1 SPORTS
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2009
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DECATUR, ILLINOIS
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Herald & Review/Kelly J. Huff
Megan DeWerff is back for another season at Pana and will be one of the veterans trying to keep the momentum the Panthers gained during the second half of last season.
Pana making cents Experienced Panthers will rely on hard work to again be competitive By LEROY BRIDGES H&R Staff Writer
PANA — A penny for a hard day of practice is all Pana’s girls basketball team wants. Monetarily it’s nothing, but mentally it’s everything. When the Panthers take the floor for their first game against Belleville East on Friday, they want to know they did everything possible in practice. That’s why coach J.R. Boudouris gives his team a penny with the hope that the Panthers are doing at least what Belleville has done in preparation for the season opener. “It’s hard to quantify whether things are going well or not in practice,” Boudouris said. “It’s a source of pride.” Boudouris knows earning 17 pennies — the number of practices from the beginning until Friday — doesn’t guarantee a win. But he knows it means his team did what it could to be ready for a game that the Panthers will be the underdog in as the smaller school. “It’s with that underdog mentality,” Boudouris said about his team’s preseason preparation. “We have to make sure we’re doing everything work ethic wise.” Hard work is something Boudouris is starting to expect from the group he has. After finishing 27-4 and making the Sweet
‘We constantly preach to our kids, go as hard as you can as long as you can ...’ J.R. Boudouris, Pana coach 16 in 2008, last season was one giant learning experience. The team had only two seniors and hard work was one of the things Boudouris could count on from game to game. “I could count on one hand the number of times where I felt like we weren’t in a game last year,” Boudouris said. “We were just very competitive.” After going 7-8 before January, the Panthers finished the season 76, including a two-point win against Nokomis in regionals. During that time, then-sophomore Allison Allen established herself as a legitimate post player and earned second team all-South Central Conference honors. “She has really come a long way,” senior guard Megan DeWerff said about Allen. “She started out timid, but she has gotten so much stronger and this season we’re counting on her.” Allen, DeWerff and junior point
guard Jessica Etter are three starters who anchor Boudouris’ lineup and were direct recipients of available playing time last season. Now, the trio leads a team hoping to make a postseason run similar to 2008’s team. “Megan’s a hard-nosed kid who’s worked extremely hard the last three years at making herself better offensively,” Boudouris said. “And Jessica leads the break as well as anybody I’ve ever had. “They know we have the potential to be even more successful than last year,” Boudouris said. The list of contributors doesn’t stop there. In six years of coaching, this is Boudouris’ deepest team. He believes he can count on 10 girls to play consistent minutes, which will allow him to push the ball offensively and pressure the ball defensively. “There have been times where, due to foul trouble, we have had to back off the pressure, but it’s going to be a situation where we can go full throttle,” Boudouris said. “We constantly preach to our kids, go as hard as you can as long as you can and we will get someone else in to do the same thing.” The Panthers will put their 17pennies worth of hard work to the test in their opener Friday at Belleville East. lbridges@herald-review.com|421-6970