With Girls’ basketball season about to start, coaches and players have many expectations and excitements for the new season. For the past few years, Liberty High School’s girl’s basketball team has been in a slump. For seasons straight, Liberty’s girls’ basketball team has not risen to their potential. This year everyone hopes for a different outcome.
Over the summer, many girls have done different things to prepare for the upcoming season. Staying in shape is super beneficial when it comes to sports. Not only will it help you improve for the upcoming season, but it will also provide a healthy lifestyle for you when the in-season practices and games begin. “I played AAU travel basketball with team Hustle and I trained with private trainers over the summer,” said junior, Carleigh Cameron.
This year, Liberty’s girls’ basketball team has a whole new coaching staff which can provide a lot of new opportunities for the Liberty Eagles. Our new head coach for Liberty this year is a Liberty alumnus herself. Ashley Lane, who graduated from Liberty High School in 2016. Lane was named first-team all-district and all-conference as well as being the 4th all-time leading scorer here at Liberty. Lane went on to play college basketball for Westfield State University.
Lane plans on encouraging and empowering these young women to take accountability and control over their program. “I love this sport and I love this program, but it isn’t mine. It belongs to the individuals that make up this team,” stated Lane. Lane looks forward to assisting these ladies in taking ownership of this basketball program and plans on helping them realize how amazing it is to be able to represent Liberty High School in this way.
As the Eagles take the court, they hope to go into the season aggressively. Coaches plan on guiding their players to success by playing the game in a very fast-paced manner. Not only will they be aggressive on offense, but Liberty plans on being ten times more aggressive on defense. They will do this by constantly being in players’ faces, stealing the ball, and locking down anyone who comes in the paint. Coaches believe that this type of game play will lead players to success which will potentially increase the viewership of Liberty girls’ basketball.
Sadly, in many cases, women’s sports are not viewed as much as men’s, but this year history was changed in women’s basketball. During the March Madness tournament this past spring, the viewership of women’s basketball for the tournament was up 43% than 2022, bringing in an average of 2.2 million viewers per game in the Elite 8. The championship game between The University of Iowa and Louisiana State University was dated to be the most watched women’s college basketball game in history; averaging 9.9 million viewers but peaking at 12.6 million viewers.
Players and coaches hope that this year, like March Madness, Liberty’s viewership will increase. Not only will attending these games be great for the viewers, but it will also hype up the players and make the game so much more fun!
