Young Groves girls basketball team making waves
The Birmingham Groves girls basketball team may be a dark horse in 2021, but expect the Falcons lady hoopsters to be a club to be reckoned with for the foreseeable future.
Which is frightening because the Falcons are tough as nails this winter and doing damage at a substantial clip. Groves is 6-3 and shaking things up in the OAA Red.
The Falcons boast a roster brimming with young talent and exuberance and a new coach, first-year sideline general Ant-Juan Simpkins, known for a hightempo style and developing college-level players on the AAU circuit as part of the Michigan Storm.
All-OAA senior floor general Kaitlyn Quinn brings the experience factor for Simpkins and she is surrounded by a star-studded group of underclassmen, led by fab freshmen
Jordan Peterson, Neveah Otis and Ciara Racco and super sophomore Kaitlyn Sanders. Peterson patrols the post, while Otis, Racco and Sanders can tear it up on the perimeter.
Fully locked and loaded, Groves appears ready for the long haul.
“We want to play fast, but in control……this team is just finding its identity.” Simpkins said. “It’s my job to push these young ladies, take them out of their comfort zones. After discomfort comes insight and growth. We’re doing a lot of growing right now.”
Behind Sanders gamehigh 17 points last Saturday, Groves crushed Ann Arbor Skyline 76-34 in out
of-league action over the weekend. Otis went for 19 points and dished five assists in a 50-28 non-league dispatching of Lakeland late last week.
Simpkins used to coach the junior varsity at Skyline. His first varsity head coaching job was at River Rouge, where in 2018 he guided the Panthers to an 18-5 record to go along with league and district titles.
The lone league losses the Falcons suffered this year came at the hands of OAA Red-favorites West Bloomfield and Clarkston. Detroit Renaissance, ranked No. 7 in Division 1, delivered Groves its only other defeat. In their opener, the Falcons beat Royal Oak (40-36).
Groves wouldn’t face Renaissance again until the regional finals and for the first time in a number of years, the Falcons will not be forced to go through Catholic League power Birmingham Marian in districts.
“This team is eager to learn, eager to get better every day they are in the gym,” said Simpkins of his Falcons. “We’re applying good pressure on defense. That translates into pressure on offense if we make the most of our opportunities in transition. We’ve been aggressive on both ends and we’re communicating on the floor with each other like a team that has been together for four years, not one. Just those two things have done very well for us and are placing us in position to find success.”
Ready for lake living
Nancy McKouen was hired as the West Bloomfield Lakers new varsity volleyball last week, coming over to the OAA from the LVC. McKouen headed the Milford program the past six years and replaces Lauren DeLuyck-Forbes, who was on the job for four seasons and won the program’s first district championship in three decades in 2019.
Before being at Milford, McKouen was an assistant in the OAA for Lake Orion and coached in the college ranks at Wayne State.
Tweet of the Week
“I promise you, I’ll make you regret ever doubting me,” West Bloomfield junior football standout and 4-star college recruit Michael Williams (LB/TE)