ADDISON, Ala. – This year’s Addison Lady Bulldogs team is returning a lot more experience to the court than they had just a season ago. Last year’s Lady Bulldogs were the youngest that Head Coach Bailey Boland has had in her five-year tenure, and they struggled early on but continued to improve throughout the season and came away with five wins. Boland believes that the experience her team gained last year will be invaluable when they tip things off Monday.
“We had some girls that really had to step up and play a lot of minutes that weren’t quite ready for the spotlight. I know that those ladies will be used to the pressure of playing major minutes in a varsity game this year,” Boland said. “I believe that our frontcourt will be the strength of this team this year. We are very deep there, and we have some girls that can and will get physical with you. Ava Bartlett, Mattie Johnson, Reese Osborne and Karsen Wyatt played well for us last year and got better as the year progressed. We have Senior Katie Barrett back this year. Katie and Lauryn (Cunningham) took last year off, and both are back with us and will improve us as a team. They each have multiple years of varsity experience for us to lean on.”
The depth in the front court will help Addison in dealing with foul issues. Each of those young ladies will play solid defense and help control the glass.
The area that may need some attention is the back court. Last year the Lady Bulldogs really struggled early in the season with guard depth. The Lady Bulldogs had two ballhandlers, senior Hadley Butler and junior Gracie Roberts, and Butler missed the first half of the season with an injury. Essentially, Roberts was the lone point guard on the Addison roster for half the season. Now with Butler graduated, Roberts returns, and they have Cunningham back to replace Butler.
“I know that we will be able to score around the rim. With our aggressiveness and size, we should be solid in the paint,” Boland said. “I feel comfortable with Lauryn (Cunningham) and Gracie (Roberts) in the backcourt. I am going to need some younger girls to step up and be able to help us in the backcourt this year. It may not be until later in the season when they get more experience, but we are going to need more depth there.”
This is Coach Boland’s fifth season as Head Coach of the Lady Bulldogs, and she has made it to the Northwest Regional at Wallace State in two of her five years. With more depth and experience returning this season, Boland is confident her team can make a push at another trip to Regionals and hopefully even further.
“I knew last year was going to be a rebuilding year due to our youth. I was very proud of the girls as they grew as players and as young women. This year with our added experience I really think that we can make it out of our area and into the playoffs.”
Addison’s area includes county foe Meek, and two Cullman County Teams, Saint Bernard and Cullman Christian Academy.
The Addison Lady Bulldogs will tip off their varsity season on Nov. 11 at home against Corner. Tipoff is set for 5:30 p.m.
All in all, this year’s Addison Lady Bulldogs team has some pretty high expectations but no matter what, these young women will play hard and compete every night that they are on the court. On to Wallace State!
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