Lady Wolves Ready For New Season

WESSON - The 2021-2022 Lady Wolves finished 17-9 overall, qualified for the MACCC Tournament, and ended the season with an appearance in the quarterfinals of the Region 23 Tournament. Co-Lin head coach Gwyn Young says that this year's squad will rely on the experience their returners gained from last year to propel them to success this year.

"We have four players returning from last year's team that gained a lot of experience from the previous season and two of those were starters those players are Kiersten Ball (Louisville), Leilani Lewis (Baton Rouge, LA), Tandria Minor (Brandon), and Zykeria Anderson (Edwards)," said Young. "I expect those four to pick up where they left off last season, while hopefully our two transfer sophomores along with the incoming freshmen will mesh well together and push us towards success this season."

The 2022-2023 Lady Wolves roster includes 15 players including the four aforementioned returning sophomores. The two transfer sophomores are Brookhaven native Ayanna McNairy from Mississippi Gulf Coast where she played in 37 games. The other transfer is Summit native Jamey McDaniel coming Holmes where she played in 24 games.

"To be able to bring players in that have experience is a boost for us. Ayanna comes to us with two years of experience at Gulf Coast, while Jamey comes in after one year at Holmes where they both contributed for their teams and I am expecting them to do that for us," stated Young. "Any experience that we can bring in helps us especially when it is conference experience. They both know about the speed and quickness that we will face and have an idea of what the opposing teams will look like along with the level of play they need to bring for us to have success against them."

Incoming freshmen include Lashaunte Payne (Magee), Kaileigh Bilbo (Gulfport), Kayla Howard (Shaw), A'Shante Fleming (Canton), Malaysia Tate (Summerfield, LA), Kyja Willis (Brookhaven), Ceara Myers (Baton Rouge, LA), Breanna Grant-Hall (Wesson), and Kyla Farmer (Conehatta).

"We are working on getting our chemistry together before the season starts. We have seen some struggles on running things offensively in our early practices, but the girls are getting better," said Young. "We still need to work on communicating better and doing the same thing every time we practice it."

Coach Young also talked about the steps they are taking to help the incoming freshmen adjust to playing at this level.

"Most of the work goes back to focusing on fundamentals," Young said. "Coach Alexus Holt is doing a lot of individual work that is helping to improve their game. Our sophomores are also helping the freshmen learn about making sure that they are in the right position and learn that we as coaches are helping them to get better and prepare to beat the best team every time we play while also elevating their goals to beyond their current expectations."

Coach Young said that he has some high expectations for his incoming freshmen despite having to overcome some preseason obstacles.

"We are having to take a wait and see approach with some of our players in the early part of the season mainly due to injuries," stated Young. "We think Ceara Myers will be a big help for our team this season along with Kyla Farmer who is coming off an injury that is still working to being back to one hundred percent. Malaysia Tate is another player we think will be good for our team but has had an injury setback, so we are waiting to see what happens there."

"Our freshmen are really great athletes, but the injuries are causing them to miss crucial practice time before the season starts which is unfortunate for us and them," added Young.

Another newcomer for the Lady Wolves is a familiar face as former player Alexus Holt returns to Wesson as an assistant coach.

"Alexus played on some really good teams at Co-Lin and she knows what we want to try and do while keeping our standard at a high level," Young said. "Alexus has done a lot of work to improve her game including continuing her career at Grambling. I have let her handle basically all the individual workouts because she has an interest in that and has done it as a player. She has been able to take what she did as a player and transfer it to being a coach and helping our players get better. I think that she is going to be a great coach both now and in the future."

The Lady Wolves start their season with a road contest against Hinds on Thursday, November 3, and then will have their home opener against South Arkansas on Monday, November 7.