This season, despite only two returning players, Parkland Women’s Basketball has only one goal: Win and win a lot.
After making it to the second round of last season’s NJCAA DII National Tournament in Jean Demosthenes’s first season as head coach, it would be easy to assume that coaches and players alike would be satisfied. On top of that, add the new influx of youth on the team, and you can start to see why one could assume this season’s aspirations might be lowered.
However, after sitting down and talking to coach Demosthenes and the only two returning players, Siarah Brown and Lucy Fearday, they made it crystal clear that instead of settling, they plan to “have the same success if not [do] better than what we did last year.”
As aforementioned, this team is refusing to settle, and that includes coach Demosthenes as well. Throughout the summer, Demosthenes set out to gain more knowledge about the game and how to be a better coach.
“As a coach I am always learning, always growing. I think hanging around some of the top coaches in the country over the summer has really expanded my knowledge from a coaching standpoint, from a leadership standpoint, as well as ways to communicate [effectively] with the players to get the result you want. I think I’ve grown in that area tremendously.”
Due to the lack of familiar faces, Fearday explained why this preseason has come in handy. “I think preseason is super important, especially this year…we have a lot of freshmen and two transfer students. Nerves are super big at the beginning of the season, so being able to tackle those early [has been helpful]…we’ve had a good start, but [we want] to continue to build on…working together and finding our game.”
The team’s first game of the season is Nov. 1, at home against Moraine Valley Community College. Regarding that game, Brown believes the team should “set a tone, so we can show them who Parkland is – we’re not some babies or somebody to push around.” Fearday concurred with her teammate’s belief, stating, “…We are a young team, people might not be expecting much – like we might be considered an underdog, but just showing them that’s not who we are, we have a ton of talent this year.”
Adequately, coach Demosthenes has provided his players with a season-long game plan to facilitate success on the court. Last season, the team averaged 78.7 points per game, which was 14th overall and ranked 8th overall in assists per game, yet the team ranked 85th in 3-point attempts per game, with a pretty good 3-point percentage at 31.8%.
A high-scoring offense that attempts a below-average amount of threes can only mean one thing: Fast-paced transition basketball. The team had good reason to get in the paint in hopes of creating opportunities at the free-throw line. Last year, they boasted the second-best free throw percentage overall in NJCAA DII Women’s Basketball.
The formula makes sense – push the ball up the court and attack the defense before they are set in order to increase your chances of getting fouled, which inherently also increases your free throw attempts. And when you were as hot from the free-throw line as last season’s team, why wouldn’t you take advantage?
This season’s game plan builds on that. Coach Demosthenes wants his team “to attack the rim a lot more. I am hoping to increase the amount of paint touches that we get because the more paint touches you get, the more likely you are to increase your field goal percentage. So, if we can increase the field goal percentage inside the paint, I think it [will] make the outside shooting more open for us.”
Opening up 3-point shot opportunities by driving into the paint, drawing in defenders and then kicking out to an open shooter is nothing new in basketball and is actually very common at all levels. What makes or breaks this strategy is having capable shooters who can cash in on said opportunities.
Luckily, the Cobras have at least one proven sharp-shooter in Brown, who last season shot a 24th-ranked 37.8% from three, with Fearday hoping to compliment Brown by expanding her game this season through improving her 3-point percentage and just shooting more threes in general.
Parkland Women’s Basketball stands out in a world where many organizations, teams, and people are too afraid to be passionate. Brown, coach Demosthenes and Fearday seem to be the driving force on the team; the passion and dedication to their craft is not something you come by any day. You could tell by the way they talked about basketball, each other, and Parkland’s Women’s Basketball program; this is something they love. For them, basketball is no longer just a game. It is their passion.
As mentioned previously, their first game of the season is at home on Nov. 1, at 5:30 p.m. at the Donald Dodds Athletic Complex, which is in building P. The team also has a game the following day, Nov. 2, at 1 p.m. again at the Donald Dodds Athletic Complex.
