In 21 days, the Lady Marshals 2022-2023 basketball season under new head coach Jimmie Holder gets underway. Their first game comes in the Marshall County Hoopfest on December 1 against Lyon County. They have played one scrimmage on November 8 against Madisonville-North Hopkins and have one more scheduled on November 23 against Trigg County at Graves County.
After losing two of their leading scorers to graduation from last year’s 21-6 team in Halle Langhi and Jada Driver, they will also be playing this season without sophomore Skylar Waller, one of the top point guards in this end of the state. Waller suffered a shoulder injury, as Coach Holder puts it “in my first eight minutes as head coach” and will have surgery later this month.
Waller averaged 15.8 points per game last season, was a 40.5 percent 3-point shooter and shot 90 percent at the free throw line. She finished first in the state in free throws with 101 made out of 112 attempts over 22 games played.
Coach Holder held the inaugural Lady Marshals Media Day on Wednesday in Reed Conder Gymnasium and we asked Waller about her role now that she will not be on the floor.
“I hope to be a good example for everyone that’s playing”, said Waller. “I’ll be on the bench and will be supporting everyone. I’ll be out five to six months. It’s the same recovery time as my last injury but I hope to be back for AAU season in the spring.”
Coach Holder will now look to several players to see who will be the one to go to on the floor. Two of those players will be seniors Mia Teague and Georgia Hall, both with plenty of varsity experience. Teague now comes into the season as the player with the most total points from last season behind Waller with 143 and she spoke to their role as senior leaders.
“With the Lady Marshals basketball tradition held at a very high standard, we’ve got some big shoes to fill over the past three or four years as the senior girls have left”, said Teague. “We’re excited to take on the opportunity as leaders and do the best we can throughout the season.”
Hall agreed with Teague and added, “We are excited to get the season started. We’ve got a lot of new things going on with our new locker room and new jerseys.”
Senior Peyton Weitlauf feels despite the lack of varsity experience, she knows her teammates will step up to the challenge.
“We don’t necessarily have a whole lot of varsity experience…we have Mia and she’s going to come in and play like she did last year…but when it comes to varsity starters, we have a lot of people coming up that haven’t had a lot of varsity minutes”, said Weitlauf. “On and off the court, we’ve had a lot of people that have had to step up and start some new leadership roles so it will be good to see this season who puts us together on the court and who keeps us together off the court.”
Junior Chevelle Henson, who scored 105 points last season and comes in as one of the players with more varsity minutes, talked about the loss of Waller.
“It’s going to be a little bit different trying to get a new squad of five people to work together and figure things out while we’re on the floor together”, said Henson.
Weitlauf added, “Skylar is one of those ‘once in a lifetime players’…she works hard day in and day out…even being hurt she’s still working hard on the sidelines. She’s a great player but I think we have a lot of girls with just as much grit as she has so I think we’ll be ok.”
Junior Madyson Morton, who also saw playing time in most all varsity games last season and finished the year with 22 points, commented on how practices are going.
“We’re working hard”, said Morton. “Everybody is putting in the work, we’re constantly putting shots up and working on ball handling a lot.”
Junior Izzy Washburn, who saw playing time in all 27 of the Lady Marshals games last year, stepping in for Waller early in the season who was rehabilitating from her previous shoulder injury, spoke about filling that void.
“We’ll see as the season goes on when we play different opponents”, said Washburn. “He might change things up based on the game, which happened some last year. Sometimes we were a four guard lineup and sometimes we just went more big, so we’ll just see based on who we play this year.”
Like Washburn, sophomore Laken Schroader was another player called on off the bench often last season to which she said, “I think just being first off the bench last year helped us really gain confidence.”
When asked their thoughts on new Head Coach Jimmie Holder, Washburn said with a smile, “He’s fun and full of energy and I think that will carry over into the players.”
Varsity Roster
Seniors: Clara Boddy, Georgia Hall, Mia Teague, Peyton Weitlauf
Juniors: Amelia Boone, Chevelle Henson, Madyson Morton, Izzy Washburn
Sophomores: Laken Schroader, Jazz Smith, Skylar Waller, Jessica Wells
We will have more from the Lady Marshals Media Day from Coach Holder on Friday.
