Lee makes smooth, winning transition in first year with Tiger hoops

Depending on one’s perspective, first-year Cape Central girl’s basketball coach Aaron Lee either stepped into a daunting situation when he came to town from Carbondale, Illinois or a pretty good one.

The Tigers had strung together three consecutive winning seasons under former coach Brandon Winters, so Lee was given the task to meet those raised expectations.

“it was definitely a transition from the old coach to me,” Lee said during this past season. “The style is different. The things that we want to do.

“So, it takes a while to learn those types of things.”

The learning curve eventually unfolded just fine, as Cape Central won 16 games this season, which was the most in three years.

Lee had spent years coaching at Brehm Prep School in Carbondale, which was one of the more successful prep schools in the country. That, in and of itself, brought an adjustment on the part of Lee.

“When you are at the prep level,” Lee explained, “it is different because everybody is elite. You are either playing against colleges or high-elite level teams.

“This was an adjustment, but a good one. I’ve welcomed the move from the private sector to a public school. It’s been really good.”

For Lee, who had experience coaching both boys and girls throughout his career, found himself teaching in more detail than in the past.

“Coaches should be teaching, anyway,” Lee said. “The teaching part of it, sometimes we can forget. So, I’ve got to be repetitive. I’ve got to be consistent. And you only teach what you know.

“It has been constant, repetitive, and drilling those concepts.”

During a mid-season stretch, Cape Central won eight of nine games, before closing the season with three losses in four games. However, those three defeats need to carry an asterisk with them.

Two of the losses were to MSHSAA Class 5 Final Four squad Notre Dame, while the other was to a 27-win Central (Park Hills) team.

The Tigers graduate four seniors in Ki Bogan, Keri Williams, Taylor Horton, and Elizabeth Patrick, with Horton and Bogan each leaving the program having scored 1,000+ career points. However, Lee does have 10 players returning for next season, not including an incoming freshman class.

“I’m really excited about moving forward, and how we are going to look as a program,” Lee said. “The best is yet to come.”