Athens – A year ago Summers County head coach Chad Meador wasn’t sure what to expect.
Having graduated a pair of first-team all-staters and playing in a section with defending state champion Wyoming East, it was his job to figure out how to make his relatively inexperienced pieces mesh and put together a competitive team.
He did just that and then some, guiding the Lady Bobcats back to Charleston where they lost a competitive game against St. Marys.
This year he has the luxury of returning all but one starter from that team and it’s made things a little easier. Still there are some changes to be made that the three week period gives him time to tinker with and install.
One pertains to the starter the Lady Bobcats did graduate in Maggie Stover.
A program accustomed to running two bigs, Meador now needs to figure out a system that better suits his current personnel and the summer period has been beneficial in doing so. The Lady Bobcats saw four different teams at the Concord Women’s Basketball Team Shootout Saturday, giving Meador an early look at what to address over the following two weeks.
“We’ve traditionally always had a two post offensive system, Meador said. “There’s going to be times this year where we are traditional with two post players and sometimes we’re going to be four around one. So our offensive scheme doesn’t really flow around four around one or five out. I have found today that I have to do a little better job of finding an offense that suits personnel. We have a system where the four goes to one place and the five and etc. Some people were playing a little out of position today but it’s my job to figure it out.
“Look, with Maggie Stover gone we lose that leadership. There are times today where she would’ve got us in position so I’m looking for a collective measure of leadership moving forward.”
What’s made things easier for Meador though is this group of players bought into their roles last year, largely the reason they beat Mingo Central on the road in the regional round. That same group has been present during offseason workouts and team camps, now having the experience and chemistry required for a run to Charleston. The challenge now is adapting with more responsibility and fluidity in their roles.
“Everybody who’s back is a year older,” Meador said. “Our freshmen are sophomores and we have two that played a lot of minutes for us in Avery Lilly and Abby Persinger but with that year of progression is a different role. Gracie Harvey kind of flew under the radar then about midseason she established her presence and she’s going to see some double teams. We’re going to have to score from the perimeter more this year too.”
The willingness to improve and accept their roles has helped as well. Meador enjoyed coaching last year’s team and watching them grow because of how coachable they were. So far that’s carried over with all four of his returning starters joining the team for camp at Concord while seven incoming freshmen have allowed the program to field a JV team as well.
“Any time you win or get to the state tournament people want to be a part of it,” Meador said. “But being a part of this program requires a lot of hard work and we’ve had two girls that are playing AAU basketball all over the local venues and Columbus and beyond. Then we have some girls this offseason who have busted their tails in the weight room. It’s something we haven’t had much in the past. We have some girls that have experienced some success and here’s what I think separates the good players from the great players – they experience some success then they understand what they have to do for their team to get to the next level. They’re hungry.
“You can be satisfied with a little bit of success but what separates the good ones from the bad ones is continuing that hunger and wanting to get even better and we hadn’t seen that for awhile and that’s kind of what sustains programs. We have seven freshmen. We haven’t had seven freshmen in quite some time and they’ve been at practices, our Lady Bobcat camp and most of them are here today. That’s exciting. A few years ago we finished the season with nine players and you have that with small schools but listen, we got to Emory and Henry next week and play three days there against good teams. We’ll keep evaluating and hopefully keep getting better as a unit.”
