Lady Cyclones

Page 6 SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 2020

Lady Cyclones

guard and went on to play at Milligan. She has coached at TA Dugger for the last two seasons. Alisha Mainer is a former Unicoi County and Milligan College standout and will bring knowledge of coaching the post position to the Lady Cyclones. Mainer was a coach on the Knox Carter team last season that made substate play. Andrews sees the Lady Cyclones at the top of the mix as well as a very good Sullivan East team. Happy Valley will be a team worth watching as well as Johnson County who came to an eyelash of reaching the regional semifinals in 2019-2020 and are a darkhorse according to Andrews. “I think that our league is tough again. Every night is going to be important. You can’t take anything for granted and can’t go to sleep on any team.”

2020-2021 Elizabethton Lady Cyclones

Star Photo/Ivan Sanders

Lady Cyclones have high expectations in 2020-21

BY IVAN SANDERS

STAR SPORTS EDITOR ivan.sanders@elizabethton.com

Since capturing a state championship a few years back, one thing that comes with the territory every season for the Elizabethton Lady Cyclone basketball team is lofty expectations.

That once again will be the case this season after the Lady Cyclones advanced to a substate game last season before falling one game short of the state tournament. “Obviously here at Elizabethton your expectations are high,” said Lady Cyclone head coach Lucas Andrews. “We are returning quite a few people who got some major minutes for us last year. “We also have some young people that is showing some promise so we are really excited about that. “We are kind of youth heavy as we only have three seniors but those three seniors have carried a lot of the load in past years and we feel confident about our young kids and freshmen that are coming in so we are excited with what we got,” Andrews continued. While the team is young in some aspects, Andrews has three players who have been in the fire alongside the head coach for the last three seasons and will be counted on heavily for the Lady Cyclones to keep their momentum heading into 2020-2021. “Morgan (Headrick) has carried the load for us quite a bit since she has been here her freshman year and keeping Torrie (Roberts) healthy are really keys for us,” Andrews said. “She has always been solid, especially during tournament time. “It feels like she kind of flips a switch and hopefully we can flip that switch from the start. Then we get a senior back that was hurt for most of last year in McKendra Norris that we are excited about getting her back.

“Lina (Lyons) and Renna (Smith) played a lot of minutes for us last year and we are going to lean on them quite a bit,” Andrews continued. “I know I say this every year, but it might depend on each night as to who steps up but I feel comfortable with that where we can throw people in and get reliable minutes.” “We talk about hanging our hat on the defensive end. That’s where we want to start everything and make sure we are solid and that gives us a chance to be in any game.”

Andrews has added a couple of assistant coaches this year that he will be counting on heavily from their past playing time and coaching. Melenda (Perry) Egolf was part of the Lady Cyclone state championship team as a

2020-2021 ELIZABETHTON CYCLONES

# name 3 olivia holly 4 lina lyon 11 Maggie rowland 15 McKendra norris 20 renna lane 21 Morgan headrick 23 Marlee Mathena 24 reiley Whitson 30 Kaiya simmons 32 torrie roberts 33 Maddie Fowler 44 Katie lee head Coach: lucas andrews asst Coaches: Maci andrews,

Melenda egolf, alisha Mainer, Gordon smith Manager: sam taylor & anna siepert Director of schools: richard vanhuss Principal: Jon Minton athletic Director: Forrest holt

2020-2021 elizaBethton CyClones sCheDule

December 3 at Knox Catholic (G) 11 at sullivan Central* 12 university high (B) 14 at Cosby 15 at David Crockett 18 at happy valley* 21-23 heritage Christmas tourney at Maryville heritage

January 2 Dobyns-Bennett 5 Johnson County* 8 unicoi Co.* 12 sullivan south*

15 at sullivan east* 16 Cosby 18 at university high (B) 22 sullivan Central* 23 David Crockett 26 happy valley* 29 at Johnson Co.* 30 Knox Catholic (G)

February 2 at unicoi Co.* 5 sullivan east* 9 at sullivan south* 12 at Dobyns-Bennett

*Conference Games