Lady Warriors looking for experience to pay off on court
Team Capsule
The Gordon Central girls have been a young team over the past few seasons, and that means that the players that return in 2017-18 have plenty of varsity experience to spare. That experience added to the high school debut of freshman Mercedes Coleman, who was a force over the past few years on the middle school level, has the Lady Warriors aiming high with their goals and expectations.
Matt Swanson goes into his first full season as head coach this year after taking over midway through last season, and he said that time with last year’s team gave him a head start on developing relationships with players, figuring out what they needed to work on this past offseason and getting them familiar with his style and expectations as a coach.
The Lady Warriors lost just one senior from last year’s team in Cailey Martin, but the Toccoa Falls freshman will be hard to replace according to Swanson. However, with so many returning starters and the addition of Coleman, Gordon Central will look to take the next step to being a contender for one of the four playoff spots in Region 7-AA.
Recently, the Calhoun Times caught up with Swanson to discuss his first full season as head coach, replacing the production of Martin, which players will be counted on to step up, keys to success for this year’s team and what his overall expectations are in 2017-18.
Here’s what he had to say:
CT:
After taking over as head coach midway through last season, how much did that help you get a feel for the team going into this past offseason and how productive was your first full offseason and preseason getting the girls to buy in to your coaching style and expectations?
I look at the last six weeks of last season as an extended summer for our program. I knew what our strengths
SWANSON:
were going to be and what we needed to work on. We had a great summer. The girls have really bought into the style I like to play. We went to Belmont University and left with the confidence we could be successful this year.
CT:
Your team lost a key contributor in Cailey Martin, who was the only senior on last year’s team. How tough will it be to replace her, but how excited are you about all the girls who are returning with valuable experience from last season?
Cailey was a very important part of our program and will be successful at Toccoa this season. Saying that, I am very excited about the players we have returning. Olivia Fleming, Bailey Ferguson, Leslie Gutierrez and JaBresha Evans are our returning seniors. They have led very well during the preseason. Our junior class consists of Leila Culberson, Chloe Ferguson, Laura Sanchez and Cara Crump, who will soon return from ACL surgery.
SWANSON: