ETV News stock photo by Dusty Butler
After losing four of their five starters, the Lady Dinos are hoping to get up to speed as quickly as possible. They will feature two seniors on the team, including the lone returning starter, Makenna Blanc. The rest of the team will include seven juniors and a handful of sophomores and freshman. “We didn’t have a ton of time in the summer, so our biggest goal is to help them learn how to play together,” said head coach Ted Bianco.
The competition will heat up when the region schedule arrives as Region 12 remains an extremely difficult test. Emery is bringing back a lot of experience while Richfield and South Sevier will continue to have large presences down low. “Emery, I thought looked really good [in the summer]. Richfield and South Sevier aren’t going to be quite as good as they were last year, but they’re still going to be big and tough inside,” Bianco said. “That’s going to be an area that we are going to be a little bit weak. We’ve got to learn how to get a little bit tougher down low because we don’t have a lot of big post players. Those three will be the teams to beat in our region right now.”
Both Richfield and South Sevier lost their talented guards from a season ago, but their post players will be coming back. “Last year, there were a lot of good guards in our region and, this year, there’s going to be a lot of good post players.”
On the state level, Judge Memorial will be the team to beat with their three incredible juniors. “Judge [Memorial] has the most talent coming back. They might have the best player in the state,” added Bianco. Anything can happen, however, “that’s why you play the game.”
There is a lot of work to do as the Lady Dinos prepare for the season, especially considering their inexperience. “The biggest thing is to get our younger girls that are coming into the varsity level to learn their role and accept their role, and play hard every night,” Bianco explained. “We’ve got to be patient on our end with them, and they’ve got to learn how to play a little harder on their end. If those two things can happen, then I think we’ll find some success by the end of the season. We’ll get better, that’s our goal.”
“We need to learn how to play together and gel as a team. If they do that, we’ll have some success,” Bianco reiterated. “I’m looking forward to getting started.”