Published: November 05, 2007 06:00 pm      

Winds of change in Orange-area girls hoops

There will be something different about the atmosphere in girls basketball this season.

We’ll never forget the powerhouse teams that both former West Orange-Stark Lady Mustangs coach Callie Orebo and former Orangefield Lady Bobcats head coach Sondra Ancelot put together the last several seasons.

However, change always comes around. Both coaches are no longer with their teams. Orebo stepped down but remains a teacher in the WO-S district while Ancelot is an assistant coach at Lamar University.

You want more changes. How about, for the first time in five years there will be no superstars named Brittany for the Lady Mustangs. Brittany James, now a sophomore at North Texas, and Brittany James, a freshman at the University of Houston, helped lead the Lady Mustangs to three regional tournament appearances in a five-year span.

In “Bobcat Country”, there will be no Sanders to lead the way for the first time in five years either. Both Katy Sanders and Kristy Sanders were key cogs in helping lead the Lady Bobcats to the 3A Regional Tournament the last two seasons.

Chris Jost will take over the Lady Bobcats, who went 28-8 last season, and the cupboard will be far from bare, especially with the return of senior shooting guard sensation Kaylin Little, who returns along with her 20.3 points per game as well as senior post Laura Riddick, who will likely improve on her eight points and six rebounds a game.

At WO-S, first-year coach Charles Thrash will try to rebuild the Lady Mustangs, who wrapped up the campaign 23-9 last year as he’ll be looking for a few youngsters to help the loss of District 21-3A Most Valuable Player Scott.

The Bridge City Lady Cardinals will break in a new coach as well in Alan Ashworth. Coach Ashworth has plenty of senior leadership, including the likes of Lauren Angelle and Jenna Angelle.

Both WO-S and Orangefield have quite a playoff streak going but will be challenged heavy by the likes of the Silsbee Lady Tigers and the Hardin-Jefferson Lady Hawks. The Lady Tigers return All-District performer Ang Green and her 20 points and 10 boards a game. The Lady Hawks return seven of their top 10 players as well after finishing fourth behind Silsbee, Orangefield and WO-S last season.

District 22-4A should be a crapshoot as well. Lumberton, which went to state in 2006 and went to the regional quarterfinals last year, lost All-State picks Courtney Wilson and Chelsea Pickering, after dominating the district for two seasons.

Central and Ozen should contend with the Lady Raiders for the top three spots with Little Cypress-Mauriceville, Nederland, Dayton, Vidor and Port Neches-Groves in hot pursuit.

LC-M, led by second-year head coach Amanda Ellerbee, should be much-improved this season and they have the return of All-District guard Ashley Anderson. In Vidor, second-year coach Edgey Arbuckle will turn to the leadership of senior Meghin Crawford and Cassie Kays.

In Deweyville, long-time coach Kristi Henderson will try to lead the Lady Pirates to their second straight playoff berth after placing third last year in District 24-2A and then fell to Woodville in bidistrict.

Several of the teams will get their season jump-started this week.

On Tuesday night, Orangefield will travel to Beaumont Central; Bridge City will play host to Beaumont Kelly; and WO-S will play host to Newton.

LC-M will open their campaign Nov. 13 by hosting Bridge City while the Deweyville Lady Pirates crank things up Thursday in the first round of the Warren Tournament.