MOULTRIE — The Colquitt County basketball teams will travel to Cairo tonight for their preseason scrimmages with the Packer football team not far from their minds.
The Lady Packers want to build on the momentum generated by the 9-2 football team, which will play a second-round playoff game on Friday on the road against Stephenson.
The boys basketball team will be more closely affected by the school’s football success: a number of the players Coach Kirven Davis is counting on for the 2009-2010 season are still be in shoulder pads and helmets, and could be for as long as four more weeks.
Davis will take just eight players to meet the Syrupmakers tonight. Fortuntely one of them will be two-time All-Region 1-AAAAA front court player Nate Hill.
Joining Hill on the trip to Cairo will be Jay Tolbert, Trey White, Cornelius James, Dillon Presley, Lawhe Wingfield, Marshall Cone and Luis Ballenilla.
Despite going without expected contributors Amel Magwood, Tyrell Wright, Cameron Erving, Derrell Ward, Stacey Blackwell, Dehryan Arnold and others, Davis made it plain what his team’s goal is tonight
“We’re going there to win,” he said. “We’ve got to play. And this will give some of the guys an opportunity to play.”
Davis said he did not know much about the Syrupmakers, but did acknowledge that Cairo also will have several players still playing football.
The Packers are coming off a 11-18 record in 2008-2009 and will count heavily on Hill this season.
The Colquitt County girls are wearing shirts emblazoned with “Unfinished Business,” referring to the Region 1-AAAAA tournament championship that just eluded them last February.
The Lady Packers fell to Coffee 46-41 in the tournament championship game at the Espy Gymnasium, then were eliminated by Douglass High 43-37 in a first-round state tournament game, also on Colquitt County’s home court.
And the Lady Packers, who were 16-14 last season, will have to compensate for the loss of Nicolle Thomas, now at Auburn, and Ashley Patillo. The pair combined to score 25 of their team’s 37 points in the state championship game.
But coach Rondesha Williams sounds optimistic about a team she considers deep and versatile.
The Lady Packers are expected to start Umeika Henry, Shay Lovett, Sarah Strong, Persephone Taylor and Bria Wallace.
She also likes her bench, which includes Miranda “Bird” Trim, Brittany Taylor, K’wante’sha Love, Avery Castellow and Jordan Boyd.
Lovett is coming from knee surgery after injuring her ACL in a game last season.
“I feel like we have 10 who can contribute,” Williams said, adding that many of the players are versatile enough to handle multiple positions.
The team practiced hard over the summer, Williams said, playing through two-a-days that included one practice at 6 a.m. and another in the afternoon.
The team worked especially hard on making free throws this summer.
“They understand they have to want it,” Williams said. “I think they are looking forward to the season. I think we’ve got good chemistry.”
Williams said Cairo is just the kind of team the Lady Packers need to play before the season starts a week from Friday.
“We know Cairo will pressure us,” she said. “They’ll go man-to-man the whole game. We’ve got to handle the pressure.
“This game will provide an X-ray of the things we got to work on.”
Colquitt County will open the 2009-2010 season on Friday, Nov. 27 in Sylvester against Worth County. The home-opener for the Packers and Lady Packers will be the next night against Monroe.
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Colquitt to meet Cairo in scrimmages tonight
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