LYNCHBURG, TN (September 24, 2012) – The Aaron Holland era has begun at Motlow College, and the new Lady Bucks head coach is fully confident that his first squad will establish his program as a winning program that graduates players and opens opportunities for them to continue their education and basketball career.
“We are committed to doing things the right way,” says Holland, who came to Lynchburg from Arkansas State University in Jonesboro, Ark. during the summer. “We expect to win and we expect to graduate, and anything less than that is not meeting our standards. We are setting that tone from the start.”
Although this is Holland’s first opportunity to be a head coach, and despite the fact that he got a late start on recruiting because of his late hire date, he believes his first Lady Bucks team is talented enough to compete for the TCCAA championship. They begin that process with the official start of practice October 1.
“Competing for conference championships should be the expectation for our program every season,” continued Holland. “If we ever go into a season thinking we have no chance to win a championship then we are doing something wrong. We expect to win at Motlow College in all sports.”
The Lady Bucks will open the 2012-13 season when they travel to Dayton, Tenn. to face non-conference opponent Bryan College on Friday, November 2. The first home game is also the first Tennessee Community College Athletic Association (TCCAA) contest, with Columbia State scheduled to visit Copperweld Arena on Friday, Nov. 9, with tipoff at 6 p.m.
Holland will have four returning sophomores, a sophomore transfer, and eight incoming freshmen on this first Lady Bucks team. He sees potential in this group, but also realizes there is a lot of hard work required to move from showing potential to winning games.
“We have had a very productive off-season,” he added. “Our players have worked hard in their individual workouts. Now it’s time to come together as a team and develop chemistry and begin to define our roles. We all understand that it will take some time for that process to take place.”
Returning for their second season at Motlow are Calvesha Flowers, Presley Owen, Lekera Taylor, and Danielle Ervin. All four started at times last season and all four are expected to be significant contributors this year.
“Our four sophomores have shown leadership during the offseason by helping the newcomers settle in and teaching them how we do things at Motlow,” said Holland. “I expect them to continue that leadership on the court.”
The freshman class is led by former Grundy County star Chelsey Wiseman, who originally signed to play at Morehead State. Wiseman averaged almost 22 points per game during her high school career and scored over 2,000 points. Former teammate Haley Sons joins Wiseman. Sons averaged over seven points, seven rebounds, and seven assists her senior season at Grundy County.
A pair of former District 8-AAA players are also part of the freshman class. Chernita Smith played her high school ball at Shelbyville Central and Lacy Gaines played in Winchester at Franklin County. Smith averaged 13 points, four rebounds, and four assists per game; while Gaines averaged 10 points, six rebounds, and five steals per game.
Kinashia Russell, who was the best defensive player on Clarksville’s state tournament team the past three years, is now a Lady Buck; as is Casey Milan, who averaged 15 points, five rebounds, and seven assists per game for Gallatin last year. Ken’tesha Ward averaged over nine points and seven rebounds for Mitchell last season.
Also joining the Lady Bucks for her freshman season is Bianca Mason from Northwest High School in Opelousas, Louisiana, and for her redshirt freshman season is LaShaundra Rice, a guard from Glencliff.
Visit the official website of Motlow Athletics at <www.motlowsports.com> for rosters, schedules, stats and more. Interact with Motlow Athletics at <Facebook/MotlowSports> and <Twitter@MotlowSports>.
