Tracy Raban led a successful charge at PikeView, guiding the program to three state tournament appearances during her four years at the helm.
In the spring she stepped down and took over at Shady Spring where her family relocated to. The job and expectations will be different for a program that found a fleeting moment of success when it won a state title in 1986 but hasn’t experienced a high like that since.
She comes in hoping to lay the foundation for a program renaissance.
“This is a hard-working group of girls that are very eager to learn,” Raban said. “It’s been a very good two weeks. They have come in with positive attitudes very open to you know welcoming to me. There is a lot of potential. I just see a group of hardworking girls that want to learn and they’re eager to learn and are very responsive to that. I think if this group could have some success or you know even if it’s not winning a ball game but being in a ball game that they’re maybe not supposed to be in, I think you can see it click with them and it could turn some heads. It’s just when are they gonna have that moment of success?”
Raban has a few experienced players that have started or played a ton of minutes throughout their careers.
“We have three seniors in Kendra Pizzino, Austyn Barnes, and Meagan Hendrick,” Raban said. “After that, we’re gonna be young, so we’re not gonna have much experience, but I do see a team that is gonna be quick and aggressive and again, like anywhere I’ve always coached we’re gonna play defense. I think we’re gonna have to rely on the defensive end the floor to produce baskets and points for us so I think you’ll see a team that’s gonna be scrappy on the defensive end of the floor and be willing to get after teams and hopefully be successful on defense in the fourth quarter.”
Raban’s group will be thrown in the fire early. Their schedule features talented teams such as Princeton, Greenbrier East. Beckley, PikeView and Greenbrier West.
“The schedule was very late getting done,” Raban said. “I wouldn’t have liked for it to be that heavy of a schedule, but we will compete and learn from those games. If we can get some things clicking and getting them to believe in the system and have a glimpse of success. I mean, I think it’s a team that maybe not the first time around that people are gonna respect us but hopefully the second time around they’re gonna have to respect us. It’s not gonna be that team that it’s like ‘oh we don’t have to prepare, this is kind of a night off so I can get some rest.’ Our goal is to turn some heads by the second time we play people.”
While Raban’s team’s have historically relied on defense, she’s hoping the offense is an ensemble effort like teams past.
“Pizzino’s gonna be that kid we’ll need to score but I think it’s gonna be kind of like my teams in the past,” Raban said. “It’s gonna be different from night to night, but I think there’s like four or five kids that are gonna be capable. One night it might be Meagan the next night it could be Austyn, the next night it could be Peyton Raban or Bri Shrewsberry. I think we’ll need team offense and we’re gonna need a different kid to step up from night to night and that could be challenging to guard. I think we’re gonna have to make some noise inside so I think we can be an inside-out team. But I think it’s gonna be one of those as the season goes it will be different. That’s why I think it can turn some heads cause it could be hard to guard.”
Raban, a winner at every level of her career, wants to carry that success into her new position. But she knows the challenges of rebuilding a program and is cautious in overloading her kids, asking them to walk before they learn to run.
“I’m a competitor and I could sit here and say ‘I wanna win the regional championship and go to the state tournament,’ and I mean, that would be awesome, but you gotta be realistic when you’re taking over a team that I think won two games last year,” Raban said. “The history that they’ve had, you’re trying to change the culture. I’m trying to get these kids to believe and I want them to be a part of the school spirit with everybody coming to their student section. I want girls basketball to exist and be talked about so I think you do that by building the culture making it a fun atmosphere. Make the kids love the sport again and believe that they are something.
“I told the girls we’re gonna be real. Yes I want to win and we’re gonna go into every game feeling like we can win, but we are gonna be picked dead last for the region and we know that. So let’s make our goal at the end of the season to not be dead last and to go into every game and it be a competitive game. We might not win, but at least teams had to show up and play. Yeah we know we’re gonna be people’s team for senior night. Let’s change that and it’s not gonna happen overnight it’s gonna happen step-by-step and it might not all happen this season. But my goal is to change the culture at Shady and even if it takes two or three years we’re gonna take a small steps at a time. It can’t happen overnight.”
