1. East Carter – Most programs go through seasons, from time to time, where they must completely rebuild a given team, but such has not been the case at East Carter under Coach Hagar Easterling, who has never had a losing season during his long tenure there. It is the rare high school program that can lose six players to graduation (three of whom were starters), and receive a spot in the following pre-season Top 20. This year’s version of East Carter is one of those rare teams, having achieved over the last two seasons a school-record two-year combined record of 58-8. While East Carter has let several golden opportunities slip away in close Regional Tournament games the last few years, this year’s team looks primed to come away as the 16th Region Champion. East Carter has the best returning guard tandem in the region, if not the state in East Tennessee State commit Kristen Mayo (the region’s number 2 ranked player) and Haley Hall (the region’s number 4 ranked player). Kristen is an incredibly talented player with every skill set required of a Division I point guard. Along with her talent, Kristen has the heart, dedication and desire to win that can change the outcome of a game. The other half of the guard tandem is Haley Hall who is incredibly athletic and has the ability to keep the court spread because she can score from long range or drive the lane and torch a defender with her lightning quick first-step. Haley and Kristen had excellent summer performances at exposure camps throughout the summer with the West Virginia Thunder team on which they both played. can do everything on the court and helps keep the floor spread because you have to guard her way out past the 3-point line or she will torch you. This team has a surprisingly balanced team in which any player can score from anywhere on the court. This summer, East Carter played an incredible summer schedule and their post players, subs on last year’s post-heavy team, surprised a number of very good teams, including Elizabethtown and Mason County. Junior Bailee Brainard, who typically plays the five is extremely quick and has great hands, enabling her to make steals and block shots in bunches. Milena Clarke, also a junior is extremely strong, athletic and versatile, and like the guard tandem, had an excellent summer with her Kentucky Premier team. She showed her versatility this summer when she made the Vanderbilt Elite Camp’s All-Star team, leading her team to the All-Star Game Championship, playing the 4/5 spots and later playing in the Blue Chip/High Exposure Fall Showcase, leading her team to the Showcase championship and earning a spot on the All-Tournament Team, playing exclusively at the 2/3 positions. Bailee and Milena can both score in the post and from long-range, and both are effective at setting screens for Kristin Mayo and Mandy Langstaff, the fifth starter and only senior on the team, who provides leadership both on and off the court. If East Carter has a weakness this season, it is the lack of depth, and an injury to one of the starters would certainly set back their ability to win the regional championship. There is a lot of talent on the team, but the players are very young. Freshman Taylor Hall, Haley’s younger sister is expected to be the first guard off the bench this season. Like her sister, she is extremely athletic and is a two-sport athlete, also excelling in soccer. Although just a 7th grader, Harley Painter is a very polished guard who has excellent ball-handling skills, has good court vision and is very good long-range shooter. Like Kristen and Haley, Harely had an excellent summer of travel ball, playing with West Virginia Thunder. 8th grader Hannah Gallion is expected to be the first post player off the bench and is yet another physical presence who has a nose for the ball. East Carter looks primed and ready to take this year’s regional tournament based on their very impressive summer at team camps and elite camps at all levels both as a team and individually on the AAU/travel team circuits. Smart money has East Carter finally getting the monkey off its back in the Regional Tournament and regaining the 16th Region crown.

 

2. Boyd County- Boyd County is coming off an 18-12 record and has loads of returning talent, with an unmistakably huge hole to fill: Logan Fraley, who single-handling took over a number of games last year before signing with Marshall University, where her talent will on display in Huntington, West Virginia and Conference USA. Coach Pete Fraley, rightfully considered an excellent game coach, has another athletic team with experience, and the depth missing from East Carter’s team. Savannah Wheeler, the number 6 ranked player in the region is expected to do the heavy-lifting for Coach Fraley. Savannah can handle the ball and is very aggressive on both ends of the floor. Savannah is a hard-nosed player that loves to slash and drive hard to the rim, with a bevy of other guards around her who can also shoot. The Junior Reeves twins (Houston and Hunter) can fill it up and will help stretch the floor so Wheeler can drive, which provides the team’s primary post players, Senior Destiny Goins and Junior Alexis Lunsford, room to operate down inside If the need arises for additional players, Coach Fraley can rely on some very good young talent from the middle school, as Boyd County’s 7th and 8th grade teams both had excellent seasons. If Coach Fraley can keep his younger talent improving throughout the season, Boyd County will be one of the few teams that could seriously challenge East Carter for the 16th Region Championship. With Coach Fraley’s abundance of young, hungry talent and the fact that Boyd has fallen short the past few years, they may must be the team to beat once tournament time rolls around.

3. Fleming County- Coached by master-motivator and strategist Kristy Orem who seems to always find a way to give her team an advantage, which no one sees coming. Many people forget that Fleming County finished last year with a respectable 21-8 record and making it all the way to the 16th Regional Championship game before falling to Ashland in a close game. If Fleming County is to make a run even close to the one last year, Coach Orem will have to rely even more heavily than ever on all-around athlete, Junior Journey Steward, who is the 5th ranked player in the 16th Region. Like last year, Journey will have to bear the heavy load of carrying her team through the 16th Region if Fleming County is to duplicate their success from last year. Journey is a high-energy left hander who has a nice all-around game. She can impose her will on most teams in the region if they let her get into a rthym. The supporting cast will have to step up to keep Fleming in the top half of the region or they could slowly fade over the course of the season.

 

4. Rowan County- Coach Elaine Douglas, who led her team to a 13-10 record last season, returns some very talented players and she has added a potential game-changer in Morgan Berry, one of the top players in the region who transferred from West Carter. Morgan spent the summer, fine-tuning her skills with Kentucky Premier. Morgan can play multiple positions and will be a force both inside and outside for the Lady Vikings. Berry is a very athletic player, and many long-time 16th Region fans claim that she reminds them of her dad, Shay Berry, a former standout at West Carter. Rowan also has some very versatile returning players who compliment Berry’s skill set. Rowan County has the potential to surprise several higher ranked teams in the 16th region. Area teams can anticipate that their players will jell into a dangerous team capable of making a deep run in the Regional Tournament.

5. Lewis County- Coach Fite had an outstanding team last year that, though finishing 21-7 (a school record), was somewhat of a disappointment to the super-competitive coach. Unfortunately, Lewis County lost several of the best players in the Region to graduation, including Savannah Anderson, the school’s all-time leader in points and rebounds, Emily Frye, the school’s all-time assist leader who scored over 1300 career points, and McKenzie Thompson, whose energy and leadership on the court will be difficult to replace. Coach Fite himself was an outstanding high school and college player and his experience as an outstanding player has helped shape his coaching philosophy which has produced results on the court. This year, though, Coach Fite must call upon all of his experience and coaching acumen if he is to separate his team from the middle of the 16th Region pack. Coach Fite’s rebuilding job will most certainly center around his daughter Jaycey Fite (the team’s only senior) who many believe he will move from shooting guard to point guard. As a shooting guard, Jaycey has torched 16th region teams at a 43% clip from behind the arc, hitting over 300 3-point field goals during her career, while averaging 10.3 points per game. This transition, of course, will be no easy task, but she will receive a good deal of help from talented sophomore Abby Pick, who averaged 11 points and 5 rebounds a game. Abby is a versatile athlete who can score in many different ways. Junior Erica Frye will be tasked with replacing some of the energy lost on the defensive end, but she is not one-dimensional. She can accurately score from long-distance when given time and is set. Despite losing such talented players from last year’s team, Lewis County has a lot of depth with talented sophomores Gracie Yates, Allison Voyles, Jalyssa Cortez, freshmen Hailey Evans, Abby Applegate, and Tierra Tully. Coach Fite is no stranger to being labeled the underdog in the Region, and is very effective at motivating his players to excel in this role. Coach Fite is extremely effective in tweaking his team throughout the season and adjusting his style of play and motivational techniques to get the most out of his players. While Lewis County may start the season clustered in the middle of the pack of 16th Region contenders, don’t be surprised if this is the year he makes a deep run in the Regioal Tournament, upsetting some very good teams along the way.

 

6. Ashland-- Ashland Coach Bill Bradley has had one of the more impressive runs in the 16th region since the late Hall of Fame Coach, Hop Brown (West Carter) who in his prime dominated the region for more than a decade. Coach Bradley has been blessed with an abundance of outstanding talent over the last several years and has used his talent effectively to win several 16th Region championships. While Ashland graduated four outstanding seniors, it will take a near-miracle to overcome the loss of super-talented, highly-recruited Alexis Robinson, who is now playing with the Colorado Buffaloes. Although Ashland graduated such a talented group that would sink most programs, Coach Bradley has one remaining player, Sophomore Mykasa Robinson, arguably the Region’s best player, who has the potential to lead Ashland’s extremely inexperienced team to a respectable record, though it may be too much to ask for her to lead Ashland to yet another shot at a 16th Region Championship. Mykasa, the sister of last year’s unquestionable star, Alexis Robinson is ranked Number One in the Region’s best player and is one of the best players not only in the state, but the entire country, according to ESPN and the scores of high Division I programs recruiting her, including the nation’s unquestionably best overall WBB program, the University of Connecticut (UCONN). Mykasa has an incredible work ethic to go along with her outstanding skill set and pure, unadulterated talent, which she improved upon over the summer, playing successfully for Kentucky Premier’s top Nike EYBL team. Even with her freakishly athletic talent, Mykasa will be called upon to play to the very highest level every game, regardless of the opponent, for Ashland to have a chance to win. Coach Bradley has been a master at letting his best players showcase their talent, but for Ashland to make a move, of any kind, in the region this year, Coach Bradley will have to do his best coaching job and even that may not be enough. Ashland is a very, very inexperienced team excluding Mykasa, though tiny, but lightning quick Rachel Barber is capable of having a big night and Madeline Garner is an excellent 3-point set shooter. In any event, scoring and rebounding will be a factor for the Cats because, outside of Mykasa, no other player has played meaningful varsity minutes. no one that Ashland has varsity time on the court, besides Mykasa. If Ashland is to separate itself from the middle of the pack in the region, Coach Bradley may have to resort to using some very talented young players who have had a good bit of success at the middle school level, including guards Julia Parker and Jada Miller and post player Savanah Cade. Unless Coach Bradley can pull a rabbit out of his hat, this season may well be a transition year—a phrase devoted Ashland fans do not like to hear. Because of the strength of Mykasa Robinson, one of the nation’s best players, it would be foolish, however, to totally discount Ashland when tournament time comes around.

7. Russell – Russell has been very inconsistent over the last three years, going 15-17, 20-12, and 19-13—and losing in the first round of the Regional Tournament 53-26 to Ashland. Russell has a trio of very good, experienced players in junior post player Maggie Jachimczuk and sophomore guards Madison Darnell and Ty Mitchell. Coach Layne is hoping this outstanding trio can help carry Russell to a District championship and a shot at a deep run in the Regional Tournament. Jackumczuck, the 10th ranked player in the Region, is a prototypical center, who plays tough under the basket, is an outstanding rebounder and can score in the post, even when getting fouled. Her excellent free-throw shooting results in a lot of “old-fashioned” three-point plays for Russell. The only knock on Jackumczuk is that she is prone to foul trouble based on her aggressive style of play, which could represent a problem for Russell since Jackumczuk’s back-up from last year, junior Shelby Watkins, transferred to Greenup during the end of last year’s school year, leaving Russell without a proven player in the post. Darnell is an excellent scorer with size who also has polished ball-handling skills. Mitchell, often overlooked during Russell discussions, is a lighting quick guard, who makes steals in bunches and can score driving to the basket or from long-range. While Russell is starting the season with a number 7 ranking in the region, Coach Layne has the potential to develop some of the younger players she brought up from the middle school over the course of the season and make a strong push by season’s end.

8. Menifee County- Coach Paul Ricker is slowly building his program into a force in the 16th Region, finishing 12-15 two years ago and improving to 16-11 last year with a bright future ahead. Menifee County is ranked in the Region’s Top 10 based on Coach Paul Ricker’s rising program and on the strength of his star player, Ashton Woodard, the 7th ranked player in the region, whom he hopes will use her talents and leadership to build on the progression of his program over the last two years. Ashton is a player with a strong skill set and multiple tools that allows her to take over games at times. For Menifee County to rise above its number 8 ranking in the region, some inexperienced players must step up to provide much-needed help to Ashton, who is subject to being double-teamed on most nights. Menifee County’s success in building a strong girls basketball program remains s a year to year project, but with Ashton Woodard capable of going off in any given game, 16th Region teams had best not overlook the Wildcats or they may end up with an unexpected loss on their schedule.

9. Greenup County- First-year Coach Tyson Phillips will have his work cut out for him, getting his players to buy into his coaching system and yet another new style after Greenup’s third coach in four years. It will undoubtedly take some time for Coach Phillips to get his players to understand and execute yet another system because the players have been forced to learn so many different systems over the past few years. Hopefully, Greenup County has found a coach who is a good fit for its program and allow Coach Phillips to establish stability to the Region’s 9th ranked team. Greenup is led by outstanding point guard Micah Leslie, the 8th ranked player in the region, who has signed to play basketball with Asbury University. Michah, a two-sport athlete who has had great success on the tennis court plays with heart and never quits until the final buzzer, regardless of the score or the opponent. . Greenup is again this year with a new coach. Leslie isn’t the only talented player on the Musketeer program. Long-time starter Haley Vanlandingham is a talented post player who can be a force if given position and space. She has worked hard over the summer to improve her game, and these two players, with the help of the rest of the inexperienced, but hard working Lady Musketeers will hopefully improve throughout the season as they gain a better understanding of Coach Phillips system and have a chance to compete with Russell for the 63rd District championship.

10. Bath County – The good news for Bath County Lady Wildcats Coach Melanie Rogers is that she has super-talent Sarah Price, a 6’ 2” Western Kentucky University signee and 3rd ranked player in the 16th region, as the centerpiece of her team. The bad news is that she has little help for Sarah who imposes her will in the post and can drift out and knock down a 3. Sarah has great hands and great footwork. Sarah is a very level headed girl who continues to work on her game and was impressive over the summer, starting on West Virginia Thunder’s Number 1 travel team. It will not be an easy task for Coach Rogers to find a way to consistently get the ball in Sarah’s hands, which will spell almost certain failure for the Lady Wildcats. The 16th region is very guard heavy this year, and most 16th Region teams love to pressure the ball. Bath County really doesn’t have proven ball handlers who will be able to face the pressure of guards in the 16th region like a Mayo, Robinson, Hall, Wheeler and Steward, Leslie, Darnell, and Mitchell. On the other hand, there are no 16th Region teams who can match up with the height and talent of Sarah Price, if Coach Rogers can find a way to consistently get her the ball. It will be very tough for Bath County to earn a trip to the 16th Region tournament with the strength of the other 61st District teams this year (Rowan County, Fleming County and Menifee County).

 

11. Raceland- Coach Ronald Keeton will have a tough time improving upon last year’s 13-10 record though they have some talented players in senior guards Krystal Keeton and Savanna Mackie, and talented senior center Ashton Sipps, who is a tough player who rebounds well and can score in the post.

12. West Carter- It will take an abundance of good luck for Coach Aaron Rayburn to improve on last year’s 10-16 record, as he deals with the graduation of three seniors, leaving him with one senior, guard Lyla Evans, and a group of very young players who will have to mature and improve in a hurry if the Lady Comets are to move up in the 16th rankings

13. Fairview- Coach Rex Cooksey, Sr., is another 16th Region coach who has his work cut out for him after last year’s 10-14 record though he has a very good mix of senior leadership (in versatile athletes Kelcie McPeek and Aujanae Bohanna, centers Breanna Smith and Jessica Meeks, and forward Samantha Reynolds) and talented younger players. Unfortunately, Fairview is in the 64th District (which has only 3 teams this year, perennial powers Ashland and Boyd County).

14. Elliott County- Elliott County Coach Nancy Sloas will have a difficult time competing in the 16th Region this year, with the Lions coming off a 3-15 record and a roster comprised primarily 6th, 7th, and 8th grade players along with several freshman and sophomore players to provide help to senior forward Faith Blair and senior guard Makayla Rose. It will take this team quite a bit of seasoning before they are competitive in the 16th Region, most likely over a couple of years.

15. Morgan County- The Lady Cougars basketball team appears to be in a downward spiral with a 2013-14 record of 10-15 and a 3-20 record last year and another young team this year with numerous middle school and freshman players who must step up under the leadership of the team’s lone seniors, guard Jaycea Frederick and guard Amber Cole.

16. Rose Hill- will not field a team this year.

 

 

 

 

Region’s Top 10 Players

1.Mykasa Robinson, Ashland

2.Kristen Mayo, East Carter

3.Sarah Price, Bath County

4.Haley Hall, East Carter

5.Journey Steward, Fleming County

6.Savannah Wheeler, Boyd County

7.Ashton Woodard, Menifee County

8.Michah Leslie, Greenup County

9.Krystal Keeton, Raceland

10.Maggie Jachimczuk, Russell

 

(Honorable Mention and/or Poised for Breakout Year, alphabetically listed)

Rachel Barber, Ashland

Morgan Berry, Rowan County

Milena Clarke, East Carter

Madison Darnell, Russell

Madeline Garner, Ashland

Destiny Goins, Boyd County

Alexis Lunsford, Boyd County

Ty Mitchel, Russell

Abby Pick, Lewis County

Haley Valandingham, Greenup County

Edited December 1, 201510 yr by Jesse James

Great recap

curious as to why Jacey Fite was not listed in your players above

Good write up, overall! I think your assessment of Rowan County being good is spot on...however, they have a lot more than Morgan Berry. While they are excited to have her join the team and she does add a lot to the team...she may not be the best player on that team. Sarah Purdy gets overlooked and she has developed a nice jump shot along with her inside post moves. Allyson Callahan has a solid three point shot, along with post moves and very good with the ball in her hands.

 

Again, not saying Berry isn't really good...but she is one part of a team that will be pretty good.

Great recap

curious as to why Jacey Fite was not listed in your players above

 

While I post these write ups, I did not do them( I did one). Most writers talked to coaches I am sure and wrote the previews based on what they knew about the region. I am sure no slight was intended by any writer.

There are at least 4 coaches listed who do not coach the teams they are mentioned in.