Article published November 27, 2009
Spartans look to repeat last year's success
Start hopes to make another trip back to the state tournament led by, from left, Jaymie Jackson, Tiffani Blackman, Azia Bishop, Maleeka Kynard, Jaime Williams and Keia McCarver.
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THE BLADE/LORI KING
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By STEVE JUNGA
BLADE SPORTS WRITER
After a season of firsts, the Start Spartans look to be reloaded and ready for a run at another first as the high school girls basketball season tips off tonight.
Led last season by their All-Ohio first-team senior post player Yolanda Richardson, coach Bob Brown's Spartans posted their first City League, district and
regional championships in school history en route to a 22-4 finish and the first appearance for a CL team in a state final in 28 years.
Although that magical season closed with a 52-38 loss to powerhouse Cincinnati Mount Notre Dame in the Division I final, Start served notice on the strength of girls basketball in the City League.
"It was an unbelievable run," said Brown, who enters his fourth season with the Spartans. "The girls knew they were good, but they didn't know how good. Obviously making it to the state finals was an unbelievable accomplishment.
"The school really started following us a lot more and I think we gained numerous new fans because of the success we had. For me it was exciting. It was a great thing. We just fell a little short."
With Richardson, who is now playing for the University of Toledo, as the only graduate who saw significant playing time last season, Start's sterling group of returnees appears to have the tools to make another bid at a state title."Any time you lose an all-state player you're going to have to pick up the slack from a lot of different places," Brown said. "Hopefully, we have enough talent to do that. Some people lose an all-state player and those players come around maybe once in many years. I think we're in a different situation. We've got enough talent that we can fuigure out different ways to score. We're going to have to find what type of team we are compared to what we were a year ago."
Back are six of the Spartans' top seven players from a year ago, including standout junior point guard Maleeka Kynard, who committed to Ohio State last spring.
"Maleeka is definitely a leader," Brown said. "She leads by example through her effort at practice. She's one of the hardest workers that I've ever been around. She never slacks."
Kynard (12 points per game) is one of five current Spartans to have either committed to or received Division I scholarship offers from major conference schools.
"We learned a lot from going to state," Kynard said. "We went hard last year, and this year we've got to go 10 times as hard to get back to where we were and win it. That experience boosted our confidence.
"We were the first team in Start's history to make it that far, and we want to win state. I expect everything we had last year, and even to be better this year. We should be able to take that experience and put it into this year, play even harder, and do what we've got to do to win."
Guard Tiffani Blackman, the lone Spartan senior expected to see significant playing time this year, has committed to Seton Hall of the powerful Big East Conference, while 6-2 junior forward Azia Bishop, sophomore guard Jaymie Jackson and 6-4 sophomore forward Cedra Evans, a transfer from Florida, have all been offered by Syracuse.
"I think what happened last year is going to help us a lot," Blackman said. "That gave us a lot of good experience. With the girls we have back and me being one of the only seniors, I have to be a leader on and off the floor and help them understand what it means to get that far, and what our goal is. That's to win a state championship.
"I'm very confident. Everyone has gotten better. Our starters are better and the girls that came off the bench are better. I can see us making it back to state and actually winning it.''
"Tiffani, being our main senior that will play a lot, she's our vocal leader for sure," Brown said.
Adding to the mix are experienced junior guard Jaime Williams and Keia McCarver, and incoming standout freshman guard Chayron Sweeney, and Brown likely has the makings of a legitimate state-title contender for this season and next.
"Hopefully everybody's gotten better, which I think they have," Brown said of his returning core. "They've all gotten a little stronger, and we're going to play a little bit different than we did before.
"We're going to pressure people a little more and we're going to trap more. Last year we just grinded out against people and didn't necessarily want to play a game in the 60s and 70s. We're going to play a lot faster this year."
To maximize his team's potential, Brown has arranged an appropriately challenging schedule outside of a tough-at-the-top City League.
Last season, Start's four losses came against four teams which all won state titles - Mount Notre Dame, which won its fourth straight D-I title, South Euclid Regina and Columbus Africentric, which won Ohio crowns in divisions III and IV, respectively, and Detroit Country Day, which capatured its second straight Michigan Class B championship and ninth in 14 seasons.
It gets no easier for Start this season, as the Spartans' seven nonleague games have been filled by top-notch opponents.
It starts with a home test against Columbus Brookhaven next Friday. Start will also play
Southgate Lathrop and Hathaway Brown in the Spartan Classic, Mount Notre Dame and national power Potter's House of Gainesville, Fla. in the Classic in the Country at Berlin Hiland, and two of Tennessee's top teams in the Bragging Rights Classic in Columbus.
"I think it helped a great deal, just the experience we gained playing on the biggest stage," Brown said of the impact of last year's tourney run. "Hopefully, they aren't going to be rattled by a normal situation because they've all had that experience."
Start's first steps prior to tourney play and within the district won't be easy ones. Last year, the Spartans had to knock off Waite, which is a strong contender again this year.
"It's going to be extremely difficult to repeat in the City League," Brown said. "Waite is a senior-laden team and has one of the best players in the country. We're going to have to figure out some way to slow her down a little bit. "But I like our team, and we gained a lot of experience last year."
Contact Steve Junga at:
sjunga@theblade.com
or 419-724-6461.
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