By Tony Burns
Sports Editor
EL DORADO - Parkers Chapel coach Mark Young said he wasn’t concerned with who his team matched up against in the 2A South Regional Tournament. The Lady Trojans just wanted to get there.
Parkers Chapel was upset in last year’s district tournament and found itself playing softball at least a week earlier than it had planned.
Motivated by last year’s failure, the Lady Trojans went 22-8 and earned a No. 3 seed in this year’s regional. They take on Caddo Hills today at 4 p.m. in Magnet Cove.
“It’s what we talked about from the time we walked off the floor last year when we didn’t get to this point. We were very disappointed in that and I was disappointed in that and disappointed in myself and the way that I finished the season last year,” Young said. “We told ourselves all year. If we get back to the position, we want to be better for it. I’m extremely proud of this group. They’ve given me everything they’ve got to give.”
The Lady Trojans won their third place game on Saturday to avoid the No. 4 seed. But, Young didn’t feel it gave his team any advantage other than momentum and confidence. He said Blevins nipped Caddo Hills at the buzzer.
“That’s about as even as you can get,” he said. “We weren’t avoiding anything other than just coming in off two losses. That’s the biggest thing for us. We won a ball game while we were shorthanded. That was big for us and big for the confidence of our team. I’d rather be going into the next tournament on a win than on a loss.”
Caddo Hills has a tradition of solid girls basketball. PC will face a fundamentally sound squad, especially on the offensive end.
“They’ve got a good group of players. They’re all good basketball players who can make good basketball moves,” said Young.
“They don’t really play a traditional post player. They shoot the three. They can drive. They’re going to be, probably, one of the better offensive teams we’ve faced from top to bottom. We’ll have to really be on top of our game defensively.”
Offensively, the Lady Trojans rely heavily on the post tandem of Bailey Norwood and Terri Malone. Teams have used a variety of defenses against PC. Young isn’t sure what to expect from the Lady Indians.
“They play mostly man-to-man. They’ll play some zone, will press a little bit here and there, pick you up full court,” he said. “I think they even came out in a box-and-one in a game the other day in the district tournament and shut down their opponents’ best player in the second half. I don’t think there’s anything they won’t do to win a game.
“We have an advantage with our inside game but their advantage is with quickness and athleticism. They could pack it in or they could come out and try to pressure us and keep us from getting it inside with ball pressure. We’ve seen a little bit of both.”
PC was hampered by illness last week.
Young said the team didn’t practice much on Monday or Tuesday. He hopes to be in good health tonight.