By Jay Neal

sports@jacksonvilleprogress.com

A new head coach — Jason Crow — with a new style of play, coupled with five returnees, three of which were recognized as district standouts last year, should make for a Jacksonville High School girl’s basketball team that will challenge for the District 14-4A title this season.

Crow, who heads up the program after a successful stint at Wells High School, has been putting his brand on the team since fall practices started in late October

That mark features high energy basketball that should be fun to watch and difficult for opponents to contain.

“One of our strengths is our athleticism,” Crow stated following a recent practice. “Hopefully we will be able to run a good bit.

“I think our style will be fun for the fans to come out and watch; these girls are going to get after it. We are going to (feature) a hard nose, man-to-man defense that will force the opponents to make turnovers to give us easy scoring opportunities.”

Crow went on to say there would be a little bit of zone defense sprinkled in with plenty of full-court press, too.

Welcomng Crow to Jacksonville, which finished 10-15 overall, 4-10 in district last year, is junior Brittany King, a first-team all-district selection a year ago, along with loop co-newcomer of the year Mykesha Burrell.

Another player to watch for is senior Amber Whitmill, a second team all-district member last season.

King played point guard last year, but, according to Crow, may spend time at other spots to take advantage of her scoring abilities.

The Maidens are look to be strong in the paint this year with the return of Sharae Sanders and the addition of Jessica Hunter.

“Sharae Sanders should be a big defensive force for us and get some rebounds, and hopefully Jessica Hunter is also going to bring a big inside presence for us also,” Crow said.

Amber Hawkins is expected to make the jump to the varsity unit as a freshman.

“Amber is a freshman learning the game as she goes, but she already has the skills to play with the big girls,” Crow said.

Jacksonville joins Lindale, Nacogdoches, Whitehouse, Kilgore and Henderson in the newly created District 14-4A.

Graduation racked Lindale, Nacogdoches and Whitehouse, making the preseason district peckng order foggy. The title could be there for practically any of the district’s teams.

“Nac graduated two (NCAA) Division I kids; Lindale graduated almost evertything they had as I understand,” Crow said in his review of the league’s opponents. “From what I hear Whitehouse is pretty good, and I think Kilgore is a lot like us in the style of game they play.

“We will have to come ready to play every night to be able to win in this district,” Crow said.

Although four of the six teams in the conference will make the playoffs, Crow said slipping in is not what the Maidens want to do.”

“We are not trying to slide into the fourth spot, “ he said. “Our goal is to win a district title and that is what we are focused on.”

Crow has booked a challenging nondistrict schedule — the season gets under way at 7 p.m. Tuesday when Palestine visits JHS Gymnasium — for the Maidens as a means of getting the young women ready for the conference wars.

“Our preseason schedule is formidable and I made it that way for a purpose — to get us ready for the 10 games that matter (district),” he said.

Jacksonville plays three teams that won more than 20 games last season — Diboll (26-9) on Nov. 14, Carthage (22-11) on Nov. 21 and Bullard (28-6) at home on Nov. 25.

The Maidens will play in three tournments (Lufkin Hudson, Edgewood and a New Year’s Classic in Kaufman) this season also.

District play opens on Jan. 6, 2009, at Kilgore, with the league home opener set for Jan. 9 against Lindale.



NOTES: Toy Buckley will be coaching the junior varsity while Lindsey Morris pilots the freshman team ... the district schedule is different form the past couple of years as both the girls and boys teams, varsity as well as the two sub-varsity units will all play at the same location on the same night; previously, if the boys were at home, for example, the girls teams would be on the road ... Jacksonville also has non-district home games scheduled with Marshall (Nov. 18), Brownsboro (Dec. 16) and Wills Point (Dec. 19) ... the Maidens will tackle the Lady Eagles at Rusk on Dec. 2 in a game with a great deal of local interest.