Ryan Young and the Wheeling Park Girls’ Basketball team are soaring so far this season, with a 5-1 record. Young is in his 9th season as head coach of the Lady Patriots and is looking to take this team to heights they have not reached since the mid-90’s when they won back-to-back state titles.
It has been a process for Young and his staff that includes former Wheeling Park and Fairmont State player Josie Daugherty and Wheeling University player Lucy DeFruscio Milton. They help in the connections they make with the players and bridge the gap between Young and the team. Both Daugherty and Milton bring college playing experience and give the young ladies role models to look up to on the staff.
Daugherty especially helps Young, when he gets on the team and players, to explain that he is doing this to make them and the team better. She knows this having played for Young and knows that he has the team’s best interest at heart.
Young though was not starting from scratch when he took over the reins of the program. They had missed out on Charleston a few seasons but had still been a consistent winner. The expectations are even higher now having made it to Charleston in 5 of the last 6 years.
To keep his program rolling, Young has helped to start a little Patriots for the elementary age kids that are interested in playing basketball. He feels they need to start playing together younger in order to have success in the future.
They also hold a youth league starting in the elementary schools to expose the kids to basketball at an early age. The camp they had this summer had a great turnout. Young knows this is a necessity for his program to keep winning at the level that it is, he needs to have participation at a young age. This leads to the success they have in the future.
Wheeling Park’s goals are similar each season, win an OVAC Championship, and win a state championship. This being said, Coach Kevin Heller came up with a new goal for the team that went away from the typical win championships. His idea was to get what we want out of us; be happy as a team, play hard, be happy for each other’s success’s and for the teams’ success’s.
If they did this, the winning would take care of itself. It looks as though it has worked so far this season. Young said, “they are happy for each other’s success.” This has led to great team chemistry this year. I asked Young what his team was doing better than what was expected. He said the team chemistry is great.
When you have the number of scorers that they have, sometimes there are not enough basketballs to go around. This team is very unselfish with the ball. Young believes this comes with playing a lot of minutes together including last season, in the summer, and even on travel teams together. Again, Young mentioned they are just so happy for each other’s success, which helps team chemistry like nothing else. As coaches we can do what want for team chemistry, but when it comes down to it, it is about how the players handle it, and he has some good ones that are up to the task.
In no particular order, here are the players that have taken on the task on having a great team bond. Sophie Abraham is a senior guard that is a great athlete and leader on the team. She always gives 100% in games and in practice. Abraham does not score much but is one of many players who could score in bunches if she needs to score. Her attitude and effort are second to none.
Next, Alexis Bordas is known for being a great scorer, but she brings so much more to the team. Bordas is a great leader on the floor, she is always asking questions, wanting to know as much about the game as possible. Something that may go unnoticed about her is her rebounding, one of the team leaders in the category.
Seneca Heller is just a freshman but is playing a lot of quality minutes for the Patriots. I told Young that the thing I remember about Heller, is that she plays hard all of the time, she’s all in when she’s on the floor. Just, wow, does she play hard. In practice she gives then a look of a starting varsity point guard, with her floor vision and ability to pass the ball. Young said she is a great distributer of the ball and is becoming more confident and comfortable with every minute she gets. She will be a major contributor as the season moves along.
Another player that gives the Patriots major unselfish minutes is Merritt Delk. Delk brings great athleticism to the team; she always defends the opposing team’s best player. She plays within herself, a great rebounder and threat on offense in the paint. Delk is the defensive player that leads the pressure defense Park love to run.
Just a sophomore, Lala Woods leads the team in assists. But is another player that could lead the team in scoring each night. Woods is a great shooter but has worked really hard on her dribble drives and decisions in the paint. She sets the tempo on offense and does a great job at this task. She went 1-10 in a game, but as Young said she still had a great game. “She’s the straw that stirs the drink,” says Young.
A junior Natalie Daugherty was the Elks Player of the Month recently, also WTOV 9 player of the week. She plays hard all of the time; she is very aggressive on the defensive end and was the team’s top shooter early in the season. Along with this she is the team’s best on ball defender. As Young said she is a good all-around player.
Another junior is Jillian Huffman, she was stuck last year, she was needed for varsity depth, but her junior varsity playing time suffered. She put in a lot of hard work this summer and in the offseason to get better. A very strong and athletic player, she finishes in the paint and defends that paint really well.
Some seniors that have stepped up in practice, games, and as leaders include a few players. First, is Josie Stone, who gives Park a deeper bench. Stone gets rebounds and finishes plays off in the paint.
Mary Derrow plays hard all the time in practice and in games. She is going to be looked upon to play more minutes as the season goes on, she will provide quality minutes with her hard play down the stretch.
Casey Ticich is another senior that goes 100% all the time, whether it be in practice or in games. Ticich will be looked on as the season goes on to provide minutes in big games late in the season. These seniors are valuable to the team not only because of the quality game minutes they provide, but for their leadership, they have been in all different situations during the long season and can help the younger players along the way.
Ryleigh Hicks is a player that made major strides in the offseason. Hicks has been dealing with some health issues, but they seem to be behind her, and she is ready to contribute. She plays hard and aggressive and always defends the best Park players in practice. Hicks is a classic team first player, who will do whatever it takes to make the team better.
Last but certainly not least is Kiera Sparks, who is battling some injuries. Sparks provides a great post presence for the Patriots, on the offensive and defensive ends. She is playing some JV minutes to get her back into game shape but will be looked upon later in the season to give Park some quality post minutes. With all of this talent, I had to ask about the competitiveness of practice.
Being as deep as they are as a team the Patriots always have fierce competition in practice. Whether it is the 1’s vs the 2’s or splitting up the 1’s on separate teams, they can always get good looks. Young mentioned how the 2’s take such pride in practice and playing hard to give the 1’s as good as look as they will see in the games.
Young also said what an asset every player is in this aspect, to have such a deep team and to be able to prepare for each game as well as they can with this depth. I know about Wheeling Park’s full court pressure that they love to use to dictate the tempo of the game. There has been more of a focus on the half-court defense this season.
To help with this Young has put Coach Daugherty and Coach Milton on this task, to which they have more than fulfilled Young’s expectations. On the offensive side, Young likes his team’s ability to move without the basketball. A lot of their offense is based off of the turnovers and the pressure defense. But Young has put more of an emphasis on the half-court offense due in part to the effectiveness of Morgantown’s half-court defense against them in the past.
The most challenging part of practice has been getting everyone there. Some sickness has gone around the team, other obligations of their players, etc. have led to Park not having many full squad practices. They are getting healthy and some other school obligations are over, so they can now look forward to having full practices for the stretch run. These practices and competition at practice gets the Patriots ready for the tough competition they face during the season.
Young will play anybody during the season. He sees this as an opportunity to get better for the postseason. Since everyone makes the playoffs, he feels there is no reason not to play the best of the best. Wheeling Park has even gone out of state to find some new opponents. They went to Pittsburgh and beat a very good and always competitive team in North Allegheny.
They also picked up Hiland, an Ohio power as well. This game was brought about by Park boys coach Michael Jebbia. Jebbia played with Hiland’s coach last year and their athletic director while at West Liberty. Jebbia contacted Young to see if they wanted to play and he said of course we want to play the best. Park won the game against Hiland as well.
Young said possibly the best game they’ve played so far was against Morgantown last week, Morgantown one of the top teams and programs in the state has been a thorn in the side for Wheeling Park for a couple seasons. Getting this win was big for Park, seeing the hard work in the offseason and in all the practices payoff.
This win came after a loss at University, a young team that played really well against Park. Young said that shots were not falling and that they did not play well. He also said this was due to how well University played not how poorly that Park played. He could tell that University wanted to win and make a statement and they did with a big win against Park.
The schedule coming up includes a couple games against local AAAA teams Brooke and John Marshall. Here is the Wheeling Park Patriots schedule, go check out on of the best teams in our area and in the state on the following days:
January 6th vs Woodrow Wilson
January 7th vs Huntington
January 10th vs University
January 18th vs Parkersburg
January 20th vs Cabell Midland
January 26th vs John Marshall
January 28th vs Buckhannon
February 10th vs George Washington.
Another great game to check out, and one we recommend, is the Wheeling Park at Union Local Jets match up on February 8th. These games listed are against some of the best teams in the state, if you want to go watch some great basketball games these are the games to see. Young was very serious when he said they would play anyone. This proves it and we can’t wait to watch!
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