Red Devils look to regain momentum

Members of the Chaffee girls basketball program were optimistic at the beginning of last year after going 11-13 during the 2005-06 season. That record was the program's best in 13 years and high hopes were the result of five girls returning with starting experience.

But the Red Devils could not live up to their own expectations of achieving a winning record and they reverted back to their old ways with a disappointing 5-19 season.

"It was just one of those things where we were in a lot of ballgames, we just didn't come out on top," Chaffee coach Chance White said. "We lost a couple seniors from that 11-13 year and I think we had a hard time learning how to win."

White has four players back who started at times last year. They are senior guard Nicole Johnson, senior center Whitney Schlosser, senior forward Kim Hester and Amber Kirk, a junior who led the team in scoring.

The Chaffee coach again is optimistic.

"The junior bunch we've got coming in was over .500 at the JV level," White said. "They bring in a lot of speed, athleticism and ball handling. The question is can they do it at the varsity level? That's the big question mark. So again those expectations are high."

Johnson and Schlosser started some two years ago and White will look for them to help transition the new group of young players to the varsity level.

"[Johnson] brings leadership," White said. "She has been running the No. 1 [point guard] for a while now and she understands game situations. [Schlosser] is very physical. She's good around the basket. She keeps people off the block. She rebounds well and she goes to the basket hard. So she will be a good physical presence."

White said he was impressed by 6-foot newcomer Jessica Seabaugh, who will give the Red Devils another advantage on the inside to complement Schlosser. He said Seabaugh will cause some mismatches and is extremely aggressive on defense.

White is still tinkering with starting positions, but he did say that the new group brings depth.

"It won't be anything to play eight deep," he said. "We've got quite a bit of guard players and role players. We're going to try to get down the floor in a hurry and pressure on defense."

"We're going to take it one game at a time, and we're going to go out there and play hard," he said. "We're going to pressure on defense. And hopefully in close ball games, we're going to learn what it takes to win."