Page 22 SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 2020
Lady Highlanders
Star Photo Dawn Lambert
2020-2021 Cloudland Lady Highlanders
Lady ‘Landers returns core group in 2020-21 BY IVAN SANDERS STAR SPORTS EDITOR ivan.sanders@elizabethton.com
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Matt Birchfield Head Coach
here probably have been many nights since the final game of the 2019-2020 basketball season that Cloudland Lady Highlanders head coach Matt Birchfield hasn’t thought of their substate game at Oneida. In that game, a last-second shot sent the Lady Indians to the state tournament and brought an end to an ultra-successful season for the Lady ‘Landers.
The good news is a core group of those players returns for another season on Roan Mountain with big aspirations of taking it one step further this season and head to Murfreesboro. “We are hoping for big things,” said Birchfield. “We lost one senior from that team and have four returning starters and hope that we can put things together to get back to substate and the state tournament.” With a small team as far as height goes with the tallest of his players around 5’8 in senior post player Mandy Benfield, the coach knows that his team will have to win on the
www.elizabethton.com defensive end and be a good rebounding team to overcome the size differential. Birchfield realizes the road back has some pretty good conference teams looking to do the same. “It’s going to be another tough year,” Birchfield stated. “North Greene returns everyone from their state tournament team that lost in the first round. “They are going to be one of the front runners coming in. They have a 6’1 post player and have really good shooters. “Unaka was young coming in last season and they have gotten better. Kenneth (Chambers) does a good job with them and Hampton is in the same boat and will be a better team also.” One of the players that Birchfield looks to help provide leadership to his team this season is senior Jasmine Birchfield who was the leading scorer last season. The coach said that Birchfield is a wellrounded player who will be the go-to in leading the team this season. Senior Gracie Freeman will be looked to for more scoring this season to provide an offensive presence according to Birchfield. Other players for Lady Highlander fans to keep their eyes on will be senior Heaven Caraway, juniors Taylor Hicks and Karah Fields, seniors Leah Birchfield and Kaylen Fields, and freshman Saharra McKinney. “The last three or four years our middle school team has been pretty good and we are hoping to throw a lot of our players into the mix pretty quickly to build some depth,” said Birchfield. “We hope they can step in there and help us do that.”
