JV Game with St. David's has been moved to Thursday afternoon at 5:00pm. That will be February 19th. Just guessing that we will leave school around 1:30 pm. Coach Herman says we will leave school about 2:10pm.

This will give us an extra day to prepare since we are missing out on Monday due to being out of school and missing the girls that are going to the Jr. Beta Convention in Greensboro.

1- Thursday's game will be Green uniforms and warm ups.

2- The winner advances to Rocky Mount and plays for the JV Girls championship Saturday.

3- As good as we have competed I do not believe we have played our best game yet. We can play better. Every girl on this team has seen it in practice. Maybe our next game will be our best game of the season. Be ready, be focused, be prepared! The chance to get better and the opportunity to compete is what makes sports fun. Let's enjoy the ride.

Play Hard, Play Smart, Play Together.

Thought for the Day! "Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do."

In basketball for instance you might be having a bad day shooting the ball but it does not mean you can't hustle, play great defense, do you part in the offense to perfection and contribute to your team having success. From: John Wooden, Legendary Coach of the UCLA Bruins winner of 11 National Championships.

Coach May

JV Viking Girls Win Final Regular Season Game!

Hi Girls,

Halifax JV Girls 22, Parrott Academy 16!!

Hope everyone enjoyed this one. 14 and 9 is our final record for the regular season. Considering we had to make some big adjustments after Hayley and Courtney went up to help the Varsity I think we did just great.

Right now we are playing our best basketball of the year. Be proud of yourself and what you accomplished as a TEAM. I am proud of you all, you have been a joy to coach. I consider myself a lucky man. We have now won 71% of our game over the past 2 seasons. Of course I still remember a few close one's that got away.

As a coach the #1 thing you can ask for is for your player's to play hard for you, Second you hope they play smart and know how to play and what to do in each situation, Third the team has to like each other and make a committment to play unselfishly. Last you hope they have the skills to make the first three things important. You girls have surpassed these important goals.

It has been a fun season. Basketball should be fun, I have tried my best to make learning how to play winning basketball both fun and educational. We learned a lot of basketball and I think we all had fun.

Some Notes:

1- Scoring leaders: Ashton Bradley 10 points, Jennifer Harvell 7 points, Jamie Harris 4 points, Kaela Kessinger 1 point.

2- Rebounding: Ashton Bradley 16, Jamie Harris 4, Jennifer Harvell 4, Kaela Kessinger 3, Lindy Clark 3, Meredith Stephenson 1, Kimberly May 1.

3- Steals: Ashton Bradley 6, Jamie Harris 2, Kaela Kessinger 2, Jennifer Harvell 2, Kimberly May 2.

4- Blocks: Ashton Bradley 4, Jennifer Harvell 1.

5- Assists: Lindy Clark 3, Jennifer Harvell, 2, Kimberly May 2, Ashton Bradley 1, Jamie Harris 1, Kaela Kessinger 1.

6- FT's: Team; 8 out of 22 for 36%. Individual: Ashton Bradley 2/5, Kaela Kessinger 1/2, Jennifer Harvell 1/3, Jamie Harris 4/11, Lindy Clark 0/1.

7- Team FG %: 8 out of 29. 27.5% Leader Jennifer Harvell 3 out of 5 60%.

8- Scoring by Quarters. 1st: 4 to 6 2nd: 7 to 4 3rd: 1 to 4 4th: 10 to 2. Final 22 to 16.

9- Parrott scoring: #4 K. Wilkerson 6, #12 Maddie Barker 6, # 5 Margaret Edwards 2, #2 Emily Buffloe 1, #22 Danielle McLaughlin 1, #3 Madison Mauck 0. The two girls that led them in scoring last game #3 and#5 were held to a total of 2 points. Great Work! Also, we kept them off the foul line this time they made 4 out of 7. Last time 11 out of 20. Two goals accomplished.

10- The box worked good but our old staple #24 defense probably won the game for us defensively. We are really a race horse pressing type of team by our personality. It is more fun to play that way. Our press offense was very important and worked well and we put the game away late again with our 4 corner offense. We prepared well and even on a off day we had enough heart and were prepared well enough to win this important conference game on their Senior night.

11- Due to school being out and so many girls being away to the Jr. Beta Club Convention Monday we will not practice. Tuesday we will practice, 3:15. Wednesday we will travel back to Raleigh to play St. Davids in the first round of the tournament. Enjoy your long weekend!

12- BTW, heard it might snow Monday!

13- Ashton had one of the great stat lines I have ever seen in JV Girls Basketball. It deserves some special recognition. Stat Line: 10 points, 16 rebounds, 4 blocks, 6 steals, 1 assist. Under the goal she played like a great athlete against children. She played with heart. We don't win without her effort yesterday. Of course she can't win by herself as good as she is playing either. We are a TEAM in the biggest sense of the word, somebody is going to step up and make the plays, everyone does their part to get the job done, you can count on your teammates making great effort. That has become this teams trademark.

That is what has made this TEAM Special!

Play Hard, Play Smart, Play Together!! Go JV Viking Girls!

Coach May

Great Win over Cary Christian.

Hi Girls,

A Great Win over a tough Cary Christian Team 23 to 22! Parrott coming up! Some notes:

1- We had a great win over Cary Christian the same team that defeated us 42 to 19 a few weeks ago. Seeing you girls execute at such a high level made this Old Coach very proud. You have been such a Great Team to Coach and I am very proud of all of you.

2- Remember our Thought for the Day on Monday: "One of the great pleasure's in Team Sports is doing something everyone says you cannot do. Especially when it takes Great Team Effort, Team Unity, Focus and execution to accomplish the goal." Roy Williams UNC.

3- Anytime a team has a player that is 90% of their offense if you can take that player away then you have a great chance of beating that team.

4- You girls executed the game plan to perfection. We took #24 out of the game to the tune of holding her to only 7 points. It was a great team effort and a great individual effort on defense by Kaela #1 and by Ashton and Lindy for battling her from behind #2.

5- We were well prepared for their press and you girls showed tremendous poise in handing their pressure. A big round of applause goes out to Jennifer, Ashton and Kaela #1 and #2 the rest of the team for their parts in breaing the press.

6- Ever wonder why we always close practice with running the 4 corners after scrimmaging? Exactly the reason you saw tonight. Ahead by 1 point with about 1minute and 30 seconds to go we spread the court. Everybody knew where to go and what to do. We played the cat and mouse game until they turned their heads and Ashton made a great pass to Jennifer breaking to the goal for a lay up and got fouled giving us a 3 point play and the final margin of victory. It was just like we drew it up in practice. Great Work! That is being prepared and then being able to execute.

7- Another round of applause goes to Lindy for 3 great assists on the end of the fast break. One on the game's first play to Kimberly and two to Jamie. I think the second one to Jamie was the basket that gave us a one point lead allowing us to go into the four corners. As far as the passes go it was just like the passes we make in practice everyday on the rabbit drill and on the Carolina Fastbreak drills. That's the point of being good at drills.

8- Scoring Leaders: Ashton Bradley 14 points, Jamie Harris 4 points, Jennifer Harvell 3 points, Kimberly May 2 points. Cary: #42 Joy Jackson 8 points, #24 Amy Vandeventer 7 points, Lyndsey Hylmsa 5 points, #3 Caylie Robinson 2 points.

9- Scoring by quarters: 1st- 8 to 4 HA. 2nd- 4 to 7 CCS, 12 to 11 halftime. 3rd- 4 to 8 CCS, 16 to 19 CCS. 4th- 7-3 HA, Final Score 23 to 22 JV Viking Girls. If not for the miracle 3 they made we would have won by four or more.

10- Rebounding: Ashton 8, Kaela 4, Lindy 3, Jamie and Jennifer 2 each. Assists: Lindy 3, Ashton 2, Jennifer 2. Steals: Jennifer 3, Kaela 2, Ashton 1. Field Goal %- Ashton-5/9 55.5%, Jennifer 1 /1 100%, Jamie 2/5 40%, Kimberly 1/3 33%. Team: 9/25 36%. Great Job!!

11- Foul Shooting: Ashton 4/4 100%, Jennifer 1/1 100%. Team: 100%. I cannot remember ever having a team do this, especially in such a pressure packed game.

12: A few Thoughts: Great Team efforts are always spearheaded by a good gameplan, great effort, great execution and great individual efforts. There is no way we win this game without each and every players contributions, Just no way. However I would be remiss if I did not recognize the great game Ashton had offensively with 14 points, plus 8 rebounds and great defense plus she was a major contributor in breaking their press.

Defensively I just have to point out the Great Job Kaela did denying the pass to #24 who scored 30 on us last time we played. Plus she had a great floor game and did a wonderful job in helping break their press.

Transition Game, you never can do anything without great Point Guard play. I think Jennifer had her best ever game today. She was instrumental in breaking the press, running the offense and taking the lead role in the 4 Corners and her points were the final difference in the game. Also in the transition game Lindy did a great job making some assists that led to baskets and Jamie and Kimberly finished the plays nicely on the end of the break.

In addition we got great support from Destiny and Meredith off our bench that was missing Kaylee who was sick for this game.

13- A special Thank You to all the parents who had a pizza party for the Team after the game. Girls always remember, without the parents we don't go anywhere. Take time out of your busy schedule and tell your Loved One's Thank You sometime soon and that you Love Them. They work each and everyday to make your day, take a minute and make theirs. They deserve it.

14- Congratulations to the three 10th graders, I loved the signed balls you all got from the team. I am kind of sentimental so I will wait until later to tell you all how much coaching you means to me. We do have some unfinished business to take care of first, so let's not think this season and all the fun we have had is over yet.

15- Finally, Congratulations to Destiny on winning the cake eating contest. All I can say is who would have ever thought it. I was betting on The Merenator myself.

See you at practice tomorrow to start getting ready for Parrott. Last time we defeated them at home 33 to 29. Their leading scorers were #3 Madison Mauck and # 5 Margaret Ellen Edwards both with 8 points. 8 of which were on the foul line. Jamie and Lindy led us in scoring with 9 each and Jennifer had 8. We pressed in that game and committed 16 personal fouls. Let's Get Ready!!

Play Hard, Play Smart, Play Together

Coach May

St. David's Notes

Hi Girls,

Hope you all got home ok. Here's some stat's from the St Davids Game and a few observations.

1- We lost the game 34 to 10. 7 points worse than last time we played them.

2- We were tied 2 to 2 after the first quarter. It was 12 to 2 after the second quarter. 23 to 6 after 3 quarters and 34 to 10 after 4 quarters.

3- If we had kept it a little closer in the second quarter maybe we could have kept it close. Of course in the third quarter we got out scored by 17. Mainly because we lost our focus on beating their press and playing the triangle defense as solidly as we did early in the game. The fact that one of the official only saw fouls when we made them did not help our cause. I for one cannot wait until the day that games are officiated by a computer driven overhead camera and all calls are called correctly. I think that would be great for our program.

4- Scoring leaders were: Kalee Dickens with 4 on 2 of 3 from the floor. Ashton Bradley with 4 on 4 of 4 from the line. Meredith Stephenson with 2 on 2 of 2 from the line. We made 6 out of 7 foul shots and 2 out of 16 from the floor.

5- St Davids scoring: #22 Taylor Dickens 16 points. #30 Kaitlin Dunston 4 points, #25 Jamie Park 4 points no one else had over 3.

6- Rebounding: Kaylee Dickens 3, Ashton Bradley 2, Meredith Stephenson 2, Kaela Kessinger 2, Lindy Clark, Jamie Harris , Jennifer Harvell, Kimberly May all 1 rebound.

7- Steals and Assists: Kaela, Jennifer and Kimberly 1 steal each. Assists: Kimberly 1. Turnovers: we made 19 as a team most against their press and traps.

8- Observations: Winning is a lot more fun than losing, the fact we played this team closer than most is not much consolation. We lost by 24, the JV Boys by around 40 and the Varsity Girls by 34. I came home before the Varsity Boys played. Our conference is just super tough, especially those teams in Raleigh. We might not ever be small enough as a school to be 1A again at least not in the forseeable future so outside of someone deciding to let us join another conference(hint) we will just have to suck it up and become more committed to basketball and the other sports.

9- We have not lost to a 1A school this year. We have beaten some good 2A schools. We have a good chance to win both of our last two games. We need to step it up and end this year on a high note. Our record is now 11 and 9. It will be 12 if we count Ridgecroft backing out as a forfeit and 14 if we win out.

10- Tuesday night is our last home game this season. After the game with Cary I understand there is going to to be a team pizza party in the cafeteria. Plan to stay and eat and be sure to thank the parents that are putting this together for you.

11- You have been such a great group to coach. We have learned so much basketball this season. If we were still a 1A team I doubt we would have lost. We would be looking for a place to hang a banner or to put up a trophy. Keep your heads up high, losing is demoralizing but we still have alot to be proud of, we are a good team and one day soon it will show again. Maybe we can get lucky and someone 6'2" tall will come along one day that like's to play basketball and is in the 7th grade. All these big city seem to get lucky, maybe its our turn.

See you at practice Monday 3:15pm.

Coach May

St. David's Trip

Hi Girls;

1- We leave Friday at 12:00. You may eat where ever your Driver wants to take you. I would think most will want to eat in town to allow it time to digest plus you will most likely be hungry if you have not had lunch.

2- Green Uniforms and Warm ups and hoodies.

3- Arrive at St. Davids by 2:15 and be ready to get on the court by 2:30pm. Tip time is 3:15pm.

4- We had our best day of practice Wednesday. Thursday was not bad but not quite as sharp.

5- We played defense good enough to have made it a close game last time we played St. Davids. Friday we need to play defense equally as well plus stay out of traps that lead to turnovers and relax, square up and shoot the ball well. Try to think one step ahead. Look to take a good shot as soon as it is open, don't hesitate, just think about making it not just shooting it.

6- As I have said in practice so many times, there is no perfect basketball player. Everyone that plays the game misses shots and makes mistakes. As far as I am concerned the biggest mistake we can make is to be afraid to compete. We need to just bring the same game we show in practice and continue to play hard. If we play hard and play smart and play together we will be a success regardless of if we win or we lose on that particular day. Let's have fun competing.
We have nothing to lose, we have proven we are a good team so lets give it a go.

7- We are by far a better team than we were last season and at the beginning of this season, it is not even close.

Play Hard, Play Smart and Play Together.

Coach May

RMA results and notes.

Hi Girls,

We played poorly against Rocky Mount, Just no other way to say it. When you cannot score more than one point in a half your team energy gets so low your team has very little chance to recover. One of my favorite Thought's of the Day comes to my mind after a bad nights sleep last night. It is from Roy Williams UNC Basketball Coach, "Don't trip over something that is behind you".

The fact that we have played poorly the last two game on offense is no reason we cannot play good in our remaining 3 games. St. Davids is Friday and that will be challenging on their home court but they only scored 29 points against us in the last game we just did not put up enough points to make it a game. Then we have Cary Christian at home and Parrott on the road. We have beaten Parrott and we match up well with them physically. Cary had one girl score 30 points against us last game, we stop her and we have favorable match up's with their other players.

Get your chins up, we have beaten all 1A teams easily that we have played, we have beaten good 2A teams like Fayetteville Academy, Harrells, Parrott and Fayetteville Christian. We are still a good team, we just need to regroup and play like we play in practice every day. See you at practice.

Some Notes:

1- Scoring totals RMA Game: J. Harris 4, K. Dickens 3, K. Kessinger 1. RMA: #25 R. Brown 7, # 14 H. Fryar 7, # 13 S. Lossay 8, #23 M. Shearin PG 4, #30 M. Griffin 2. 3 other with 2 each.

2- We made 3 field goals out of 37 tries. Most of them were pretty good shots. Girls, that 8.1%.
We made 2 out of 6 foul shots. 33.3%.

3- Ashton led us in rebounding with 4, Meredith and Jennifer and Kaela had 2. Ashton had 2 blocks.

4- We had 13 turnovers and only 4 steals.

5- The good news was we got a chance to give everybody on the team some deserved playing time.
As you should all know it is always a goal of mine to give players time on the court when there is opportunity, I always have and I always will.

6- One of the real problems with JV Girls Basketball is we only play 6 min. Quarters. Everyone else JV Boy's included play 8 min quarters. I wish we had those extra 8 min. per game to use to develop players when there was opportunity to do so. It would have seemed fairer to have both JV teams play 7 min quarters instead of discriminating against the girl teams. Of course it is not my choice to make rules and I understand this rule was made to speed up getting 4 games in and getting home a early as possible. So we just play with the time we are given.

7- Time to move on. If we can win 2 of the next 3 games I think we will absolutely be in the tournament. If we win one of the last 3 we probably will be in the tournament. Time to lace them up and get serious. Next game up is St. David's in Raleigh, Friday. Be Ready!

Coach May

St. Davids Stats and Notes.

Hi Girls;

1- Final Score St. David's 29, Halifax Academy JV Girls 12. On the surface it doesn't look to good but it is the closest game they have had in the conference if I remember their scores correctly. It was 16 to 7 at the end of the 3rd. quarter.

2- Scoring leaders: Jamie Harris 4 points, Ashton Bradley 3 points, Jennifer Harvell 2 points, Lindy Clark 2 points, Kimberly May 1 point.

3- Their scoring leaders: #22 Taylor Dickens 5 points all in the 1st quarter. #30 Kaitlyn Dunston 14 points, 7 in the 4th., #25 Jamie Parks 6 points, 4 in the 4th. #4 and #15 2 points each. We got what we prepared for from our defense we made someone other than #22 beat us. We just did not score enough points to make it competitive in the 4th quarter. #30 Dunston got probably 6 of her points on steals from the trap at the top that resulted in lay ups. Next time we will try to be better prepared for her and their double teams.

4- Shooting percentage: we made 4 out of 26 shots for 15.4%. We have been shooting around 27% and should shoot at least 33% and most of the time 40% would be something we can do.
Individual FG@ leaders were Jamie with 2 out of 5 for 40% and Jennifer with 1 out of 3 for 33%.

5- Foul shooting percentage: a three way tie, Lindy made 2 out of 4 for 50%, Ashton made 1 out of 2 for 50% and Kimberly made 1 out of 2 for 50%.

6- Rebounding was a tie between Ashton and Kaela with 6 each. Jennifer had 3 and Jamie and Kaylee had 2 and Lindy had 1.

7- Ashton lead us in steals with 2 and Lindy had 1.

8- Turnovers: We had 12 turnovers. It seemed like more but when you are playing a slow paced game like we were in turnovers are magnified because each possession becomes more valuable.

9- Their coach said after the game that we played the best defense he had seen all year. That is something to be proud of. We play defense that way against Rocky Mount and Cary and I believe we can win both games. All we need to do is make a few more shots.

10- It is White Uniforms and dress nice for Tuesday vs. Rocky Mount. See you at the gym at 2:30pm. This is a game we can win. we played this same team to 1 points games twice last year and we are a better team now than we were then. We will double #25 Rebecca Brown who had 11 points against us the last game. 9 of those points were in the 4th. We will double #30 Meghan Griffin who had 10 points 6 of them from the foul line. We will keep a close eye on #13 S. Lossau who had 7 points mostly on fast break baskets off steals or run outs. They scored 11 points on the foul line. We scored best from the wings in this game.

11- I love a challenging match and this game has the makings of one. If we play Defense good and work the boards, keep them off the line and make some shots we can get a win against RMA Tuesday and Cary next week. Come ready to play hard like we played today.

St. David's Game;

Hi Girls;

1- We play St David's of Raleigh Monday at 3:15.

2- White uniforms, Game captains are Lindy and Emily.

3- Come prepared to play your best. Make sure you girls on the bench understand what your positions responsibility is on defense. Pay attention to what your position does and who they guard.

4- I will see you at 2:30pm in the gym.