Timing right as Barnes takes the reins
By Dave Morrison for the register-herald
For Tabitha Barnes , the timing was right .
A long-time girls ’ middle school coach in Shady Spring , Barnes had taken a couple years from coaching and stayed in the game by keeping the book for the high school team . Her daughters both play for the school , Kylee is a junior and Austyn is a sophomore .
When Brandon Bennett announced he was stepping down , he went to Barnes and told her she was the natural fit for the job .
“ I was happy doing what I was doing but I did miss coaching the girls ,” Barnes said . “ Of the girls on the team coming in , I had coached all but three of them . So , I had that familiarity . The timing was perfect .”
She inherits a team that lost seven seniors from a team that advanced to the Class AAA Region 3 co-finals for the second year in a row . Shady lost to Sissonville 50-26 , a game shirt of the state tournament . Shady finished the season 9-9 .
The team loses the franchise , Keirra Richmond , who finished as a 1,000-point scorer in her career as a four-year starter and signed with WVU Tech .
“ You don ’ t replace a player like that ,” said Barnes . “ Kierra had the
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Tina Laney / For The Register-Herald
Shady Spring ’ s Kylee Barnes ( 32 ) goes for a layup over Abby Lusk of Westside during their game Dec . 9 , 2021 .
ability to take over a game . We ’ re going to have to change the approach a little bit , players will have to step up a little more and it will have to be more of a team approach .”
The Tigers also lost Brooklyn Gibson , Brooke Lipford , Kellie Adkins , Mattea Huffman , Addison Ward , and Zhanaya Thomas to graduation .
But Barnes said the cupboard is not bare .
She returns point guard Braylie Wiseman , the team ’ s lone senior along with Kylee Barnes and Kendra Pizzino who was slated to play a lot as a freshman but missed several games .
“ Our backcourt I think is solid ,” Barnes said . “ Wiseman is a special kid . She handles the ball well . She creates her own offense . She might be just as valuable on defense . She has a lot of ability and does a lot of things well .
“ Kylee is going to be on the left , Kendra on the right , and the way they can shoot , it ’ s going to give teams fits . Kendra is an outstanding 3-point shooter and when she is dialed in , she is lights out .
Another player who will step in right away and be an instant weapon is 6-0 post Meagan Hedrick , a transfer from Midland Trail .
“ She is going to be one of my bigs underneath and she is going to be really big for us ,” Barnes said . “ She has come in and really fit in well with these girls .”
Jayla Joyce and Kendall Lilly will also be a part of the rotation early in the season .
Barnes said with 17 girls on the roster , she would like to find some junior varsity games for her young players to further develop their games .
“ I think that is important in developing a program ,” she said . “ If we can pick up some junior varsity games , we will have a chance for some of our younger girls to get some action . It makes it a lot better when the girls can play and with a roster that is the size of ours the girls need to play and that helps in building a program .”
The schedule will be much the same as in the past . The Tigers will travel up north this year with Westside and the teams will face Grafton and Fairmont one night and flip opponents . Fairmont and Grafton made the trip here last winter .
They also have regional foes like Herbert Hoover and PikeView on the slate along with Tazewell .
“ I think we are going to surprise a lot of people ,” Barnes said . “ I don ’ t think people are expecting much from us , because we lost Kierra and all those seniors . But I think we are going to be a lot better than people are expecting .”
Her expectations are along those lines .
“ First we want to win the section , and we have a good section in so it ’ s never easy ,” Barnes said . “ But if you can win the section , we can see what we can do in the region . I think these girls can be competitive and win games . Like I said , surprise people .”
Barnes is being assisted by Caleb Wills .
Barnes was a member of the last graduating class at Hinton High School in 1993 , and she played middle school for legendary Summers County coach Wayne Ryan when he was coaching in the middle school ranks .
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