Bloomfield girls cap historic season of success

BLOOMFIELD – Life is about perspective, as is basketball. So, for anyone that isn’t impressed by the 2022-23 girl’s basketball season that Bloomfield just concluded with its 42-41 loss to Hayti in the opening round of the MSHSAA Class 2 District 1 Tournament, they need to have the Wildcats’ 9-15 mark put into context.

“We decided from the get-go,” first-year Bloomfield coach Emily Watkins said following the loss, that we were going to improve by being competitive. That was our goal, was to just come out and be competitive every day.”

Let’s explain some history here.

Bloomfield has only fielded a girl’s basketball program for seven seasons, and through that time, the Wildcats had won a combined six games. When Watkins’ kids knocked off Charleston to open this season, it was the program’s first victory since before the COVID pandemic in 2020.

“The girls took that goal and ran with it,” Watkins said.

The success earned this season was being built during the summer of 2022 when no one was paying attention to Bloomfield basketball.

“We did a lot in the last off-season,” Watkins explained. “That is what helped us get our first win against Charleston. The momentum of actually getting a win is what made us improve every time in confidence.”

That 47-36 victory over the Blue Jays opened some eyes, particularly from an offensive standpoint. It was the most points scored in Wildcat history.

“I think a big factor, though, was confidence in developing skills in order for them to actually execute,” Watkins said.

Watkins had spent the past two seasons as an assistant for the program before taking over last summer. She is now guiding a program that is up and coming.

The Wildcats improved their offensive average by over 20 points per game from last season while lowering their defensive average by 13 points each night.

“We couldn’t have even gotten into a game like we just had (with Hayti),” Watkins said of the past.

Of the 41 points scored on Tuesday, 38 points were put up by underclassmen, which bodes very well for the future of the program.

Sophomore Kaelyn Conner had 12 points on Tuesday to lead her team, while classmate Abbigail Heaton chipped in 11 and junior Mollianne Dodd totaled eight.

“We’ll take a little bit of a break,” Watkins said of the upcoming months, “but the plan is to develop more over the summer than we ever have. The biggest thing that caught us (against Hayti) was their defensive pressure. We turned the ball over a little bit too much, so, we want to develop our ballhandling skills.

“Handling that pressure, once we get that down, it’s going to be really hard to compete against us. This year was supposed to be our first District win, but next year, we (now) have that goal.”

Bloomfield also returns sophomores Maci Jones and Danyella Medrano, as well as freshman Kendall Phillips, and junior Lauren Davis.