By Michael Lindsay
White County Warriorettes
The White County Warriorettes are less than a week from tipping off the 2023-’24 season, and with it comes high expectations for head coach Michael Dodgen’s team.
“We’ve got some good returning pieces, but we lost a lot in 5 seniors (from last season),” Dodgen said. “We’ve had to plug some kids in that played a little bit last year. It’s been a relearning and reteaching experience, but we’ve got good pieces to build around in Celeste Reed and Ava Jones in the post. Our guard play will be critical this year.”
The Warriorettes went 22-12 last season and 8-4 in District 7-3A before falling to Lincoln County in the Region 4-4A quarterfinals. Seniors from last season include Nia Powers, KK McDonald, Lexie Golden, Karley Gentry and KB Frasier.
White County returns experience in the paint as senior forward Celeste Reed was named first-team All-District 7-3A last season while junior forward Ava Jones was a third-team selection.
“We have to have a lot of leadership out of Celeste and Piper Price,” Dodgen said. “They’re our only seniors, so they have the big task of leading a young team. This is Ava’s third year playing significant time for us.”
White County will look for multiple young guards to fill roles from last season.
“We’ve got Lakelyn Grasty starting at our point guard,” Dodgen said. “She played in every game last year so she’s got experience.”
Sophomore guards Bella Winningham and Gracie Clark are expected to compete for starting positions along with freshman guard Ashlyn Selby.
“In this day, most younger kids that are good quality basketball players play high-level AAU, so stepping in as a freshman isn’t as unheard of as it was 10 years ago,” Dodgen said.
“We’ve got to become a better defensive basketball team,” Dodgen added. “Last year, we were able to average about 68 points per game but we were giving up almost 60. We’ve spent a lot of time on that in the preseason along with being able to play fast-paced on offense.”
The Warriorettes face a loaded non-district schedule before Christmas that includes Smith County, Cannon County, Warren County, Murfreesboro Central Magnet, Soddy Daisy and Van Buren County before hosting the Frank’s Shootout.
“The positive is we’re not going to play a district game until after Christmas, so we’ve got a lot of time to get some chemistry,” Dodgen said. “We’re playing some teams early that will challenge us and it’ll be good for us.
“For the Frank’s Shootout we’re bringing in Webb Bell Buckle, Ensworth, South Gibson, York Institute and Warren County,” he added. “All of our schedule is good for us to challenge ourselves.”
District 7-3A opponents include Cumberland County, DeKalb County, Livingston Academy, Stone Memorial and Upperman. Both Livingston Academy and Upperman qualified for the Class 3A state tournament last season with LA finishing runners-up.
The Warriorettes’ season is scheduled to tip off Tuesday, Nov. 16 against Smith County.
White County Warriors
Fresh off a Class 3A state tournament appearance, the White County Warriors enter the 2023-’24 campaign with plenty of new faces in the lineup.
White County returns only one starter following the graduation of six seniors from last season’s team.
“We’ve got to establish an identity and get the foundation to what we want to do,” said Warrior head coach Eric Mitchell. “A lot of them think it’s their turn, but we have to go out and earn it. We’re young and don’t really know what we’ve got; we know we’re athletic and know we’ll be good defensively, but where’s the offense going to come from? It’s going to be a real adjustment for us.”
White County added plenty to the trophy case during last season’s 24-12 campaign including a Region 4-3A championship, District 7-3A runner-up and Class 3A state tournament appearance. Seniors from last season include Tomas Paul, Jakeb Davis, Japheth Richmond, Christian Henderson, Thomas Brock and Logan Dickerson.
“The majority of these kids were on that team, so they know what it takes and know the Warrior tradition,” Mitchell added.
The Warriors return one starter from last season as point guard Tripp Pinion is back for his junior season, but Warrior fans may have to wait longer than anticipated for his return.
“We’ve had a bit of setback since Tripp hasn’t practiced yet; he got hurt in the DeKalb (football) game,” Mitchell said. “We’ve had to adjust for that; Tripp does basically everything for us. This summer, he took an extra step and led us in scoring and rebounding. Tripp was region MVP and never takes a play off.”
The Warriors are expected to start freshman Cole Sims at point guard during Pinion’s absence. Sophomore transfer Lucas Smith is also expected to start at guard alongside junior Lucas Dickerson.
Rising senior forward Jackson Young returns from injury this season and is expected to start along with Gage Stephenson, Mason Steele, Nathaniel Griffin and junior Keaun Lewis vying for starting positions.
“We want to hang our hat on the defensive end,” Mitchell said. “We’re athletic and play hard. Right now on offense, everybody is trying to do too much. They don’t know their roles yet and that’s what we’re trying to work on right now.”
Non-district foes for the Warriors include Smith County, Cannon County, Warren County, Murfreesboro Central Magnet, Van Buren County and Soddy Daisy before hosting the Frank’s Shootout. District 7-3A opponents include Cumberland County, DeKalb County, Livingston Academy, Stone Memorial and Upperman.
“We have some games against solid schools our size; it’s been hard to get games the last few years. A lot of teams don’t want to come play here,” Mitchell said. “District wise, it’s tough. You’ve got great coaches and players. It’s a dogfight night-in and night-out. Everybody is a rival and our gym is packed every game.”
White County’s season is scheduled to tip off Tuesday, Nov. 14 against Smith County.