The last two sectional championships have been heartbreakers for James Monroe.
In 2020 the Lady Mavericks lost the sectional championship in overtime. Last season they lost in triple overtime with both defeats coming against River View. Both losses resulted in regional road losses to Webster County, ending the season a game short of Charleston.
Now for the Lady Mavs are hoping to make a return to the state tournament for the first time since losing the 2003 state championship. Head coach Mike Hines has liked what he’s seen early on.
“I think we have really high expectations,” Hines said. “We return everybody except one. Lilly Jackson was a big part of our run last year helping us win those games defensively. She always welcomed the challenge on the defensive side and kind of set the tone there. With what we have coming back I think we can be really competitive. With our leaders Haley Hunnicutt and Adyson (Hines), practices have been really good since our volleyball players have come back this week. They’ve been attentive and so far so good. I think with our section and region – River View’s got a lot of key components back and Webster County with what they have with Sydney (Baird) the top scorer in the state they’re going to be really good. I think the surprise team people need to look out for is Greenbrier West. They’re young but are going to be stout.”
Hines took the job early last season after the previous head coach stepped down and the transition was seemingly seamless with the Lady Mavs ripping a lengthy winning streak up until the consecutive postseason losses. With a full offseason of preparation and most of his roster in tact, Hines is optimistic about the players he’s bringing back.
“It’s been great,” Hines said. “We only have one junior this year in Mary Beth Meadows and Maggie Boroski is a sophomore who will step in and see plenty of time this year. I think Aaliyah Clarkson, a freshman, has some size and she can step inside. Emily Bailey and Chloe Shires are seniors and they’re coming over from volleyball but our young ones are looking up to our four seniors and asking a lot of questions in practice which is always good. We’ve had really intense and good practices so far.”
One of those seniors is all-state forward Adyson Hines, a versatile big who can score inside or drive from the wing. It’s given Hines options in regards to his offense as he believes they can score inside or out and take advantage of the way defenses play them.”
“I think a lot of the girls do look to Adyson,” Hines said. “We have a lot of plays and we can go a lot of different directions with guards and inside play and Adyson can go inside and outside. Over the past year she’s been working on her outside game to where she can extend defenses. I don’t know if we start inside and work outside, we just run a lot of different stuff where we just read the defense and the flow of the game and play to our strengths. We’re going to have 15 players but with what we have, I think we can go with four guards a lot of times or we can go with two guards and three post players. We can run some mismatches this year.”
Given the heartbreak they’ve endured, the Lady Mavs feel they’re due for a return to Charleston. They’re battle tested and are slated to face several bigger schools such as Oak Hill, Frankfort, Shady Spring and Greenbrier East.
“I think expectations are, and there are a lot of teams around the state that are good but I think we have the right skillset and chemistry to make it to Charleston,” Hines said. “Could we win a state championship? It’s a possibility but our first goal is to get that opportunity because you’ll never know if you have a chance to win it if you don’t make it. But we have to get over that hump because two years ago we lost in overtime and last year we lost in triple overtime and we lost in the regional. We have to get that sectional championship to get home court advantage. I think we have a really good team where we can finish inside the Top 10.”
Email: tylerjackson@lootpress.com and follow on Twitter @tjack94
