The Brookland Lady Bearcats will be under new leadership this season as Rodney Ross takes over the helm bringing 20 plus years of experience and victories from Texas. Ross takes over a Lady Bearcat program that has had plenty of success in recent years led by Jared Richey, Joe Baltz, and Mitchell Weber. Brookland finished 24-11 last season, ending the year with a regional tournament title and a trip to the state tournament before falling in the quarterfinals. The Lady Cats lost six seniors to graduation including all five starters, so Coach Ross is looking at it as an opportunity for players to step into new roles.“ Heavy graduation numbers from last year will create lots of opportunities with this team,” he said.“ We are going to be a smaller team so playing with tempo and looking to control pace will be important. We need to play fast, be stingy on defense and be very disciplined on offense.” A pair of seniors will bring the most experience and leadership to the floor for the new look Brookland squad. Point guard Emilee Coleman will run the show for the Lady Cats.“ Emilee plays with a hot motor,” Coach Ross said of his senior guard.“ She plays extremely hard, scores at all three levels, and creates lots of turnovers with her deflections on defense.” Classmate Amelia Ford is a player that could play anywhere for Coach Ross.“ She has lots of experience with an ability to stretch the floor with her shot and off the bounce,” Coach explained.“ Her versatility allows her to play 4 positions if needed.” Junior Zoey Winston is one of those players that should expand on her role from last season.“ Zoey is a combo guard who has nice range and is good off the dribble,” Ross shared.“ We will need her to get paint touches off the dribble to create easy shots for her teammates.” Brookland will need many more to step up into bigger roles this season to continue the postseason success they have experienced. The 4A-3 is a small but very balanced conference, and the Brookland Lady Bearcats are looking to get back to the top of the league, then defend their regional title in order to make a return trip to the state tournament.
The Brookland Bearcats finished last season at 18-12, claiming the 4A-3 regular season title. They would lose in the district finals and the first round of the regional and miss out on the state tournament. With many of the guys back this year, Bobby Gross and the Bearcats are hungry to get back where they are accustomed to being. Lane Webster is the leading scorer returning after an All-State junior campaign. The 6-6 senior forward can score at all three levels who plays well above the rim. Webster has garnered a lot of Division 1 attention and several offers entering his senior season. Point guard Riley Sutton is back to run the offense for Brookland. The senior has great handles, vision, and can knock down the outside shot. He has been working on being a lock down defender on the perimeter. Seniors Tanner Laird and Brody Robertson also return to the Bearcat lineup. Laird is a versatile inside-outside player for Coach Gross, while the 6-6 Robertson provides a strong inside presence for the Cats. Junior Sawyer Wright provides an offensive spark on the floor. Wright is a sharp shooter who can put it on the floor and create his own shot or a look for others. Classmate Pierce Adams is a strong guard / forward that brings some toughness and versatility to the floor, while fellow junior Trey Archer is a sniper from the outside with the ball handling skills to help at the point guard spot. Cooper Davis will also provide some depth in the back court with the athleticism to get to the rim and touch to hit the outside shot. Coach Gross has a talented back court with size in the front court around a dynamic scorer in Webster. He said he has challenged his squad early in the season in order to be where they will need to be when the 4A-3 schedule starts in January.“ We frontloaded our non-conference schedule,” Coach Gross said.“ We need that to figure out where we are. We will probably play faster than we have in year’ s past, and we have the talent to do it. It’ s my job to let them go and let them fly.” Coach Gross isn’ t abandoning his defensive focus, however.“ Defense is half the game,” he continued.“ You won’ t find a bad defensive team that wins a championship. We feel we do the game justice by focusing on that half of the game. We focus on that, I demand it, and these guys do a fantastic job of following that.” The Brookland Bearcats have been a mainstay atop the 4A-3 conference for years, and this year will be no exception. The Bearcats will battle for another conference title, get back to the regional in hopes of getting back and making a deep state tournament run.