Coach calls Lady Mustangs ‘hardworking group’
The Lady Mustangs will return three starters this year, all juniors, who made big contributions in last year’s successful season. The Perryville team, led by third-year coach Kodi Speers and assisted again by Troy Denn, is coming off an 18-11 season. “We lost to Elkins in the first round of the regional tournament last year,” Speers said. The Lady Mustangs will compete in the same conference (3A-4) this year, but Fountain Lake and Booneville have joined it, Speers said. The three returning starters are familiar faces on the court. Kyra Hargrove is a 5-8 point guard. She transferred from Flippin last year and averaged 8 points, 2 rebounds and 3 assists per game. Speers said she makes “great passes” and shoots well. “Hargrove is a scorer who also sees the floor and distributes the ball well,” Speers said. Becka Reynolds is a 5-9 athletic guard who averaged 6 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 steals per game last year as a sophomore. “Reynolds is an athletic guard with great length,” Speers said, and she characterized the player as “a good shooter.” Allee Southerland is a 5-4 guard who averaged 4 points, 3 rebounds and 2 assists per game last season. “Southerland is a leader on the floor. She’s the type of kid who knows every position on every play,” the coach said. Speers, who has a career record of 33-27, said the Lady Mustangs don’t have the height they’ve had in the past. “We will have to do a good job guarding the ball and block out to rebound,” she said. Despite that, the players’ strengths include their positive attitudes, the coach said. “This is a hardworking group of kids,” Speers said. “They’re competitive and work hard defensively.” They’ll need all the gumption they can muster to excel this season, the coach said. “We have a tough conference this year, which should feature several good matchups,” Speers said. “Two Rivers had a very successful season last year. They won our district and our region and returned most of their players. Lamar also had a successful season and made it to the final four in the state tournament.” She expects the Lady Mustangs to be competitive, though, and overcome any adversity. “I have high expectations for this team. We have several kids back who played significant minutes for us last year and some younger kids who should be contributors this year,” Speers said. “We would like to build on our success from last year.”