Excitement is starting to build around the West Prairie/Southeastern girls’ basketball program as head coach Grant Bland enters his fifth season leading the Cyclones’ lady cagers.
After going 0-15 during the 2023-24 season, Bland saw his squad improve to 6-25 last year with a roster largely comprised of inexperienced underclassmen.
One reason for optimism is the fact that West Prairie won four of its final six games last year to build some momentum entering this season.
Another reason for optimism is that West Prairie and Southeastern are entering a coop agreement for girls basketball this season and that should provide the program with some added experience.
Bland welcomes 18 girls to the program including several sophomore returnees with varsity experience. They will be joined by Southeastern juniors Kara Stephens and Tegan Rigg, who played for a Camp Point Central/ Southeastern team last year that finished 30-4 and advanced to the Class 2A Super-Sectional before losing to eventual state champion Nashville.
“Tegan and Kara come from a winning program over the last few years.... it’s nice to have them here,” said Bland. “They know what winning basketball looks like and they’ve already made a huge difference from a competitive standpoint in practice.”
“It’s kind of set the standard for us moving forward even though we had some standards set last year,” Bland continued. “We’re keeping those standards and now, our expectations have changed a little bit.”
With just three seniors on the roster and several sophomores who were forced to log extensive varsity minutes last season returning, Bland has set one goal for the program this season.
“After meeting with (athletic director) Megan Pittman at the beginning of the year, that was one thing she asked me,” said Bland. “I want double-digit wins this year and I think this is a group that can make that happen. It’s nice to be able to have some depth this year and that’s an exciting thing I think will help us.”
Because of the added depth and experience entering this season, Bland wants to upgrade the Cyclones’ defensive style of play.
“We want relentless ball pressure this year,” Bland said. “Tegan and Kara come from a team that did nothing but that. We’ve been working on our press every single day and we want to be able to implement that.”
Offensively, Bland believes he has the depth to transition up and down the court to score quickly when needed. One of the returnees that he will count on is senior Madelynn Sullivan, who led the Cyclones in scoring last season.
“She did everything for us,” said Bland. “She plays defense and shoots the three really well. Payton McGrew, Ashlynn Kelley, Josie Hodges, and Madison McClure were all freshmen last year and we kind of threw them to the wolves and they did well. I’m excited for them to come back and they’re going to really be able to help us with their roles this year.”
Along with six regular season games, WP/SE will play in three different tournaments (Lady Hornet Classic at Mt. Sterling, United Tournament at Monmouth, and the Beardstown Lady Tiger Classic) before the end of December and Bland sees that as a positive for his team’s growth.
“That’s good for us,” commented Bland. “We see some really good teams in those tournaments. I think in the past, it’s made us better as the season rolls on. Last year, we struggled against some very good teams, then towards the end of the year, we rattled off three or four wins in a row.”
“Hopefully, we can get off to a faster start this year against those teams,” he added.
