BY JOHN LUND
Times-Shamrock Writer

The Elk Lake girls’ basketball team had a young roster coming into last season, and was forced to grow up quickly as injuries plagued the team throughout the year.

This year, second-year head coach Alicia Traver is hopeful that her squad can remain healthy to compete in Division 4 of the Lackawanna League.

“By the end of the season last year the younger girls were able to get a lot of exposure to varsity games and I think that will help us this year,” Traver said. “We’ll be more experienced as a younger team and if we stay healthy I think we’ll be doing well. The group that we have now are really hard workers.”

One of those hard workers is junior Darci Warner, who returns to the court after missing most of last season after suffering a torn ACL.

Traver will look to Warner, as well as sophomore Justine Johns, to step into the shoes of last year’s lone senior, Casey Tyler, as team leaders.

“I think the biggest thing for us will be getting everyone to work together as a team,” Traver said.
“Because we are so young, I feel that’s the biggest thing – learning to work together as a team.”

That teamwork will be put to the test early when the Lady Warriors participate in the Kiwanis Tip-Off Tournament on Dec. 6.

“We hope to do well in that tournament, but that’s tough because we don’t have much time before that,” Traver said. “We want to go in there and come out strong. That would be nice, and before you know it, it’s the beginning of the season.”

Traver has had her team working on conditioning throughout the year and will open the first few practices by working on the basics.

“We’ve been working on getting into shape and working on the fundamentals,” she said. “We’re concentrating on making layups and foul shots but really focusing on defense this year. Size-wise we’re not huge, so defense will be important as well as running the ball up and down the court. Hopefully that will work in our favor.”

Traver said that quickness will be one of the strengths for this year’s squad, but fielding a younger team may serve as its biggest weakness.

“It was hard to compete last year at times,” Traver said. “We had a lot of freshmen going up against juniors and seniors. But my sister (assistant coach Karin Mowry) and myself are young too, so we’re all still learning.”

Traver said that one of the Lady Warriors biggest competitors will be Montrose, which enters the season as defending league champs.

“They’re a tough team to beat because it’s hard to match up with them,” she said. “They have experienced girls who play all summer long and are the biggest threat in the league.”

But even with a younger team, the Lady Warriors will undoubtedly continue to mature as the season wears on and will look to improve on last season’s 1-5 division record with a little help fro their defense.

“I really want them to learn that working hard on defense will transition into easier offense,” Traver said. “They think that playing defense is such hard work, but if you do that hard work for a short time, it may lead to some baskets. Working hard on defense leads to offense.”

Joining Warner and Johns are sophomores Amanda Mowry, Whitney Tyler, Carrie Jones, Julie VanEtten and Breanna Yonkin; and freshmen Abigail Johns, Eliza Boucher, Grayson Bushnell and Rose Warner.

Full schedule:
Dec. 6, Kiwanis Tip-Off Tournament at Tunkhannock, A, 5 p.m.
Dec. 7, Kiwanis Tip-Off Tournament at Tunkhannock, A, TBA.
Dec. 22, Northeast Bradford, A, 7:15 p.m.
Dec. 26, Susquehanna County Christmas Tournament at Montrose, A, 2 p.m.
Dec. 27, Susquehanna County Christmas Tournament at Montrose, A, TBA.
Jan. 2, Holy Cross, H, 7:15 p.m.
Jan. 5, Forest City, H, 7:15 p.m.
Jan. 8, Mountain View, H, 7:15 p.m.
Jan. 12, Susquehanna, A, 7:15 p.m.
Jan. 15, Lackawanna Trail, A, 7:15 p.m.
Jan. 19, Montrose, H, 7:15 p.m.
Jan. 21, Blue Ridge, A, 7:15 p.m.
Feb. 2, Susquehanna, H, 7:15 p.m.
Feb. 9, Montrose, A, 7:15 p.m.
Feb. 11, Blue Ridge, Senior Night, H, 7:15 p.m.