EATON — The Eaton girls’ basketball team is looking to improve on its .500 season from last year as the Lady Eagles finished 12-11 overall and 6-6 in the Southwestern Buckeye League. They will be led by varsity coach Dave Honhart in his third season with the Lady Eagles.
Eaton will play without four key graduates from last season — Julia Titus, Madi Bowman, Brittany George and Paige Whitesell. This group of 2016 grads represented four of the team’s starters throughout most of the season. Titus was the team’s leading scorer and rebounder and among the top five in the SWBL in both categories.
Junior guard Bailee Worley, sophomore forward Becca Mowen and sophomore guard Emily Dungan are the returners with the most varsity experience, according to Honhart.
“Worley and Mowen were chosen as captains,” he said, “and I’ll be counting on Dungan to provide a lot of floor leadership. All three of them have improved significantly over the off-season.”
Sophomore Annika Gels, senior Megan Lipps and sophomore Anna Black have “all had nice moments” in scrimmages thus far, according to Honhart. Junior Kurstin Frost had an “excellent fall and does a lot of little things well to help our execution.”
According to Honhart, sophomores Ashlynn Black and Brooke Caplinger, and junior forward Ashton Staight will “all battle for contributing roles in our playing rotation.” Freshmen guards Bailey Shepherd and Isabella Trader “both look to have nice potential and may wind up being varsity contributors.”
The Lady Eagles finished last season tied for third in the Southwestern Division of the SWBL, along with Oakwood at 6-6. They trailed Franklin who finished 7-5 and Bellbrook, who dominated the conference with a perfect 12-0 record.
“I am excited about this season,” Honhart said. “Clearly it is a bit of rebuilding year as we have had four starters graduate each of the last two years. That being said, this team is young, hungry, works hard and is a lot of fun to coach.
“I expect we’ll get better each week and I’m excited to see our progress.” He added.
“Overall, we hope to use depth, run transition and employ pressure defense. We should be a fun, competitive team to watch and we encourage Eaton fans everywhere to come out and support the Eagles Girls Basketball team.”
Honhart added, “The future is bright as we have strong 8th, 7th and 6th grade classes on the way, so the work we do this year should lay the groundwork for competing for future championships.”
