Lady Owls logging court time

Sophomore Allie Bockstetter looks to attack a zone defense from the wing during the Lady Owls' hoops camp. (Chris Allen/Democrat-News) [Click to enlarge] [Order this photo]

The Marshall girls' basketball team is working hard to avoid a repeat of last year's cruel 1-24 campaign.

The Lady Owls were put in an unfortunate position during the 2009 season. When it began, the team had only two players with significant varsity experience, and both of those left at mid-season. In its lone district game, Marshall was starting two juniors who had played little the previous year, a sophomore and a pair of freshmen.

"They realize how hard it was for them all last year," remarked new MHS head coach Tony Willis. "It helps them sympathize with the freshmen."

The Lady Owls second team camp of the summer is under way this week at the high school gym, the first earlier this month focusing on individual skills.

"It's going pretty good," Willis said, although there are "small numbers because of summer school and work."

For example, six of the 10 players working on offensive tactics today were freshmen -- and Willis sees a couple of newcomers helping the club in the coming season. With no upperclassmen on last year's end-of-the-season roster, Willis at least has a nucleus which has experienced trial by fire.

"We have some athletic ability, now we're going to try to produce basketball players," Willis said. "We're trying to teach them to play quicker."

The current camp will last through the end of the week and Willis plans on having other events later to help develop the talent which will help the program in both the short- and long-term future.