Lady Wildcats Preparing To Play Fast In 24

The Livingston Academy Lady Wildcats plan to play fast this season.

Sophomore forward Mia Hughes said she first saw the increased pace during summer workouts. Hughes said it was clear head coach Lesley Riddle wanted to increase the tempo.

“I think it is going to go very well,” Hughes said. “Because even though our posts are not like super fast, we are faster than most posts. And our team is pretty small, so we can be fast and I think going fast will get us more points easily.”

Hughes said the summer also showed increased chemistry with each other. Hughes said the the team is still trying to replace last year’s senior class’ production. Although the team only graduated two players she said they left a void in the Lady Wildcat lineup. Junior forward Chloe Jenkins said she has been encouraged by the incoming freshman class to replace the seniors.

“Reece Collins, our freshman point guard, is really, really good,” Jenkins said. “She’s just really fast and it’s making us play faster and push up our tempo. And Allie Ramsey is really good, she’s a guard and we have other players that are really stepping up and doing good right now.”

An adjustment Jenkins said she is having to make is maintaining that high speed pace that head coach Lesley Riddle is trying to install. She said although the team is still far from where they want to be, she can already see a difference in their pace of play.

“I think we just need to work on becoming faster like Coach Riddle wants us to,” Jenkins said. Because we’re really trying right now, but we’re still kind of used to holding the ball and running plays. But, I think we’re getting used to the speed that we’re playing at.”

Sophomore Mackenzie King said their off-season conditioning was more intense this year as the team prepares to play fast and wear teams out with their speed.