Success came early for the James Monroe girls basketball program.
Within the first 10 years of the school’s existence the team won a pair of state championships in 2001 and ’02, falling in the ’03 title game with a chance a for three-peat.
Since then the program has watched from the outside.
After last week’s regional win against Meadow Bridge the Lady Mavericks are back in Charleston, hoping to replicate the success they found 22 years ago. They have the ambition but lack the experience.
Well, not totally.
Head coach Angie Mann was an assistant coach on those title-winning teams, stepping down before the ’03 season to take a job in Virginia. She’ll lean on that experience to guide a group of players who weren’t alive the last time the program made it to Charleston.
“I do feel like having that experience as a player and then as a coach definitely makes a difference,” Mann said. “Having that experience down here, we have a few of our coaches that had that experience as players. Judy (Meadows) actually came down as a coach that third year after I left and her and Jason Mathis were helping when they lost the state championship but still made it. They did a good job. Neil (Dunlap), one of my assistant coaches, he made it down in high school and then I played in high school and then with the coaching and everything and then we got to come down with the boys when I was principal so I’m getting it from all angles. But it is great to have that experience and know what to expect. We have a lot of volleyball girls too that have been down here and have played in the Coliseum. So that makes a difference so they’re not totally surprised by the whole atmosphere.”
Playing in the state tournament is an experience unlike any other and hard to simulate. Turnovers rise and shooting percentages dip in the expansive venue. Still that doesn’t mean the Lady Mavericks are unprepared. Their schedule provided numerous tests along the way to simulate the level of opponents they’d see.
That slate included matchups with state tournament teams Wyoming East, Greenbrier East, Pocahontas County, River View and Gilmer County.
“I feel good about it,” Mann said. “I have to give (former head coach) Mike (Hines) some credit from last year. You know, he kind of had the schedule put together before I came along. But we added a couple teams to his schedule and when others dropped us we picked up Gilmer County last minute and I knew it would pay for us to play them even though we got beat. We picked up Wyoming East and we went up to the Summersville tournament.
“So we did a little bit of rearranging but yeah, I always think that playing up is a good idea. I mean, it’s just good basketball and that’s definitely helped us. And at the Summersville tournament I think lost by one point in one game and lost by five in another and then played Wyoming East the last game and that ended up being about 20-something but they were high pressure games that I think at this point in our season, we could handle.”
Handling pressure will be the key for the Mavericks.
Point guard Mary Beth Meadows, whose grandfather John Mustain coached the ’02 team, does that well, averaging 14.3 points and 7.3 assist per game. Maggie Boroski leads the team in points per game at 19.5. while both combine to average over 10 steals per game. They’ll lead the assault and need to be able to withstand Huntington St. Joe, the opponent that earned the No. 4 seed and a date with the Mavericks at 9 p.m. Wednesday in the Charleston Coliseum and Convention center.
“I’m telling you they are us,” Mann said. “We’re looking at a mirror image of ourselves. They’re fast, they’re defensive and they like to push the ball. They don’t want to be slowed down. It’s gonna be a great matchup and I think they got it right with the four and five seed but I personally think we have more options offensively than they do now that we’re at the end of the season. But that being said, I mean, everybody that’s asked back in our little town I’m just like, you know, this can be one of those seven to 10 point games decided on the free throw line at the end of the game one way or the other. Like I said, they’re tough and they’re quick. They pressure like we do.
In a game Mann expects to be tight, she anticipates her squad will need contributions from all over the roster.
“I think that we have to have three to four of our girls in double digits,” Mann said. “That’s when we win. That’s what goes on. We even had five one time but it’s just a good spread with our points if we can get that. I think that even though I preach defense our defense leads to our offense. I still feel like whenever we have three or four of them in double digits, and we’ve got a couple of double-doubles we’re good to go. And that’s what we’ll need.”
