Dodgen Likes Warrior Work Ethic To Start Season

Entering his 10th season as head coach, White County Girls Basketball COach Michael Dodgen said he is excited to see his roster compete for a district title in a highly competitive region.

Following a 31-4 2023 campaign, Dodgen said the team will have to replace the scoring, rebounding and leadership from graduated seniors Pyper Price and Celeste Reed. He said he has seen a lot of positives from his new roster during off-season sessions, mainly their work-ethic.

“I mean, they are working out everyday, conditioning, shooting,” Dodgen said. “We’re doing different things, you know. We’re trying to crank it up a little more here over the next two weeks right before the first day you can officially start on November 4th.”

With his roster consisting of dual sport athletes that just wrapped up their fall sport seasons, Dodgen said he expects those soccer and volleyball players to be up to basketball speed shortly. With opening night a month away, he said that he likes his chances of making some postseason noise with this squad.

“We’re really excited,” Dodgen said. “As everybody is going to say, you got to stay healthy and I think if we can stay healthy throughout the year and be healthy going into the postseason, I think we’ve got an opportunity to have a really good basketball season.”

Dodgen said he has his eyes on a few players that will be new contributors with the loss of Reed and Price. He noted that Ashlyn Selby and Kyra Fox are returning players that will be seeing the floor more and he said he expects them to thrive in their expanded roles.

And with a new class of freshman on the roster, Dodgen identified Sarah Winfree is a ninth grader that will be a role player coming off the bench this season.

“She’s just a kid that’s came in and matured and gotten stronger,” Dodgen said. “I guess her biggest attribute is that she just plays so hard all the time. and when you play hard, good things happen.”