Union Pines finished 6-14 last year. Douglas and the eight letter-winners returning are older and wiser, he believes, as he prepares for his second year steering the Vikings’ ship. He’ll get his first glimpse of the team in action when they face the Patriots at 6 p.m. in Saturday’s opening round of The Pilot Cup tournament. The Vikings started last season with a bang by taking the girls’ championship of the inaugural tournament sponsored by The Pilot.
The returnees include four starters: Carly Shiflett, Tiffany Oxendine, Courtney Sauer and Chantell Walker.
Walker and Oxendine are both seniors, while Shiflett and Sauer are juniors. Shiflett (6-foot) led the returnees in scoring last year, averaging 10 points and eight rebounds per game. She and Oxendine (5-foot-9) play mostly on the inside.
“We did all right, but we could have done a lot better,” Oxendine says of the past season. “We’re getting our game together right now. We need to get more people’s heads into it. But we should be pretty good. We have a few people who are nervous out there. Once they get into the game, they’ll be all right.”
“We’re ready for the game Saturday against Pinecrest, because they’re our rivals.”
Douglas calls Sauer (5-8), “an aggressive player,” as she runs the point for the Vikings. Walker, although only 5-8, is slated to hold down the center position with Shiflett and Oxendine flanking her under the boards.
Among the promising newcomers on the roster is Lindsay Wilborn (5-9).
“She’s coming along real well,” Douglas says. He expects to use her in various situations.
The key to the Vikings success is learning the fundamentals, as Douglas sees it.
“At the beginning of the year we’re trying to work with them, and we’re trying to get the fundamentals down,” Douglas says.
He says the team needs to work on “quite a few” things. Defense is one of them, as well as fundamentals.
With four seniors on the team, including Kiki Fairley (5-7) and Shamecca Mosley (5-7), Douglas really wants the younger players to grow and develop.
“We hope we can develop and be a better team this year,” he says. “We’re losing four seniors next year, so we’re looking for some of our younger players to step into leadership positions for next year.”
Shiflett, who is in her third year on the team, thinks this year’s edition of the Vikings is displaying good chemistry during the preseason practices.
“I think we’re playing as a team together a lot better than we were last year,” Shiflett says. “So I think that’s going to help us out a lot.”
Mosley, another returnee from last year’s squad, continues the theme of a better camaraderie among this year’s squad.
“I think we’re going to do a lot better,” Mosley says. “We’re more of a family. We’re more together.”
