Lady Warriors ready for summer work; look to reload and continue winning ways

White County High School girl's basketball coach Jarvis Davenport doesn't like to the use the word “rebuild” when it comes to his team.

After losing five seniors off a state playoff team, some might think that the Lady Warriors will be in a rebuilding mode during the summer preparation for the 2021-22 season, but Davenport doesn't see it that way.

“That was the whole thought process when I first got the job here,” Davenport said. “We don't ever want to have to rebuild. We always want to reload. The younger girls are always going to get to play, so it's time now for the next group to step up and be accountable.”

The Lady Warriors opened the summer schedule this week with several practice sessions, along with hosting a kiddie camp for a large group of young players.

With Covid shutting down most of the summer activities last year, Davenport said it's nice to be back in the gym with his players and the the future players that participated in the youth camp.

“It's great to be back in the gym; I've missed them,” Davenport said. “Last year, we kind of had to coach on the fly. The young girls didn't get a chance or an opportunity to experience different situations in the summer. Instead of working on that during the summer, we had to teach things like rotations during the season. We also didn't get a chance to see different lineups because we didn't get to play games because things that happened with Covid. It made it a little more difficult for getting the girls some experience. Having a summer this year, we'll be able to get some of that back. The coaches and I always talk about it, the youth camp is some of the most fun we have. It helps to get the younger girls involved in basketball. Sometimes, parents just want to get them out of the house for a while, but some of them find a game they have a love for.”

With the Georgia High School Association adding a second dead week to the summer schedule, basketball teams are missing a week's worth of practice and games.

For the Lady Warriors, that means they will be extremely busy for the next three weeks. The team will head to a team camp at Covenant College this weekend, and then will begin playing summer league games next week.

“We're going to Covenant this week, go spend the night up there and have a little team bonding experience that we didn't get to have last year,” Davenport said. “We'll have some days where we'll go to North Murray to play. We're going to Dalton and Jefferson, and we'll have some scrimmage games with Banks, Lumpkin, East Hall, and people like that. It's going to be a busy 21 days since the state instituted the new dead week and we ended up losing about 7-8 day of preparation. We're not going to cry over spilt milk; we're going to try and make the best of what we've got.”

The Lady Warriors will have a much different look when they start playing games as Dasha Cannon, Maddie Futch, Madison Adams, Mckenna Moose, and Camyrn McAfee all graduated.

The five players were a key part of the program for the past four years, with Futch earning 7-AAA Player of the Year honors last year, and Cannon being an All-Region player multiple times.

But fortunately, the roster is still full of some talented and experienced players.

Rising senior Chesnee Freeman, and juniors Naomi Roberts, Caitlyn Gailey, and Chandler Weaver all broke into the starting lineup at times last year, with Roberts earning All-Region honorable mention honors.

Maci Shelnut, Kendyl Cantrell, Kinsey Dockery, Claire Beckman, Brelan Sieveking, Aaliyah Anderson, and Zoe Burkett all played extensive minutes last season, and will take bigger roles this year.

“When you're used to playing a minute or two, it's a whole lot different when you start playing six or seven minutes at a time,” Davenport said. “We have a solid group. Chez, Naomi, Caitlyn, Maci, Chandler, Kendyl, Brelan, and just a bunch of girls still here. A lot of people thought our senior class did most of the work last year, and that group did a lot of it, but they didn't do everything. We still have some players at White County and I think people will see that."

Davenport said getting the chance to have a normal summer will help this group develop and learn their new roles.

"The summer will be good for us to develop that mindset and realize what it's like to have to play those major minutes that they didn't have to play before," Daveport said. "I think we are in a good spot. We are going to get better and surprise some people.”