NEWS
2005-2006

This Page Will Be Updated Every Monday Starting Oct. 1
For Stats Please Go To The KJCCC Web Site (www.kjccc.org)

We have several fundraisers coming up real soon.

9/14/05: We will be at Sirloin Stockade from 4pm to 9pm

9/17/05: We will be at Sonic from 11am to 8pm

9/24/05: We will be at Country Mart from 9am to 2pm

Please come out and support the Lady Cardinals. We are raising money for equipment and the special trip in October.

Check back every week starting in Oct. for updates on Lady Cardinal Basketball

Thanks for the support- Coach Matthews

We are a week into practice. We have gone two a day for most of this week. The girls are progressing at a good rate, but it is not ever where I would want it. Our team still needs to get focused and dedicated to winning games at the college level. The one area that is different from a year ago is our priority list and where basketball places on that list. We may have better talent, but we need to work on our focus. If we can get focused and gel together as a team then we could be pretty good.

The freshmen as a whole are in shock right now. There are a bunch of things to remember and the intensity of practice is a little different then high school. I see flashes from all of them and once they understand how to play at the college level then they will really help us!!

We had a bunch of injuries this week:

Monah P. -  Broke her finger and had surgery on Tuesday. She will be out a few weeks.

Whittney I.- Is having a little swelling in the knee she had operated on this summer. She is going a little lighter a practice and should be ok in a few weeks.

Kizzy H.- Had a pulled Quad muscle.

We have had several other girls that have had minor injuries to the leg, back, and ankle. We are not a very healthy team right now and we need to get healthy in a hurry.

Finally, we have a coach coming in to watch Kizzy H. play from Fresno State on Sunday the 9th. We are always excited when coaches come to watch the kids play.

I will talk to you next week- Coach Matthews

We just got back from our pre-season trip. We usually take a nice trip every pre-season to play games and have some fun!! Of course, before we could go play games we had to hit the mall in St. Louis on Thursday night. We had the opportunity to play in two scrimmages against the pre-season #5 team in the country Southeast Illinois and the #20 team in the country Southwest Illinois.

We played Southeast on Friday night at 6:30pm. The girls played hard and we really learned some things about our team. We were down 5 at halftime to Southeast Illinois. We gave our younger kids a chance to play in the second half and they hung in the game really good. The younger kids got to within 2 points with about 2 minutes to play, but couldn't make the plays down the stretch to pull out the victory.

We got to bed around 2am and then played Southwest on Saturday morning at 11am. We decided before the game that we would play our main rotation for the first 25 minutes and then start playing our younger kids. We were up 6 points at that point in the game. We substituted our younger kids and they did not play as well as they did the night before. They hung in the game, but we ended up losing by 5 or 6 points. and again the younger girls stayed in the game.

After the game we went to the hotel and got ready for a night out in St. Louis. We took the metro to Union Station. We ate at a very good Seafood Restaurant and the girls shopped at the Union Station Mall. After the girls finished shopping we went over and watched the St. Louis Blues hockey game. I think all the girls had a good time at the game.

We finished on Sunday at the Southwestern Illinois Jamboree. We didn't play really very good the entire day. The first game we won and we did alright. The second game we played our freshmen and we lost by 5 points. Our last game we played the worst we had all weekend and got beat.

It was a good weekend. We do have some serious problems to correct. We have an immature and spoiled basketball team. We are very, very jealous on each other!! We think about ourselves 1st and the team 2nd.  We just don't play as a team. So, If we fix that problem and stay healthy then we will be good and if we don't fix the problem then we won't be very good!!

I will be on the radio Thursday at 12:00pm talking about our team. Armando and I will be doing the radio every Thursday at 12:00pm throughout the season.

Monah- Has a broken finger. She may be back by our first game, but will play by Nov. 11

Brittany Coleman- She has a pulled groin muscle and a problem with her hip. We are treating both injuries and keeping an eye on the progress.

We have played two games and have been victorious in both. Our first game was against Mid-America JV. I thought our kids played hard and fairly good for the first game. We only had (4) turnovers as a team and made progress in working together as a team. I was really impressed with the performance of Whittney Irvine and Cortney Sales. Both of those girls played at a very high level. Whittney came off the bench to score (12pts and get 6 steals). Courtney Sales had (14pts and 14 rebounds). I like how our newcomers and young kids are developing.

Last night we played Brown Mackie. We had zero intensity and really look uninterested in playing the game. We were extremely sloppy with the ball and a step late the whole night. I was very disappointed in our effort and level of play. We had (25) turnovers during the game and that is beyond unacceptable. Many of our top kids stayed in foul trouble the whole night. Kizzy gave us a very consistent performance as you would expect her to do (21pts and 3 steals) and Daiane gave us some scoring and rebounding when we needed it (15pts and 8 rebounds). Our captain Brittany Coleman played a very bad ballgame (0pts, 2 rebounds, 4 turnovers, and 3 steals) and we will need for her to pick up her effort in order for us to reach the next level. She was shooting 300 shots a day over the past few months and it had really started to help. However, she has gotten away from that routine and it shows. She is a good player and good kid, so I expect her to pick her game up and start playing well. Connie Heiniger had (9 steals last night and 14 rebounds). I really love how this kid plays. When you look up hardworking in the dictionary her picture is beside it!!

Injuries:

Monah Pegorari- She is getting her pin out today and will be ready to play this weekend.

Don't forget the Basketball Radio Show Thursdays @ 12:15pm on KLKC (93.5 FM)

We have played three ballgames since the last update.

The first game was against Bethany JV at Hutchinson Community College. Kizzy Hart got sick about thirty minutes before the game and was unable to play. We had two sophomores really step up their games and lead us to victory. Daiane Domingos, who has played well so far this season, had 18pts on 7 of 15 shooting including 4 of 7 from three-point land. Also, Daiane grabbed a game high 9 rebounds. Brittany Coleman had 18 points on 6 of 15 shooting including 2 of 5 from three-point land. Brittany was 4 of 4 from the free throw line. I was really proud of both of these women! Both of them took it upon themselves to play at a high level and take up the slack left from the absence of Kizzy. Silvia Moerbeck added 12pts and Cortney Sales had 11pts with 6 rebounds. This was a very good TEAM win!!

The second game was against McPherson JV at the same Hutchinson tournament. Kizzy Hart was back for this game and really played well. She had 16pts on 6 of 13 shooting including 2 of 3 from three-point land. Kizzy also had a game high 7 steals. Daiane played a very solid game with 16 points on 6 of 11 shooting and grabbing a team high 9 rebounds. I was very happy with our teams performance for the first 25 minutes of the game. I thought we played with a very high level of intensity and executed very good. I was not pleased with some of the kids I brought off the bench in the  second half. They did ok, but never really played with the intensity or excitement that I expect.

The third game was against Southwestern JV here at the "Birds Nest". We started the game 45 minutes late due to not having officials at 6:00pm. I want to make it clear it was not the officials fault, it was our fault for a miscommunication. It is always hard to delay a game and then get back the intensity level. We really just went through the motions during this game. Our kids were not very intense and we executed very poorly. Kizzy Hart played hard the entire game and really lead the charge. I was impressed with her leadership on the defensive end more then the offensive end. In years past Kizzy (21pts on 7 for 26) would have stopped playing when her offense was not going so good. Tonight, she made up for a below average offensive night on the defensive end. That is a sign of a mature basketball player!

Injury Update:

Monah P. is still recovering from finger surgery. She has played in the last three games, but really has not gotten back in the flow as of yet.

Cortney Sales was in a minor traffic accident on Thursday. She is very sore and will be a game time decision on Tuesday.

We had a special guest in the stands. Brittany Coleman's mom came down from Michigan to watch her daughter play. It was the first time she had the opportunity to watch her daughter play college basketball. I could tell it was a big deal to Brittany, because she actually cleaned her room and apartment before her mom came!! I was neat to see Brittany so nervous and excited about her mom watching her play basketball. In a funny way it kind of makes coaching worth while when you see little things like this.

Several of our in-state parents make just about every game and that is neat to see. Connie Heiniger's parents have not missed a (game, scrimmage, tournament, get together, or anything where playing is involved) in two seasons. They are usually beat the team to the gym, so it is always great to know that a friendly face will be waiting for us when we arrive!! I just think things like that are really nice to see.

We will be at Country Mart on Nov. 23rd from 8am to 3pm for our 2nd annual SAC-A-Cardinal Thanksgiving Style! Please come out to Country Mart and get your food sacked by the Lady Cardinals!!

We have play State Fair tomorrow @ 6pm in the "Bird's Nest". Our kids are looking forward to the competition and I will tell you about the game next week!!

We have played several big games since we last talked. Really we played the meat of our non-conference schedule since our last update. We have had three really good wins over State Fair, Hutchinson, and Dodge City. I really felt like we would learn a bunch about our team in four key games the first semester State Fair, Hutchinson, Dodge City, and Colby. Three of those teams are getting votes in the national poll or ranked in the national poll. We came out of those four games at 3-1 and that shows me this team has a chance to do something special in March.

There are some teams that are playing as good as they can right now. I don't believe that is the case with our group. We still have some inexperience playing key roles on the floor. If we start wanting to practice harder and prepare ourselves better; then this team could get 10 to 20 points better by the end of the conference season. We have to start moving a little better on the offensive end and we have to react better on the defensive end. I hope the lost to Colby will help us refocus in practice and start working towards the goal of a regional title.

I can't tell you how glad I am to be done with the Jayhawk Shootout. It has always been one of my least favorite events. This year our opponents shot 55 free throws and we shot 22. That is so typical when it comes to the shootout. It has almost gotten to the point of being a joke. We had a one point lead on Colby at halftime.  We played very poor the whole game and I don't think we could have beaten Colby playing the way we played. However, when the #16 ranked team shoots 32 free throws and you only shoot 12  any chance you had of winning went out the window. That brings me to the next complaint. Why does any team have to play at 9am in the morning? Especially on Sunday morning!!! I have girls that like to go to Church and that is what Sunday mornings should be about. There are a bunch of problems with the shootout and until they are fixed; I won't take the event very serious. 

Injury Update:

Brittany Coleman: Her knee is feeling better and continues to heal from a sprain.

Cortney Sales: She had a great game against Dodge City and is moving much better after her car accident.

Monah P: Her finger is doing good, but you can tell she has missed some important time. She is playing very soft/lost right now.

Whittney Irvine: Her knee continues to give her trouble after the ACL injury. She has not missed any time, but the knee is sore after workouts. We are hoping the Christmas break will give her some time to heal.

I hope everyone has had a great Holiday season so far and we wish everyone a happy new year. This was a great year for the Lady Cardinals! In 2005 the Ladies were 27-5! We are planning on 2006 being even more successful!

Silvia Moerbeck has left the team for personal reasons. Our team wants to wish Silvia all the best as she travels down the path of life. This was the best decision for Silvia and the Lady Cardinal Basketball program. We want to focus on winning the conference championship and positioning ourselves for a post season run. We can not afford any distractions as we start conference play. I am excited about the opportunity this gives some of our younger players. I feel like we have some girls that are ready to step up and play. 

All of our other girls are back and working hard. I like the chemistry on this team right now. We are down a women, so it is very important for all of our kids to stay healthy. If we can stay healthy, I like our chances.

Injury Update:

Everyone has gotten nagging injuries the first two days back at practice!! So, the report is everyone hurt and no one healthy!!