JV Roundup: Last Month of Winter Sports

We are in the final month of the winter sports schedule. The junior varsity teams have a handful of games left, while the varsity squads move into the state playoffs.

This is the third feature on the junior varsity programs at Century, Liberty and South Carroll High Schools.

Century

Like everyone, Century teaches defense and has spent the season working on that part of the game. "We've experimented with a few different defenses looking for the one that fits our personnel the best," said Century coach Jay Seaborg. "The players are working hard and our core principles are in place for the rest of the year." 

When you are watching a game, some times you ask yourself, I wonder how they got in to coaching. Seaborg says, "I started coaching when I was in my early twenties to help out with my younger brother's team. It was something I always saw myself doing when I was growing up and I played competitive sports into my 40s so coaching was a natural move for me." 

Mary Ellis leads the young Knights in scoring and rebounding. Alex Mowder and Mackenzie Patt are also scoring for Century.

Seaborg says the county competition is what they expected this season.

Looking at the rest of the season, Seaborg said, "We went through a rough stretch but hopefully learned some valuable lessons about our team that will help us as we enter the remainder of the season."

The Knights grew a lot this week as they defeated Francis Scott Key. They fell behind 17-5 in the first quarter and never gave up. They fought back and took the lead with seven seconds left on a basket by Hannah Holtgrewe. She was fouled on the play and sunk the free throw for a three point win.

South Carroll 

When the season starts, no matter how much experience a person has, they know to shoot a basketball. Maybe not the right way, but they know that is a big part of the game. That means one thing the coaches have to spend a lot of time on is defense.

"We have picked up the defense pretty good so far, we are a man to man defensive team," said Cavalier coach Mike Franklin. "In being that there is a lot of techniques that has to be taught that maybe is new to them. I'm a little old school in that if you can play man you can play zone, but if you play zone it does not mean you can play man."

The Cavaliers are led in scoring by two freshmen, Nikki Levy and Kristin Tennyson. Another freshmen, Kendall Noel and sophomore Jordan Fry top the team in rebounding.

"Rebounding is one of the areas we need to improve upon. A lot of that is because we are undersized in comparison to the other county teams," said Franklin.

South Carroll is 5-3, but two of those losses were by one and six points to Westminster.

Looking at the rest of the season, Franklin said, "This year I think the county teams are very competitive, with Westminster at the top of the county. The thing with the teams are on any giving night the schools can beat anyone. I think that comes from good coaching but mostly the upswing in girls basketball county wide."

Century

Like other teams in the county, the weather has kept Century from getting on the court.

Century coach, Scott Anderson has been teaching defense to the Knights and they are listening. "Our team is picking up our team defensive philosophy very well. We our keeping teams to an average of 38 points a game," he said.

With the Knights playing a tight defense, the offense moves around each contest. "We have a balanced team, we don't really have a main scorer or rebounder. Every game we seem to have someone else step up and contribute," Anderson said.

The county teams have all had a look at each other as they have played once. Century was one of the stronger teams in the county through January. "If we continue to play go defense and continue to get better, we our going to be tough to beat the rest of the way," Anderson said.