By Kyle LoJacono
A few weeks ago it was uncertain who would lead the Wesley Chapel High girls basketball team, but new coach Shawn Brown has brought the team together despite having no summer workouts or preseason.
“We didn’t know what was going on with the program,” said senior Hannah Noble. “We were lucky to get such a good coach so late in the game.”
The Wildcats (5-4) reached back-to-back regional finals the last two seasons with Karim Nohra as coach, but he was not retained after the season. He is currently coaching at Academy at the Lakes.
Stepping in for Nohra is Brown, who is the sports and camp director at the East Pasco Family YMCA. He has also coached the Orlando Magic’s youth basketball camps since 2005, but this is his first head coaching position in high school.
“It’s pressure right off the bat,” Brown said of taking over a successful program. “The girls expect a lot and want to continue to win. Part of the challenge was a lot of girls transferred to other schools. We basically have just one player who played in significant game action last year in Hannah. I commend her for staying her senior year when others left.”
For Noble, the choice to stay was easy.
“This is my school and I thought it would be like me betraying my school to go somewhere else,” Noble said. “I’ve grown up here and played middle school basketball at Weightman (Middle), so this is the only place I wanted to play my senior year.”
Brown said Noble will be leaned on a lot this year.
“She has to be our leading scorer every night for us to be successful,” Brown said. “That’s a lot of pressure, but then she also has to be our leader as well because she’s the only one with any experience. She’s already shown she’s able to do both.”
Noble has been a point guard for most of her playing career, but has moved to shooting guard this season to free her up to score. Now running the point for the Wildcats is Tiffany Echevarria, a sophomore. She has played point guard since the fifth grade and learned a lot from watching Noble play last season.
“When I watched her last year calling the plays I wanted to be like her,” Echevarria said. “I’ve learned so much from her.”
It was a little daunting running the offense, but a talk with Noble before the season let Echevarria know she could do it.
“She told me we were in this together,” Echevarria said. “It made me feel like I wasn’t alone in the backcourt. I know we can rely on each other.”
The Wildcats will be a guard-oriented team because they do not have a lot of height. The tallest player is 5-foot-11 junior center Brittany Byrd, who almost did not play this season.
“I’d decided I didn’t want to play to focus on volleyball, but I went to a game at the start of the season,” Byrd said. “I was sitting in the bleachers watching them play and it just hit me that I should be playing with them.”
At first glance Byrd does not seem like the kind of player who would like the rough and tumble action near the net, but when asked about playing the position her eyes lit up.
“I love playing down in the post,” Byrd said. “I’m not the kind of girl who likes playing guard and shooting from on the perimeter. I love being down there and fighting for rebounds and blocking shots. It’s why I love basketball.”
Down by the net with Byrd is sophomore forward Sara Hordges. She missed the end of last season with a slight tear to her ACL, but she is nearly 100 percent.
“Really it’s just trusting my knee,” Hordges said. “It’s basically healthy and coach just said I have to believe I can stop and change directions without having a problem.”
Hordges has been working with Brown to get her knee strong again and she believes his training is the reason she has been able to return to the court so fast.
Another player who enjoys Brown’s presences is Sapharianece Reynolds. She said she believes in staying positive even when things are not going her way.
“If I put my head down because I’ve missed some shots, then I’m not thinking about the game,” Reynolds said. “… I learned that from my mom. I always try and keep the rest of the team positive even when we’re down and so does coach. He has that same belief in staying positive.”
Wesley Chapel had a game against Nov. 14 at Ridgewood High, but results were not available by press time. The Wildcats next play at Sunlake High Nov. 16 at 7:30 p.m.
