Lady Hooper seek WCAC Title

9 | NWSLTR Lady Hoopers seek WCAC title

By Jamie Kaiser

Members and Coaches of the Bishop Ireton’s Womens Basketball team celebrated Senior Kennedy Cliftons signing to RICE university.

The Bishop Ireton Girls Basketball Team is beyond hungry this season. With COVID-19 cancelling WCAC play last year, our girls basketball team is chomping at the bit to get that title. With COVID-19 ending the 2019-2020 season, these girls are going into this year relying on veteran leadership and young talent. Coach Kesha Walton is entering her 3rd year as the head coach at Bishop Ireton. Previously she coached at nearby Alexandria City High School where she worked her way up from junior varsity head coach, to varsity assistant and later became the varsity head coach where she led her team to numerous conference and district championships along with regional and state tournament appearances. After serving an overall record of 181-31, she won 3 District Coach of the Year awards which led her to being named Alexandria City Sportsman Club Coach of the Year in 2017. With Coach not being able to realize the full potential of her past Lady Cardinal teams due to Covid, she and her coaching staff believe this is the time to capitalize on the hard work and time they have put up until now. After an outstanding high school career to this point Kennedy Clifton has committed to play basketball at Rice University on full scholarship. She is said by many to be the focal point of a very talented Lady Cardinals squad this year. I recently discussed this year’s team and what her goals are personally and as a team this season. “As a team our goal, like every other year, is to win the WCAC championship as well as the state championship. Even though we are young I feel like we have enough experienced players to get the job done.” Kennedy says. “Personally my goal is to make first team all WCAC and just be the best player I can be” Kennedy seemed very enthusiastic about the season as she should be. Hopefully players are able to gel this year and bring home a championship. Saniyah King, a sophomore guard on the team and senior guard Lauren Mingo also shared their thoughts about the upcoming season. Both are Division 1 prospects on this very talented Lady Cardinal team. Lauren proceeded to say “ The offseason training this year has really been a push. I don’t ever remember doing so much work in the preseason as a team. For our schedule we’re either lifting weights after school or we’ll have a two hour practice some days we’ll have both.” King continued saying “ Yeah it’s tiring most days and some days our hearts aren’t all the way in the workout, but we know that it makes us better as a team. Not too many teams are working as hard as us because we have goals and aspirations as a team that are hard to obtain for other teams, but our offseason training has made it so it won’t be hard for us with all the work we’ve put in” After speaking to these lady hoopers it’s not hard to say that their ready for games to start and translate all their offseason team and individual training to the court. With all these pressures and expectations the Lady Cardinals are more than ready to hunt for that trophy this year and bring a lot of hard work and memories with them. Don’t join the bandwagon too late and stay tuned for this special season to come for the Bishop Ireton girls basketball team.