By TYLER HENRY
Salina Post contributor
After finishing their 2019-2020 season with a final record of 6-16 the Abilene Cowgirls basketball team is looking to take the next step in 2020-21.
Mike Liby returns for his second season as the head coach of the Cowgirls.
When Abilene tips off their season at Smoky Valley on Friday, their lineup will look something like this.
PG: Joy Clemence (Jr)
G: Allison Liby (Sr)
G: Reagan Ditto (Sr)
G/F: Jenna Hayes (Jr)
C: Abi Lillard (Sr)
Abilene will also look for big bench contributions from Claira Dannefer and Alice Bathurst.
We had a chance to talk with Coach Liby about his team ahead of the 2020-21 season.
Q: What was the overall feeling from you and your girls about how your season went last year?
A: Our record is a little deceiving, we actually upset Wamego in the sub-state quarterfinals and moved on to play Clay Center, so we ended the season really well. We were taking teams down into the last three, four or five minutes of games at the end of the season, we just couldn’t get the scoring that we needed. So we feel like we’re coming off a little bit of a high from the end of last year.
What has been your biggest focus in terms of what you want to add to the culture of girls basketball here at Abilene?
What is being a member of a team? I think that’s what we’re really trying to focus on from what we wear to games to what we do when we take the floor. We’ve really been trying to get our team to realize that in order to be successful it’s going to take all five of them playing together as a family and as a team.
What would you say is this team’s biggest strength this season?
We’re probably a tighter group than we were at any point last year. We have some great coaches and I think the closeness of our girls will be a big strength of ours.
And your biggest weakness?
I think our weakness might be the chemistry on the floor, that takes time to develop. Adding some freshmen this year kind of adds to that but that’s something we need to focus on, just getting that timing down between our girls.
Who are one or two girls that you think Abilene fans should keep an eye on this season?
I think you’ll see Jenna Hayes stand out, she’s played since her freshman year and she’s really stepped into a leadership role. I also think Joy Clemmons at the point will bring some things that she brought off the bench last year to an even bigger extent.
What is your expectation for your team as we head into a new season?
We’re looking to be competitive in the league, Clay Center will be very good again but we want to be competing for that and we want to be competitive in whatever sub-state we end up in. We pride ourselves on playing really good team defense and we expect that to continue.
Abilene will tip off their season at 6pm on the road against the Smoky Valley Vikings.