Art Bode believes his Midwest City Lady Bomber basketball team will reload, not rebuild, for the 2012-2013 season.
That journey began in June during summer league action as Bode mixed varsity and junior varsity players together.
“We moved people around to mix and match and see how they perform together,” he said. “Summer league is about player development, not winning or losing games. Somebody who didn’t play a lot during the regular season was going to get some minutes in summer league.”
Building the skills of his younger players likely will be critical to another Lady Bomber run for the state title. Last year, Bode lost six seniors to graduation, and all six signed college letters of intent to play basketball next season.
Former Bomber star Ashley Clark signed with Tulsa University while Carolee Dillard inked with the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. Adrianna White will play at Harding University, Reagan Widener has committed to Seminole State College, Marquita Zeigler is headed to Cameron University and Jasmine Gaddis will play for Western Oklahoma Junior College.
Still, Bode is confident his returning players will allow him to reload, and not rebuild.
“The younger girls have shown they’ll push the older ones for playing time,” he said.
With the summer season complete, Bode is concentrating on a team concept, and not individual stars.
“We did well as a team. We won more than we lost, but there was no one particular player that stood out as a surprise,” he said.
Bode said he’s looking forward to next season.
“I think we’ll be highly competitive. We don’t have as much experience as we did last year, but we do have experience with the girls who played JV for us last year,” he said.
Bode was reluctant to talk about players who will be on this year’s high school roster. However, he did acknowledge that “two freshmen” could find themselves in the lineup.
“They’re very talented and could play quite a bit if they learn what they need to learn,” he said.
Since summer league action is over, Bode is giving his players some rest through July and the first two weeks of August. The Lady Bombers will be allowed to practice one hour each school day during August and September. Varsity teams officially begin full practice sessions Oct. 1.
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