RINGGOLD LADY TIGERS
Through more than 40 years on the sideline, Ringgold’s Margaret Stockburger has seen and experienced a lot of things that go along with the profession.
But even for the legendary head coach, COVID-19 is something else entirely.
“I’ve never been around anything like this,” she lamented, a couple of hours prior to her team’s Nov. 17 scrimmage against Southeast Whitfield (in which the Lady Tigers won handily, 73-11). “It’s a lot for everybody. We’re just trying to figure out what’s going on. Like I’ve told everybody, I don’t foresee anybody being able to see what their true team will look like and I think it’s going to be that way for a while, at least at the start of the year.”
Like other teams in the area and around the state, the Lady Tigers were hit hard in the early days of preseason practice with quarantine issues. However, Stockburger said that the coaches and players have tried hard to make the best of it.
“We’ve had some good practices, even though we’ve had a lot out at times,” she added. “You just have to keep going over and keep going over things because you have players coming back (to practice) in stages. It’s almost like some of them have been hurt. They haven’t been able to be out there, so you’re having to reteach and that kind of thing.
“It can be very frustrating, but there’s not anything any of us can do. We’re just going to do the best we can, enjoy what we’re doing and try to see what happens.”
While there are still plenty of unknowns early on, Stockburger does have something to rely on in the form of 10 upperclassmen, the majority of whom were part of last year’s 20-win squad.
“Even with what we lost (to graduation), with our six seniors and four juniors, we should still have a good nucleus that we’re excited about, if we can just get some of them back,” the coach added. “If we lose them all at once, we’re going to struggle.”
Athletic wing/guard combo Riley Nayadley is the team’s leading returning scorer after averaging 8.2 points a game last year to go with 4.6 re
bounds, 1.7 assists and two steals. She was selected to the 6-AAA All-Region first team. Speedy guard Maggie Reed will likely split time at shooting guard and at the point. Reed joined Nayadley on the Catoosa-Walker Dream Team for the 20192020 season.
Another guard, Caroline Hemphill, will bring added depth and aggressiveness to the Lady Tigers’ backcourt, while in the post, twin sisters Amber and Jade Gainer will look to use their quickness to get past taller opponents. The new face on the court will be Alyissa Sue, who has solid height and will also play in the post.
Among the juniors, point guard Rachel Lopez is coming off a solid sophomore campaign that saw her put up averages of seven points, over two boards and over one assist a night to earn a Dream Team nod. Addi Broome has good height to provide a match-up problem at a guard or at a wing spot, while in the post, Drew Burke and Baileigh Pitts will add strength and toughness to the rotation. Pitts is returning to the team after not playing last season.
Some younger players are also looking to work themselves into possible playing time with the varsity before all is said and done.
That group include sophomores Hannah Scott and Aubrey Lakin, along with freshmen Cady Helton and Leigh Henderson.
“I think one of our strengths will be our defense and we’re hoping to be able to use that defense to get some easy
points (in transition),” the coach added.
Stockburger is also hoping that the situation with COVID-19 slows down enough for her team to find a way to build off last season when the Lady Tigers enjoyed their best season in nearly 35 years
by advancing all the way to the Elite Eight in the Class AAA playoffs before losing to eventual state runnerup Beach.
“We’re struggling to (build off of it) right now because not everyone has been able to be here,” she said. “But with what I saw of them last year, I feel like we can move in the right direction once we are able to get them all in the gym and at practice.
“We’re not going to bow down. We’re still going to play hard, do things that we can do and try to take a lot of deep breaths.”
One thing Stockburger will not have to worry about is her players having a winning attitude as seven of the 10 upperclassmen had major roles in the Lady Tigers’ recent state softball championship run.
“I was excited for them last year and I was excited for them this year about winning state and winning any state (championships) back-to-back is an honor,” she said. “I’m hoping that will carry over into basketball. Those girls were good leaders for the softball team and I feel like they’ll be good leaders for us, along with Maggie and Rachel, playing as much as they played last year.”
Stockburger said she is also fortunate to have her two assistant coaches, Karoline Sholl and Tori Clemmons, veterans who will bring added continuity to the squad.
“They both do a great job,” Stockburger continued. “Tori works on the offense end of it and Karoline works with the defense. They both do a fantastic job and I couldn’t ask for better assistants.”
The new-look Region 6-AAA will be a tough one to navigate. Rockmart, Sonoraville and Coahulla Creek all began the year ranked in the top 10 of Class AAA, while Rockmart has one of the nation’s top recruits in Keyarah Berry, a 5-foot-11, to-it-all guard that is ranked 43rd nationally at her position by ESPN. Berry is verbally committed to Indiana.
However, Stockburger said she still wants her team to control the speed of the game, no matter who they might be facing.
“There’s a difference coming from middle school to JV and from JV to varsity,” she began. “The speed of the game is faster and (the younger players) will have to figure it out, but like always, we want to have that speed of the game. We want to have control of the game for ourselves, whether that’s running (on offense) or pressing (on defense).
“I think that will be one of our keys, along with being able to block out (on rebounds). We want to be running with the ball and put pressure on teams with our defense. That’s our goal.
“We’ve not been able to move in that direction a whole lot just yet (because of COVID), but the ones that have been able to be at practice have done a great job of getting better. Now we just have to get the rest of them in here and get back in basketball shape.”