While our area men's teams are losing a ton of seniors, almost every area girls team returns just about everybody. In fact, only two of the 12 players named to the Tri-Eight All-Conference teams will graduate (Cary's Kelsey Campbell and Athens Drive's Alyx Ingram). In some ways, next year's girls basketball teams will resemble the competition that we saw this year from the boys. There's one clear frontrunner (Apex) but a number of talented squads with a chance to go deep next postseason.
Surely this list will have to change in the coming year, as players will move away or get reassigned to other schools, or even quit altogether.
Tri-Nine teams (returning starters)
1. Apex (5)
2. Green Hope (4)
3. Middle Creek (4)
4. Athens Drive (4)
5. Holly Springs (2)
6. Fuquay-Varina (3)
7. Cary (3)
8. Panther Creek (5)
9. Lee County (3)
Private Schools
Cary Christian (5) - first in EPIC; first in states
Cary Academy (4) - second in TISAC
Apex is my no-brainer as a repeat for conference championship. They return everyone from an undefeated regular season. That's right, everyone (and I think we mistakenly called Meredith Greene a senior in our most recent article). Chloe Wells is set to start her senior season after averaging 20+ a game this year, and will be joined by two double-digit scorers in rising sophomores Cassandra Mitchell and Bethany Collins.
Green Hope came a long way this year, and will only say goodbye to one senior starter. They must, however, find someone to play post to round out their lineup. Rising sophomore Kristin Gaffney is a great all-around player, but she'll be better off playing outside than guarding the other team's tallest player. Point guard Camille Forbes is a rising junior who turned heads with her amazing play down the stretch.
I've got Middle Creek in third because I love the top-to-bottom talent on this team. They don't lose as much as other teams do when forced to go to the bench. They lose just two seniors of this year's group and will have just one rising senior (Kristine Rishel) next year. The rest of the team will be juniors next year. Posting the kind of winning percentage they did as sophomores means this group could do some damage next year and even the year after.
In Rachel Collins and Keisha Gatling, Athens Drive will still have the best frontcourt in the area next season. The only problem for the Jaguars will be finding someone to replace dynamic playmaker Alyx Ingram. With four returning starters, I like this team to continue their success, but to a lesser extent. Ingram was the only thing keeping the Jags in some games, especially towards the end of the year when teams began successfully taking away Collins and Gatling. While Athens may slip some, they'll still be a playoff team next year.
Coach Denitra Hayes sounded like losing the program's first class of seniors would be a good thing for her team, but I'm not so sure. Sure, the Golden Hawks weren't the most consistent team and were lucky to finish second in a weak Greater Neuse conference, but hosting a first-round playoff game in the third year of existence is no small feat (especially with no one averaging double digits). I think Holly Springs takes a step back next year, but the experience gained with this year's playoff run will help the Golden Hawks lock up the final playoff spot in the Tri-Nine. Tiece Ford should be good enough as a junior to lead her team to wins against the conference's lower half.
Fuquay loses two seniors, and returns maybe the conference's most underrated player in Raquelle Keeton. Keeton scored 18.4 points per game in the Bengals' wins — not so much in the losses. How she does against HSHS's Tiece Ford could go a long way in getting the final playoff spot.
Cary will sorely miss Kelsey Campbell. But as good as Campbell was, the rest of the team finally came around at the end of the year. If the experienced gained in this year's playoff berth can carry over, the Lady Imps could be a sleeper going into the 2009-10 season as could...
...Panther Creek. I know the Lady Catamounts went 3-22 this year, but returning all five starters should be enough to put them in position to upset a few teams ahead of them on this list, and probably sweep...
...Lee County. The Lady Jackets will lose first team All-Conference selection Clarissa Crump, who virtually WAS the team this year. It's hard to imagine anybody else being able to fill her void, and remember, Lee finished next-to-last this year.
As far as Cary Christian goes, I'm calling it already. The Lady Knights will win a state championship after returning everybody from this year's state runner-up. And even if they don't for some reason, I'll call for it again in 2010-11 (they have just one rising senior). The other members of the Eastern Plains Independent Conference don't stand a chance.
I like Cary Academy to come back next year and improve upon some of the good things they did this year. The Lady Chargers collapsed at the end of the year, which might mean there was something wrong internally (they didn't just turn "bad" overnight). If that can get straightened out, I like Cary Academy to take second place in the TISAC behind Ravenscroft (which will lose Lindsay Cowher to Wofford this fall). The Lady Chargers bring back nearly everybody except athletic Dara Brown.
