WOODLAND GIRLS THIN ON NUMBERS

With a team extremely thin on depth, Woodland girls basketball coach Harley Eddleman is hoping the Lady Cardinals can avoid injuries and foul problems in order to put together a competitive season.

The Lady Cardinals made some strides last year as they improved to a 5-12 record. Eddleman will be looking for his team to be at least as competitive this year.

"We're not anticipating any great things, but hopefully we can be as good as we were last year," said Eddleman. "We've only got six seniors and juniors who will be our main players so we'll have to get a lot of minutes out of the people we have. Hopefully we'll have few fouls and no injuries."

Woodland figures to be led by its only two seniors, 5-foot-7 Jada Trentham and 5-5 Lindsay Allmon. That duo was the Lady Cardinals' starting backcourt last year and Trentham averaged 12 points per game.

"I'm hoping they can provide some leadership as well as points," Eddleman said. "We'll be counting on them quite a bit."

Three juniors who all saw at least some varsity action last year are 5-9 B.J. Cameron, 5-7 Desiree Bollinger and 5-5 Melanie Childers. Childers is coming off knee surgery as she missed the last part of the season a year ago.

Another junior Eddleman will be looking to is 5-9 Renee Mcellegott, who is new to the Woodland program after moving into the area.

"Those are mainly the six that will be doing most of the playing," said Eddleman.

The coach is hoping some sophomores can eventually work their way into varsity playing time, including 5-11 Lilo Whitener and 5-6 Julie Cutsinger.

"I'm hoping the younger girls can come along and eventually help us out," Eddleman said.

Woodland opened the season Monday at Scott City.

"Everybody seems to be working hard," said Eddleman. "A lot of them play volleyball so they pretty much go from one sport to the other, but they're doing a good job."