Kay Steps in at Wahconah as Basketball Practice Begins
.jpg) New head coach Liz Kay is getting to know her team. |
Kay grew up in North Carolina, has been around the game since she can remember and has been a head coach for the past 16 years. From her home roots in Carolina she ventured off to Bates College in Maine and has been in the Northeast ever since.
She coached high school basketball in Connecticut for 12 years and the past two years she was the head coach for Amherst High School. What drew her to Dalton? Her husband is from Worthington, and the two moved to the area. Kay, who has known Wahconah athletic director Matt Morrison for "a number of years," heard of the position from him and through a number of other local coaches in Berkshire County.
"A big piece of this is that I don't know the girls that well, but I ran a summer camp with them," Kay said. "And almost all these girls play soccer, and we went to every game, so I think a big part of it is just letting them know that from a coaching perspective we are present not just a couple hours a day that we're in the gym."
Since Kay took the position with Wahconah, she's taken the time to be there for her athletes, not just on the court. She's also brought in some other familiar faces to the coaching staff: Jen Brandy, who will be coaching the junior varsity team, and Sara Hamilton, who is a Wahconah alumna.
"We've got a nice mixture of people who know what's going on in terms of having been here and obviously that's tremendously helpful for me as the newbie," Kay said.
Wahconah finished last season with an 8-12 record and an injury to their top player, Maddie Sprague. That injury forced the squad's youngsters to step up.
Kay hopes that last year's freshmen are ready to step back into those leadership roles this year.
"They had a large portion of their offense and defense [last season] and playing time come from freshmen," Kay said. "So the question really becomes, I know sort of what the seniors and juniors bring, but there's this huge maturity step that freshman take when they become sophomores, so to me the X factor piece to it is where those players are in terms of development and maturity."
Seniors Dumas and Sprague are confident in the young squad that Wahconah carries and like most teams have one goal in mind: making it to the Western Massachusetts tournament.
"It's going to be different [having a new head coach], but we definitely have an open mind and positive outlook on the season," Dumas said. "Everyone is ready to work hard and do the best that we can do."
As Kay noted, the basketball team features a lot of soccer players, who just finished their season a few weeks ago after losing in the state semi-final. They haven't had that much time to lace up the sneakers, but Dumas and Sprague said the girls have been shooting around after school together and doing what they can to get ready for their tryouts that started this evening.
Sprague is looking forward to getting back out on the court with her team after having to sit out the end of last season with a broken leg.
"It was definitely upsetting for me, not being able to finish the season with the team," Sprague said. "But I'm hoping to come back this season and not have that affect me."
Dumas and Sprague agreed that it all began Monday night and that their goal of making the tournament is one that you should always seek. They feel that their team is prepared and ready for a new season.
"I think we definitely have a chance of getting to Western Mass," Dumas said. "Winning it should be our goal; I don't think it's unrealistic at all."