Veterans’ Tracy Fendley seeing small improvements as season progresses

Coming into the year Veterans head coach Tracy Fendley knew they had a lot of work to do developing younger players before they could become competitive.

About a month after their scrimmage against Lamar County, which displayed just how much work they had to do, there are already some notable improvements especially between the starters.

The continuity between the elder group — Francesca Jones, Ayonna Scott, Rayven Hodridge (returned from softball) and some others — has helped everything on both ends of the floor.

But that’s what you expect from seniors. They’ve been to a Final Four, Elite Eight and Sweet 16 before and know what it takes to make those runs happen.

Those players sitting against Tift County is what dug the hole too deep to get out of, but that experience is valuable for the girls learning their way.

“I do feel like we’re slowly but surely getting there. We still have a lot of improvements to make and a lot to learn, and we’re still very young and we’re still working through some things,” Fendley said. “But I do feel like each game they listen to the constructive criticism. They get better and we’re making improvements.”

Freshman Simone Sadler is one player that’s stood out to Fendley as an early riser. She primarily serves as ball handling relief and has work to do on ball security and handling pressure.

“Simone’s coming around. She’s helping us out handling the basketball,” Fendley said. “We still have a long way to go with her but she’s really turning the corner. Her defense, her quickness helps us. She’s helping us a lot more than she’s hurting us.”

Five games is a short timeline to gauge improvement, but Fendley and her fledglings are making progress in hopes of hitting their stride during region play.

“I do think that the second half of the season we’ll be hitting on all cylinders, and I think it’s gonna be different for us,” Fendley said.